Speaker 1: I got a Facebook message. She's like, I've been down
Speaker 1: a rabbit hole about Morgan. I have proof there's a
Speaker 1: lot more to the story. And that's when it really
Speaker 1: blew open.
Speaker 2: I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, a show about
Speaker 2: the people we trust the most and the deceptions that
Speaker 2: change everything. This is part two of Kelsey's story. If
Speaker 2: you haven't heard part one, you should go back and
Speaker 2: listen to that first as a listener. Note names and
Speaker 2: locations have been changed to protect privacy. Almost two years
Speaker 2: into a marriage with Morgan, a seed of doubt have
Speaker 2: been planted in Kelsey's mind about her wife's terminal cancer diagnosis.
Speaker 2: It started when they were home with Kelsey's family for Christmas.
Speaker 2: Her mom had survived breast cancer, and something about Morgan's
Speaker 2: behavior wasn't adding.
Speaker 1: Up to her. I suddenly was like, why am I
Speaker 1: feeling like something's wrong? And so this is the very
Speaker 1: beginning of the conversations we started having about how serious
Speaker 1: really is this? And that was when she started breaking bones.
Speaker 3: At first, it was her hip.
Speaker 1: She took the dogs out for a walk and came
Speaker 1: back and she was dragging herself back into the apartment.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, what happened. She's like,
Speaker 1: I think I broke my hip. I said, oh my god,
Speaker 1: what do we do I need to take you to
Speaker 1: the er. And she's like, no, this happens, like the
Speaker 1: cancer must now be in my hip.
Speaker 2: Kelsey was at a loss for what to do, but
Speaker 2: Morgan told her this was just part of the dying process.
Speaker 2: Her doctors told her to expect it.
Speaker 1: And she's like, I need to sleep. I need to sleep.
Speaker 1: So she took some drugs and then she slept, and
Speaker 1: she slept for like a week.
Speaker 2: Morgan recovered from the hip injury and went back to
Speaker 2: physical activity.
Speaker 1: A few weeks after that, she was walking again.
Speaker 3: One day, when Morgan.
Speaker 2: Was out on a walk, she fell again and this
Speaker 2: time she broke her elbow.
Speaker 1: I could see it. It was bruised and it had
Speaker 1: been obviously smashed. And then she had a sling. As
Speaker 1: she was healing her elbow.
Speaker 2: The broken bones became a cycle. After her elbow, Morgan
Speaker 2: broke a rib.
Speaker 1: She had fallen and she came back and she just
Speaker 1: was like, oh my gosh, my rib, my rib my rib.
Speaker 1: We looked at it. It was broken, and she took
Speaker 1: herself to urgent care.
Speaker 2: She came back with X rays showing her broken rib.
Speaker 2: The doctors told her to rest. At the time, they
Speaker 2: lived in an apartment complex and they were friends with
Speaker 2: their downstairs neighbors. They usually went over every week for
Speaker 2: game night.
Speaker 1: After she had broken her rib, More was at home
Speaker 1: for a couple of weeks and we had missed a
Speaker 1: game night, and I had gone down personally to you know,
Speaker 1: apologize he ever seeing this game night and to ask
Speaker 1: how things were going. So I was in person in
Speaker 1: their apartment. I was like explaining when I got her rib,
Speaker 1: and one of them was like, oh my god, someone's
Speaker 1: got to say it. I saw her. I saw her
Speaker 1: with her rib, and I was like, I don't know
Speaker 1: what you mean.
Speaker 2: There was a cement wall in the back of their
Speaker 2: apartment complex, and their neighbor had seen Morgan behaving strangely.
Speaker 1: And she's like the day that she broke her rib,
Speaker 1: I saw her falling onto that cement wall, like jumping
Speaker 1: onto this wall.
Speaker 2: Her neighbor saw Morgan throwing herself against a cement wall.
Speaker 3: And it wasn't just one time.
Speaker 1: She was like, I watched her do it several times.
Speaker 1: I thought it was weird. And I was really defensive.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, you might have just like misunderstood
Speaker 1: the situation because that doesn't make any sense, and they're like,
Speaker 1: you need to talk to your wife about this.
