Allen Marsh, the ruined cuckold

This story is really something. I found it on www.thefreelibrary.com. The text below is almost verbatim from the article on that site.

Doreen Marsh, 59, teamed up with the husband she cuckolded to take legal action after the collapse of her 30-year affair left them [pounds sterling]200,000 in the red. Mrs Marsh and her husband Allen claimed property developer Basil Dunning, 69, was responsible, since he had agreed to pay the household bills and underwrite his mistress's [pounds sterling]185,000 love-nest, in return for Mr Marsh giving up his conjugal rights. Mrs Marsh used the promise of an open chequebook to live in extravagant luxury, the court heard, and her husband made the most of his predicament by renovating his home. Mr Justice Lindsay ended what he described as `an unhappy saga' by dismissing the claim and ordering Mr and Mrs Marsh to pay the costs of the three-week case, expected to be around [pounds sterling]75,000. He ruled that the deal, which was struck during a bizarre lunch meeting between the three in 1988, was only a `gentleman's agreement' and not legally binding. Mrs Marsh - known to her 62-year-old husband as Doreen and her rich lover as Louise - still lives with her husband, although they are barely on speaking terms.The judge said: `None - Basil, Louise and Allen - emerges without discredit or some form of injury. `Whilst I accept Basil's evidence that his relations with Louise were both emotional and physical, and that he was very fond of her, he did set out to dazzle her with his riches. `He knew she necessarily relied on him to see her bills paid. She had no other possible way of paying them.' Mr Dunning, he said, might also be vulnerable to the accusation that he took advantage of Mr Marsh's `comparative poverty'. But Mr Marsh was himself `not a man to decline an opportunity to make easy money' and agreed he had blackmailed Mr Dunning later by threatening to tell Mrs Dunning's wife, Reeva, of the affair. The bizarre relationship began in the early 1960s when Mr Marsh was working as a carpenter for a building firm owned by Basil Dunning's family. Mrs Marsh agreed to stop seeing her lover, married to his first wife Peggy at the time. But soon after Mr Dunning married Reeva, his second wife, the flames of passion were rekindled. Mr Marsh found out what was going on and resigned himself to the affair continuing. During these early days, he ran a village post office with his wife. He would often return home to find Mr Dunning's car parked in the drive. `It was almost common knowledge to the other villagers what they were up to,' he said. They soon lived separate lives, Mr Marsh putting on a brave face for the sake of their two children. `We were quite happy to live under the same roof but there was not a great deal of communication between us,' he said. As Mr Dunning's apparent prosperity grew, so did the affair. He moved into a mansion, Puttenham Priory, in a Surrey village, thanks to the family firm's multi-million pound contracts, stretching across southern England. His wife believed her husband spent extended periods away from home because he was working so hard. She had been told of the affair but believed it to be over. By February 1988 Mr Dunning decided he wanted Mrs Marsh for himself. In a restaurant, he struck the deal that was to lead to the court battle years later. The three toyed with the idea of building an extension on the Marshes' current cottage home, Little Hawksgrove, so there was `one wing for the lovers and another for the matromonial marriage. In the end, however, Mrs Marsh opted for a love nest where her liaisons could be conducted in privacy and moved into Avenir, a four-bedroom home near her lover's office. Mr Dunning paid the [pounds sterling]18,000 deposit and with his chequebook supposedly as a guarantee, Lloyds provided the Marshes with a [pounds sterling]165,000 bridging loan, despite the fact that neither had a job. Here Mr Dunning encouraged his mistress to live in style. When she bought a set of crystal it had to be the finest and her clothes had to be Italian designs. Her lover, she said, `always wanted to get the best, the biggest and the most expensive. Everything had to be perfect, this is how he expected me to be'. It was an unconventional set-up, but it worked. Mrs Marsh was living out a middle-aged female fantasy, Mr Dunning was having his cake and eating it, while Mr Marsh was alone in his beloved cottage with someone else paying the bills. Then it all turned spectacularly sour. Mr Dunning's family firm went into receivership.with him [pounds sterling]2million in debt. The torrent of money slowed to a trickle and Avenir was sold, leaving the Marshes with substantial debts. In July 1991 Mr Dunning suffered a stroke - which he believes was linked to the strain he was under. The relationship fizzled out and so did his marriage when his second wife discovered the truth. For the Marshes, the future seems bleak. She said: `I've not seen or spoken to Basil since the day he was here five years ago and walked out of my life. `It's very difficult when you spend so many years loving and adoring someone, and it ends like that.
Mister Marsh gets 8 points on the cuckold scale for this.