TESTIMONY
About ten years ago, Sarah's husband became quadriplegic. The latter looked after him for two years and managed to get him compensation. She says that her husband then left her to go and live with her new partner. Their divorce proceedings have lasted eight years and ruined Sarah. At the microphone of "La Libre antenne", on Europe 1, Sarah tells Olivier Delacroix that she thinks she was manipulated by her ex-husband.
>> Listen to Sarah's testimony in full here
"I have been married to a man for almost 20 years. He had a home accident that made him quadriplegic. I stayed with him and looked after helpers. After two years I told him obtained large compensation, more than 500,000 euros. He divorced and left with another. Since then, he has destroyed me. He was a wonderful man: kind, kind, generous, attentive, helpful. When he came out of a coma, I didn't realize immediately that he was different. He was no longer the man I loved.
" He was only interested in himself "Only his head could move. He couldn't speak, he had a tracheostomy. He was hospitalized in intensive care for a month and a half. The doctors asked me if I wanted to unplug it, I refused. He then spent two years in a functional rehabilitation center. After six months, he returned every other weekend. It was very difficult because I worked all week and when he came back I had to take care of him all the time, which is normal.
At the same time we had to take care of the house and the children. At the time of the accident, they were 14 and 16 years old. They had suffered a trauma that had really marked them. My poor ex-husband was in his center isolated from the world. He was only interested in himself, the outside no longer counted. All that mattered for him was his little comfort and that can be understood. I don't blame him for being like that, I blame him for what he did to me afterwards.
" I gave everything for him "After his accident, it was unthinkable to leave him, I loved him. For more than two years, I gave everything for him. He returned to Brittany after spending two years in the functional rehabilitation center. He asked me if we would live together again. I told him I couldn't do it. I had lost 18 pounds and slept three hours a night to manage everything. At the end of my sentence he cried, then said: "It doesn't matter, I'm going to build a house and I'm going to live with my partner".
In fact, he had calculated everything and I hadn't realized it. I worked for two years with insurers. I got him a big compensation that exceeded 500,000 euros. He asked me to make bank movements. I had confidence, I made them. I think it was a project that was already well done. He had met his partner in the center and they had already started a semblance of relationship. I don't know if he was manipulated.
" I prove that he is lying and the judge does not see him "When he arrived in Brittany, he was not alone. Even though he did not live at home, I went to see him very frequently with the children. He had made the choice to live in an 18 m2. I understood that he wanted to be complained. He could afford to take on larger accommodation. I suppose he had anticipated the fact that I would not have wanted and could not have lived with him. He manipulated me, just like today he manipulates the judge and it works very well. Everyone complains about people with disabilities without realizing that they can be harmful.
He took everything from me, my father's house and inheritance. When we went before the judge, he pretended to be uncomfortable and unable to breathe. He controls his wheelchair very well, but there he knocked on all the doors. He lied by saying that he earned 850 euros per month, while he earns 2,500. I was in total misunderstanding. It has been going on for eight years. He attacks me several times a year. I prove that he is lying and the judge does not see him. I am at the 23rd hearing for my divorce and 20,000 euros in legal fees.
>> Find Olivier Delacroix's Free Antenna in replay and podcast here
I want fairness and respect. I would like to recover half of the sale of my house and my father's inheritance. He stole money from me. He went from love to hate. It is difficult for me to have loved a man and to hear him today make defamatory remarks about me. My dreams have collapsed. I haven't had any projects for ten years. I live from day to day and it's heavy. I don't have much left and if I lose it, I don't know what will become of me. "