Speaker 2: Kelsey felt like her neighbors were accusing her of lying,
Speaker 2: and the neighbor's story didn't make any sense. If they
Speaker 2: saw Morgan falling, why wouldn't they help her.
Speaker 1: I remember coming home and being like, why did the
Speaker 1: neighbor think that she saw you? And she's like, it
Speaker 1: was a really big fall. I'm surprised she didn't make
Speaker 1: sure I was okay as I, Yeah, that seems weird,
Speaker 1: Like I just get a weird vibe from them, like
Speaker 1: I really don't think they want to be friends with
Speaker 1: us anymore. And she's like, well, we don't want to
Speaker 1: be friends with anyone who think we're liars anyway, Like
Speaker 1: why would anyone lie about this?
Speaker 2: Regardless of how Morgan had broken her rib, she was
Speaker 2: clearly injured again. Morgan's doctor recommended she stay physically active,
Speaker 2: but to Kelsey this seemed unsafe, so she.
Speaker 1: Told Morgan, you have to stop leaving the house like this,
Speaker 1: and I need to see your paperwork, like I need
Speaker 1: to see the doctor's recommend that this is okay, because
Speaker 1: clearly it's not. And it was a huge argument. It
Speaker 1: was a huge blow up that I was too controlling,
Speaker 1: that I was obsessing over her death. And I finally
Speaker 1: was like okay, and then I left the apartment.
Speaker 2: Kelsey went on a walk around the block alone for
Speaker 2: the first time in a long time.
Speaker 1: And so I was on this walk thinking I don't
Speaker 1: know how to manage this anymore.
Speaker 2: Between Morgan's cancer, her constant injuries, working to support them both,
Speaker 2: and her graduate school program, Kelsey couldn't take it anymore.
Speaker 1: On that walk, I called my friend and I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm not okay. I think I need to leave.
Speaker 2: That night, Kelsey made up her mind she was going
Speaker 2: to transfer schools, move to a new city on her own.
Speaker 1: The academic advisor called me the very next day and
Speaker 1: was like, oh, I'd love to sell yoll for an interview,
Speaker 1: And so I flew that Thursday and did my interview
Speaker 1: in person.
Speaker 2: She was in a frenzy before she was even accepted.
Speaker 2: She made plans to move everything and her body was
Speaker 2: telling her to get away from Morgan.
Speaker 1: So I just literally packed everything in my car. I
Speaker 1: got a job and a place to live. When I
Speaker 1: went to interview, I just moved at lightning speed. When
Speaker 1: she told Morgan she was leaving, she was just shocked.
Speaker 1: I was like, I think we just need a little
Speaker 1: bit of breather space. You stay here, You've got everything
Speaker 1: that you need. I'll continue paying for rent here, I'll
Speaker 1: pay for your food, I'll pay for everything. But I
Speaker 1: have to go do my master's program. And then then
Speaker 1: I left. If she might have thought I was having
Speaker 1: a mental breakdown, because honestly I was.
Speaker 3: That night she drove fifteen hours straight.
Speaker 1: Oh my way, I called my sister. My sister was like,
Speaker 1: you are a really terrible person, Like I can't believe
Speaker 1: that you would leave in this way when Morgan could
Speaker 1: die at any time.
Speaker 2: At the time, she wasn't ready to share her doubts
Speaker 2: about Morgan's diagnosis with anyone else.
Speaker 1: I just felt like I didn't have enough evidence of that.
Speaker 1: I just wanted it to be behind me.
Speaker 4: Still, her sister's words made her feel horrible. Because of
Speaker 4: this guilt, Kelsey stayed in touch with Morgan over the
Speaker 4: phone as much as she could, especially when right after
Speaker 4: her move, Kelsey needed emergency surgery for her appendix now
Speaker 4: the shoe was on the other foot and Kelsey needed
Speaker 4: morgan support.
Speaker 1: I remember calling Morgan at the er. She's like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2: While Kelsey was in the hospital recovering, she received a
Speaker 2: strange text.
Speaker 1: I actually got a text from her mom and it
Speaker 1: was almost like the fourth wall broke.
