Michael Douglas’ current wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, is smart. She made him sign a prenuptial agreement stating that if he has an affair during their marriage, he has to pay her a million dollars. I had been married five years when my husband had his affair. We had two children ages three years and six months. I thought we had a good relationship and a strong marriage. The “other” woman was also married and lived in the apartment below us. I started to notice a change in his behavior when she would visit. He wasn’t behaving as though she was a casual friend anymore. When I first confronted him with my suspicions, he of course denied it and continued to deny it until I backed up my claims with what his cousin had told me. He confessed and asked for a divorce, to which I agreed.
I was in shock. Not just because our marriage was suddenly over, but also the fact that he had not given a second thought to me, our relationship or our family when he got involved with her. I was in a fog of confusion. How could the man I loved and trusted, whose love I had felt, could betray me like that without a second thought. I mentally repeated over and over the scenes of the five years we had been married. I wasn’t able to find the clue I was looking for to give me the answer. We talked very little the following days. During one brief discussion, he asked me to give him custody of our three year old. I refused. I didn’t want to separate the children and I didn’t feel I should have to give up my children. About week later, I was informed that my husband’s mistress told him she was pregnant and that he was the father. I have to say, this didn’t improve my mental or emotional wellbeing. Later, I learned that he had asked her to have an abortion.
That was when she admitted that her claim was false. She had lied about being pregnant. My husband and I had a long talk. He told me he did love me, that he was sorry for what he had done and that he didn’t want a divorce. I still loved him despite everything. Plus, I strongly believed in the concepts of marriage and family. So I agreed that we would make the effort to get past his affair and preserve our marriage and family. During the following years, he was a good husband and I trusted him again. Our marriage grew even stronger, or so I thought. I didn’t know that if a man has an affair once, chances are that he will do it again.