BEL MOONEY: My divorce has been so painful. But it’s what my friends and family did next that REALLY hurts..
. By Bel Mooney for the Daily Mail Published: 11:51, 15 June 2024 | Updated: 11:52, 15 June 2024 e-mail Dear Bel, For 30 years I was married to a man I considered my soul mate. I moved to America to be with him and he really tried to make our marriage work, even though his family turned against me for reasons out of my control.
I was angry with them and let the situation fester until I blamed him for all the unhappiness they had caused. We returned to the UK and lived a comfortable life for the next 27 years. I loved my husband deeply and worried that he would leave me and return to America.
He truly was kind and generous and told me daily how much he loved me. We really did get on in so many ways. I knew how hard life would be on my own so I kept the status quo.
But a few years ago I discovered he’d had affairs while my father was dying. After much prevaricating, he decided he did want to leave me —and with no financial support either, even though he hid huge sums of money. Some of that was resolved after legal intervention on my part.
He has now remarried and lives happily in the countryside. My friends and family let me down in so many ways. My family just told me to leave my ex — having no idea that I had nowhere to go.
Six years after the divorce I told them all for the first time that I was struggling. The responses were that I should pull myself together .