Speaker 2: The last time she had heard from Morgan's mom was
Speaker 2: before they'd gotten married, and that was over email.
Speaker 3: The emails were.
Speaker 2: She called Kelsey the devil. They had never texted, and.
Speaker 1: She sent the most thoughtful text to me. It was like, oh, sorry,
Speaker 1: this is happening. We're hoping you heal.
Speaker 2: This was at odds with everything Kelsey knew about this woman.
Speaker 1: I was like, what, Like, Morgan didn't have relationship with
Speaker 1: her parents, and suddenly they knew this very intimate detail
Speaker 1: about my health.
Speaker 2: That text from Morgan's mom opened a door to what
Speaker 2: might be a different reality. She decided not to tell
Speaker 2: Morgan about it.
Speaker 1: That suddenly felt like I was uncovering something.
Speaker 2: After Kelsey recovered from surgery, she settled into her new city.
Speaker 2: She could finally feel the relief of being away from Morgan.
Speaker 2: The next time they talked, Kelsey asked for divorce, and
Speaker 2: to her surprise, Morgan agreed.
Speaker 1: She's like, Okay, I've got a family friend who's married
Speaker 1: to a divorce lawyer, and she will start working up
Speaker 1: the divorce paperwork. Because I had no idea how to divorce,
Speaker 1: I just assumed it would be complicated, so she.
Speaker 2: Let Morgan handle the paperwork. It was clear to both
Speaker 2: of them that their relationship was over.
Speaker 3: Morgan took it really hard.
Speaker 1: The divorce had activated her eating disorder, so she was
Speaker 1: going back into an eating disorder clinic in our home state.
Speaker 2: Kelsey felt intense guilt for leaving Morgan. She'd spent two
Speaker 2: years taking care of her. She'd seen the broken bones,
Speaker 2: the nausea of the exhaustion, all of the medications. But
Speaker 2: the more time Kelsey took for herself, the more she
Speaker 2: realized Morgan was hiding something.
Speaker 3: What it was, she didn't.
Speaker 2: Know for sure, But what she did know was that
Speaker 2: she needed.
Speaker 3: A fresh start.
Speaker 1: I can finally at least separate myself from whatever lie
Speaker 1: she is or is not telling herself or me.
Speaker 2: Kelsey tried to move on and put this relationship behind her.
Speaker 2: She wanted to clean slate.
Speaker 1: I felt like it was the start of a whole
Speaker 1: new chapter of my life. It was the first time
Speaker 1: I was dating someone new who didn't have a health crisis.
Speaker 1: This is when I was in a master's program. I
Speaker 1: just loved my school, I loved being with my dog.
Speaker 1: I loved the new life I was creating. And I
Speaker 1: reflected back on the years before, and I really felt
Speaker 1: like I had missed everything, and so I felt like
Speaker 1: this was the start of something brand new.
Speaker 2: Part of that reset was acting like the relationship with
Speaker 2: Morgan never happened.
Speaker 1: I felt stupid for having been in this dynamic for
Speaker 1: so long. It would be so much easier to start
Speaker 1: completely over if I just don't bring in this very,
Speaker 1: very complicated backstory that I now had with my ex.
Speaker 2: But she still had to communicate with Morgan about the
Speaker 2: divorce paperwork.
Speaker 1: I would have to check in and be like, wait,
Speaker 1: where is this divorce happening? Like I was always just
Speaker 1: kind of like dragged back to the reality of something
Speaker 1: I really didn't want to face.
Speaker 2: As the months when by the divorce still hadn't been finalized.
Speaker 1: And throughout this whole time period, there be times where
Speaker 1: I was like checking in and Morgan would be like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm filing paperwork and it's still being processed.
Speaker 2: While Kelsey was in the middle of her emotional recovery,
Speaker 2: she got a red envelope in the mail.
Speaker 1: I started getting collection notices. The first big one was
Speaker 1: the car.
Speaker 2: Morgan had stopped paying her car payment, so it went
Speaker 2: to collections.
Speaker 1: Kelsey assumed, like, she's getting the same notification, so she's
Speaker 1: going to pay for it, right. That was the first notification,
Speaker 1: And then I started getting mail constantly, phone bills, credit
Speaker 1: card debts, things that had my name and her name
Speaker 1: on together, and it was significant. It was like thousands
Speaker 1: and thousands of dollars.
Speaker 2: The notices weren't slowing down, and the debt was impacting
Speaker 2: Kelsey's credit.
Speaker 1: I was just starting to get really frustrated. I was like,
Speaker 1: how is this happening? So the very first thing I
Speaker 1: did was try to contact her. She didn't answer, She'd
Speaker 1: block me.
Speaker 2: Morgan had blocked her, and their divorce still wasn't finalized.
Speaker 2: So Kelsey decided to take matters into her own hands.
Speaker 1: So I paid an attorney to check all the legal
Speaker 1: processes in every state we had lived in to see
Speaker 1: if they had started divorce paperwork at all. And Morgan
Speaker 1: had never ever filed.
Speaker 2: Morgan told Kelsey with confidence that she had filed for divorce,
Speaker 2: and Kelsey believed her, trusted her, and.
Speaker 1: I was like, there's no way she would lie about this,
Speaker 1: But she had lied.
Speaker 3: Kelsey's lawyer had the proof. The time Kelsey spent trying to.
Speaker 2: Put Morgan behind her now came with a price.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I have been avoiding the reality of
Speaker 1: this forever, like I haven't ever thought to check anything
Speaker 1: regarding our divorce paperwork. I didn't know to like flag
Speaker 1: her on any of my banks, to not have access
Speaker 1: to my stuff like we were legally married. And so
Speaker 1: suddenly I realized there was so many connections that I
Speaker 1: still had her and didn't know the gravity of until
Speaker 1: I was presenting this lawyer this debt paperwork.
Speaker 2: Morgan's debt had piled up to an astonishing number.
Speaker 1: Just the payoff alone, like just what I knew collectors
Speaker 1: had sent to me that was dinging on my credit
Speaker 1: report was about sixty thousand.
Speaker 3: Kelsey hadn't been able to reach Morgan.
Speaker 2: She had no idea where she was living, but she
Speaker 2: was clearly still alive, charging credit cards with Kelsey's name
Speaker 2: on them. So they hired a private investigator to track
Speaker 2: Morgan down and serve her the paperwork.
Speaker 1: My lawyer sent the paperwork to her and she signed,
Speaker 1: so now I can also file a financial restraint order
Speaker 1: against her. I remember leaving the courthouse and just sabbing,
Speaker 1: like walking into my car and just crying.
Speaker 5: It was the first time I had like a binder
Speaker 5: in my hands of our marriage certificate and are divorce
Speaker 5: to creed, and I finally could put a stop too
Speaker 5: anything more happening.
Speaker 2: With the divorce decree in hand, Kelsey believed that Morgan
Speaker 2: and the chaos that came with her was now truly
Speaker 2: behind her. She wasn't avoiding it anymore.
Speaker 1: I was really surprised when in late twenty twenty, I
Speaker 1: got a Facebook message from Joanne.
Speaker 2: It was Morgan's mentor, the woman who'd been like a
Speaker 2: second mother to her. Kelsey hadn't spoken to her since
Speaker 2: that awkward road trip visit years ago. Joanne said she
Speaker 2: needed to speak with Kelsey.
Speaker 6: It was urgent, So we get on a Facebook video
Speaker 6: call and she's like, a couple months ago, I was
Speaker 6: listening to a podcast about factitious disorder and it just
Speaker 6: sounds so much like Morgan that I just couldn't shake
Speaker 6: this feeling.
Speaker 2: Factitious disorder is the official term for Munchausen syndrome, which
Speaker 2: is when someone fakes being sick for sympathy and attention.
Speaker 3: Joanne went on to explain, I've.
Speaker 1: Been down a rabbit hole about Morgan, and I have
Speaker 1: proof that she had been diagnosed with spactitious disorder before
Speaker 1: she ever met you, and I had proved that she
Speaker 1: was faking breaking her bones.
Speaker 2: Just as Kelsey was finally feeling in control of her life,
Speaker 2: she got a Facebook message out.
Speaker 3: Of the blue.
Speaker 2: It was from Joanne, Morgan's mentor. Joanne had uncovered something
Speaker 2: that she needed to share with Kelsey.
Speaker 1: This is when she broke down all of her findings,
Speaker 1: which she could on paper point two and say like, no,
Speaker 1: I got this record, this was a lie, and this
Speaker 1: statement for this person's a lie.
Speaker 2: Joanne had met Morgan when Morgan was a college athlete.
Speaker 2: She'd taken Morgan in when she was going through a
Speaker 2: hard time with her family, and Joanne was there when
Speaker 2: Morgan broke her wrists for the first time. When Morgan
Speaker 2: came back from the hospital in a cast, she told
Speaker 2: Joanne the doctors had found bone cancer.
Speaker 1: Morgan had told Joanne that she needed to start cancer treatments,
Speaker 1: and so she had supplies that she had brought back
Speaker 1: and she was having Joanne administer cancer treatment intravenously. That's
Speaker 1: why Joanne had confirmed to me that she had cancer,
Speaker 1: because she's like, yeah, I was doing treatments with her
Speaker 1: when she had cancer. It was really scary, and so
Speaker 1: they bonded over that. It was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: of course I'll help you. You're away from family.
Speaker 2: This all happened before Kelsey ever met Morgan. Now years later,
Speaker 2: Joanne was coming to Kelsey with proof that the story
Speaker 2: they'd both been told was a lie.
Speaker 1: Joanne had found out that Morgan had secured saline and
Speaker 1: like supplies to give herself IV treatments, but they were
Speaker 1: never actual treatments.
Speaker 2: Joanne got medical records that told the real story what
Speaker 2: was actually happening.
Speaker 1: Morgan would come out of the hospital like having fixed
Speaker 1: her broken wrist, and then would break it again and
Speaker 1: tell everyone that it was cancer related, that our cancer
Speaker 1: had come back. But in reality, she was going back
Speaker 1: to the doctor and being like, oh, my broken bone
Speaker 1: and will you fix it? And they would fix it.
Speaker 1: But after four or five times of this happening during
Speaker 1: that school year. They had actually had to blacklist her
Speaker 1: from the hospital because she had exhausted the hospitals in
Speaker 1: that area.
Speaker 2: It was a bombshell finding refusing care and blacklisting someone
Speaker 2: from a hospital is a very big deal.
Speaker 1: The fact that Morgan had been assigned this label and
Speaker 1: not allowed to get treatment at these hospitals anymore was
Speaker 1: like a really serious thing, and they had officially listed
Speaker 1: it as factious at the time. Was called Munchausen. That's
Speaker 1: how they formally called it on her record, like, do
Speaker 1: not treat her, this is unhealthy, and they had kept
Speaker 1: encouraging her to get psychiatric care.
Speaker 2: But according to the records Joanne had, Morgan didn't get
Speaker 2: psychiatric care. Instead, she went to summer camp.
Speaker 1: And so after lying about it to all the doctors
Speaker 1: in the city of her college, this is the summer
Speaker 1: that she met me.
Speaker 2: After Morgan and Kelsey met, Morgan didn't need Joanne anymore.
Speaker 2: She had a new caretaker. The attention Kelsey witnessed between
Speaker 2: Morgan and Joanne when she saw them the last time
Speaker 2: was real. Joanne was starting to question Morgan's story.
Speaker 1: Joanne was mutual friends with someone and that person didn't
Speaker 1: even know that Morgan was dying of cancer. She just
Speaker 1: started kind of hitting parts of the story that didn't
Speaker 1: make a lot of sense. That's why she kept trying
Speaker 1: to tell me something, but felt like she didn't have
Speaker 1: enough proof to tell me.
Speaker 2: But now Joanne had the proof and the two of
Speaker 2: them could begin piecing everything together.
Speaker 1: We started comparing stories and realized there's a lot more
Speaker 1: to this story than we even know. Between the two
Speaker 1: of us.
Speaker 2: A key component of Morgan pulling off this deception was
Speaker 2: keeping people isolated from each other. If Kelsey and Joanne
Speaker 2: were going to find the truth, they needed to connect
Speaker 2: with other people in Morgan's life.
Speaker 1: This is where it really blew open.
Speaker 2: Kelsey went back to the very beginning, to the mutual
Speaker 2: friend who vouched for Morgan at camp.
Speaker 1: Even my friend from camp knew one version of the story.
Speaker 1: She had never mentioned having cancer ever to this friend,
Speaker 1: So that was the first like, oh, she was lying
Speaker 1: from the very beginning.
Speaker 3: Even parts of the story that Kelsey never.
Speaker 2: Questioned before now seemed like they could be lies. Starting
Speaker 2: with the letter Morgan said she received from the camp
Speaker 2: director warning her that her eating disorder was interfering with
Speaker 2: her job. Performance.
Speaker 1: She had never been talked to by camp staff about
Speaker 1: being removed from camp. Ever, that was never even a conversation.
Speaker 1: No one actually knew anything about her eating disorder.
Speaker 2: Kelsey couldn't believe this fundamental part of their origin story
Speaker 2: could be fabricated. But the lie was confirmed when she discovered.
Speaker 1: She had never been hospitalized for eating disorder. The clinic
Speaker 1: that she gave me was a fake name.
Speaker 2: Every new person Kelsey talked to had been told a
Speaker 2: different story. Sometimes it was an entirely different story.
Speaker 1: It wasn't always cancer that the lie was about. It
Speaker 1: was oftentimes, Oh, I found my birth mother, So there
Speaker 1: was like a birth mother network of lies.
Speaker 2: One lie, in particular, was extremely difficult for Kelsey to accept.
Speaker 1: Morgan had actually maintained a relationship with her family the
Speaker 1: whole time I knew her.
Speaker 2: Kelsey tracked down Morgan's siblings. That's when she learned her
Speaker 2: family had no idea about Morgan's cancer. And when Morgan
Speaker 2: told the family she was dating a woman, everyone was
Speaker 2: accepting of her. So who sent the hate emails?
Speaker 1: I did some digging on the emails that her parents
Speaker 1: had been sending me, and all of them went back
Speaker 1: to the same computer that I had bought her, which
Speaker 1: meant that all of the emails that her parents had
Speaker 1: sent me when we first started dating were from Morgan.
Speaker 1: Morgan had written them. This hateful, homophobic rhetoric came from
Speaker 1: my partner. That was so devastating because I had such
Speaker 1: trauma and so much internalized shame for being gay.
Speaker 2: So much of Kelsey's decision to support Morgan was because
Speaker 2: she had no family left. They had all disowned her
Speaker 2: because she was gay. It was just lie on top
Speaker 2: of lie.
Speaker 1: Every single component of the intensity, like the first four
Speaker 1: months of knowing her, was completely fabricated in every.
Speaker 2: Way time, All of the intensity felt very real to Kelsey,
Speaker 2: from the hate emails to Morgan's symptoms, the fatigue, the vomiting.
Speaker 3: How could Morgan fake all of that? Well, Kelsey found out.
Speaker 1: I learned that she was taking medications that made her
Speaker 1: throw up, that made it really with tharga clear seizure meds.
Speaker 1: I learned that she would steal medications.
Speaker 2: Morgan didn't come up with the whole plan by herself,
Speaker 2: She had source material.
Speaker 1: This is when I had seen the movie The Fault
Speaker 1: in Our Stars and realized that she was feeding me
Speaker 1: the same lines from the book and from the movie.
Speaker 2: The Fault in Our Stars is a book by John
Speaker 2: Green that was adapted into a film. It follows two
Speaker 2: teenagers with terminal cancer. Some of the exact lines from
Speaker 2: the movie were things Morgan had said to her, like
Speaker 2: claiming that her cancer scans quote lit up like a
Speaker 2: Christmas tree. Kelsey felt like her relationship had been scripted.
Speaker 1: My entire because stints with her was a lie, all
Speaker 1: of it.
Speaker 2: Now that Kelsey had broken open Morgan's lies, she wanted
Speaker 2: to make sure that there were no remaining ties with her.
Speaker 2: She discovered there was still one bank account open that
Speaker 2: they shared. It was an account Kelsey never knew about,
Speaker 2: but her name was on it. In order to close
Speaker 2: the account, she had to move the money out of it.
Speaker 1: It was technically my account to close because we were
Speaker 1: both on it.
Speaker 2: There was twenty thousand dollars in this account, all of
Speaker 2: Morgan's checking and savings.
Speaker 1: I suddenly had access to all of her money after
Speaker 1: all these years of piecing the story together, and like,
Speaker 1: I suddenly have access to everything. In order to close it,
Speaker 1: I had to put the money somewhere, so I had
Speaker 1: to do something with the money.
Speaker 2: So She asked her friends and family what to do.
Speaker 1: Everyone was like, keep the money, like that is your money.
Speaker 1: She couldn't dispute it even if she wanted to. And
Speaker 1: I was like, no, no, no, I'm not taking any of that
Speaker 1: bad karma.
Speaker 2: Kelsey had financially supported Morgan for years. When they separated,
Speaker 2: she took on sixty thousand dollars of Morgan's debt. Even
Speaker 2: after all of that, Kelsey decided to send the money
Speaker 2: back to Morgan. She was ready to wash her hands
Speaker 2: of the whole thing.
Speaker 1: I sent her a letter along with the check, and
Speaker 1: I said, I paid off everything you owed. I could
Speaker 1: have taken thousands and thousands. I could have taken everything,
Speaker 1: and it still would not be a drop on the
Speaker 1: bucket of what money you took from me. You lied
Speaker 1: to me. I know every lie you've ever told. Never
Speaker 1: talk to me again, and I really hope that you're
Speaker 1: getting the help that you need. And that was the
Speaker 1: last thing I sent.
Speaker 2: After nearly five years, Kelsey was finally free of Morgan
Speaker 2: and her deception, liberated from the lies, the financial and
Speaker 2: emotional burden that she endured. Today, Kelsey thinks back on
Speaker 2: the innocent woman at Girl Scout Camp who walked right
Speaker 2: into Morgan's web.
Speaker 1: Like I was the perfect person for Morgan to meet
Speaker 1: at camp. Could not have been more perfect, Like a
Speaker 1: history of family dysfunction, the tendency to get in relationships
Speaker 1: where I'm caregiving, and I had a mom food cancer.
Speaker 2: Before Morgan, Kelsey had never even heard about abuse in
Speaker 2: a lesbian relationship.
Speaker 1: So as a queer person, I almost felt safer with
Speaker 1: women than I ever felt with men, Like I never
Speaker 1: thought that that would happen to me in this intimate
Speaker 1: or precise or manipulative way.
Speaker 2: For a long time, Kelsey struggled to tell other people
Speaker 2: what she went through. Would they believe her? Would they
Speaker 2: judge her?
Speaker 1: A common question I get is how did you not know?
Speaker 1: Or if you were married, how did you not know
Speaker 1: the medicine or the doctors? Especially because this story with
Speaker 1: Morgan is so extreme, I agree. If I was on
Speaker 1: the outside, I listened to plenty of true crime and
Speaker 1: factitious disorder our stuff that I'm like, obviously you would know.
Speaker 2: So how did she not know? Well? The short answer
Speaker 2: is that she believed a woman she loved. The question
Speaker 2: used to bother her, but now she understands where it's
Speaker 2: coming from.
Speaker 1: I really think it comes from a deep desire to
Speaker 1: feel like it couldn't happen to us. And more than that,
Speaker 1: it comes from this desire of like protecting ourselves hearing
Speaker 1: other people's pain. And I can sympathize with that completely.
Speaker 2: When she does tell the story to other people, she
Speaker 2: noticed this is her own shame.
Speaker 1: Whenever I cringe telling this story, I've had to pause
Speaker 1: and ask myself what part of me is cringing? And
Speaker 1: the part of me that's cringing is always coming from
Speaker 1: a shameful, guilty place.
Speaker 2: It's a relatable experience. All of us can point to
Speaker 2: a moment in our lives and cringe at our choices.
Speaker 2: Kelsey's come to realize shame doesn't work.
Speaker 1: Shame has never been a motivator of change for me.
Speaker 2: She's had to reflect on her own part in the relationship,
Speaker 2: those key moments where she chose to stay with Morgan,
Speaker 2: even when she knew something wasn't right.
Speaker 1: It's so easy to hear my story and be like,
Speaker 1: this terrible thing happened to this great person, And to
Speaker 1: be honest, I have had to reckon with my own
Speaker 1: innerdeemons about this, Like what parts of me were attracted
Speaker 1: to a person that needed to be taken care of.
Speaker 1: I can reflect back on a lot in my early
Speaker 1: childhood where to be caregiving and to be codependent. In
Speaker 1: that way, we're very much rewarded. So it's not just like, Wow,
Speaker 1: this terrible thing happened to me. Truly, it's like I
Speaker 1: can see what I said yes to in this complicitly.
Speaker 1: I can see where I turned an eye away from
Speaker 1: what I knew in my body was the truth because
Speaker 1: I didn't want to lose something I loved or am embarrassed.
Speaker 1: I didn't leave sooner because I was afraid of what
Speaker 1: it would look like. And it's true.
Speaker 2: Kelsey has cultivated sympathy for the younger version of herself
Speaker 2: who made those choices. After all, she was acting out
Speaker 2: of love.
Speaker 1: When I hear other people's horrific stories of things that
Speaker 1: have happened to them, I now have a lens of
Speaker 1: what a human experience to love so deeply that we're
Speaker 1: willing to suspend disbelief that high is like, I truly
Speaker 1: believe that deception really comes from a deep desire to
Speaker 1: be loved, and I can sympathize with a desire to
Speaker 1: be loved.
Speaker 2: There's a meta element to Kelsey's story. It was a
Speaker 2: podcast that helped Joanne and then Kelsey discover the truth.
Speaker 1: And I remember listening to that podcast and thinking like
Speaker 1: that is so brave because I was so embarrassed about
Speaker 1: my own story. I still struggle with that with myself,
Speaker 1: but it's like, I want there to be less stigma
Speaker 1: around manipulative relationships.
Speaker 2: Kelsey feels like it's come full circle. She's telling her
Speaker 2: own story now for someone else who needs to hear it.
Speaker 2: We end all of our episodes with the same question,
Speaker 2: why did you want to tell your story?
Speaker 1: I didn't want to tell the story ever. Again, the
Speaker 1: thing that made me is knowing that it took me
Speaker 1: so many years to untangle myself from the shame of
Speaker 1: not recognizing that as trauma sooner. But there are so
Speaker 1: many little things that feel important to say out loud
Speaker 1: that we should be making more space for people to
Speaker 1: be critical of their interpersonal relationships without shame, Like if
Speaker 1: that trust has been breached, then it's time to go.
Speaker 1: You don't have to wait for evidence to leave. I
Speaker 1: think we need more models of that happening, and so
Speaker 1: I truly believe that I can reflect this story with
Speaker 1: love and also hold someone accountable for doing something truly terrible.
Speaker 2: On the next episode of Betrayal.
Speaker 1: If he can lie about that, he can lie about anything.
Speaker 1: He used his dead mother's name, he used his dead
Speaker 1: father's name, he used I think his aunt, he used
Speaker 1: my name, all these people.
Speaker 2: If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal
Speaker 2: team or want to tell us your Betrayal story, email
Speaker 2: us at betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal pod
Speaker 2: at gmail dot com. We're grateful for your support. One
Speaker 2: way to show support is by subscribing to our show
Speaker 2: on Apple Podcasts, and don't forget to rate and review Betrayal.
Speaker 2: Five star reviews go a long way. A big thank
Speaker 2: you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production
Speaker 2: of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group and
Speaker 2: partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by
Speaker 2: Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced by me
Speaker 2: Andrea Gunning, written and produced by Monique Leboard, also produced
Speaker 2: by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Kristin Mercury and Caitlin Golden.
Speaker 2: Our iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Krinchech. Audio
Speaker 2: editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio, Additional editing support from
Speaker 2: Tanner Robbins. Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Bains. Music library
Speaker 2: provided by my Music and For more podcasts from iHeart,
Speaker 2: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
Speaker 2: your my guest