Scorned wife advertises husband's infidelity on £2,500 billboard

The Daily Mail ^ | December 9, 2006 | ANDY DOLAN

[MadIvan]

The best billboard advertisements are always bold, well executed, and to the point, and this was no different.

Except it wasn't a new perfume or car that was being advertised, but a husband's infidelity and the subsequent breakdown of his marriage.

When a scorned wife discovered her husband was having an affair with her best friend, she decided the £2,500 advert was the perfect way to shame them.

Addressed to her love-cheat husband "Mark", and her best friend "Shelley", the message reads: "You are the most despicable, deceitful people I have ever met.

"I know what you did and I'm disgusted.

"I've changed the locks Mark, burnt your clothes and emptied OUR joint account - to pay for this poster.

"You deserve each other."

Within hours of the billboard appearing in Birmingham city centre yesterday the mother-of-two, who called herself Jane Doe - the American name for missing women - was being inundated with messages of support on her profile on the MySpace.com website.

But last night it emerged "Jane" took out the billboard advert after first contacting Birmingham radio station BRMB - prompting suggestions - denied by the station - that the message was part of a stunt to generate publicity.

The cheated wife, who is aged 37 and from Birmingham, did not respond to emails from the Daily Mail yesterday.

But her message on the website to readers makes her pain all too clear.

The message begins: "If you are reading this, I guess you are wondering what this is all about.

"Is it a joke or is it some kind of cryptic advertisement or something? I'm sad to say it's not.

"It's none of the above. It's just my way of getting my own back at the B*stard who I have devoted most of my adult life to, only to find out he is a piece of lying cheating scum!"

The woman goes on to detail how her husband made her feel like a "little paranoid woman" after she confronted him with her suspicions raised by his "new clothes, new habits, trips away". When Jane confided in her best friend, known only as Michelle - Shelley was the pet name the woman's husband gave her - the mistress offered her words of "advice" and "help".

In words addressed to the cheating pair, Jane continued: "You deserve each other.. and despite the fact you have betrayed me and ripped away everything that is precious to me, I know that I AM THE ONE THAT IS BETTER OFF!!"

The marital strife first came to light in September when Jane emailed Birmingham radio DJ Caroline Martin, who fills the breakfast slot on commercial station BRMB.

Miss Martin read out the email, which detailed Jane's suspicions over her husband's behaviour, on air.

Further emails followed - leaving listeners hooked on Jane's plight - until the scorned wife finally uncovered proof of her husband's infidelity and decided to shame them on the billboard.

Yesterday, Miss Martin said: "Jane noticed her husband had started to wear aftershave and she found a packet of boxer shorts hidden in his wardrobe - he didn't used to wear either.

"There was a number on his mobile phone bill which he had dialled repeatedly, but when she called it from home it always went straight to voicemail.

"When she confronted him about her suspicions he denied it outright, but then when he was out of the room his phone rang and the name 'Shelley' flashed on screen.

"She went back to the phone bill and, as a last resort, punched the number into her own mobile phone. The name "Michelle" flashed up on her screen - that was when she finally had her proof."

The station was responsible for the ill-fated Two Strangers And A Wedding competition earlier this year where two listeners married on the day they met after winning a BRMB-organised competition.

Craig Cooper and Becky Duffy split three months later.

It followed a similar stunt organised by the station in 1999 which also led to the couple splitting within months.

Phil Barton-Ancliffe, the station's marketing controller, said: "This is a genuine listener. She is from Birmingham but does not want to be identified.

"We understand she had already confronted her husband and friend with the evidence of their affair before the billboard went up."

[MadIvan]

The billboard in question:

Hell hath no fury indeed.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Ping!

[goldstategop]

I think its cool. As for the adultery aspect, those who break their vows deserve a miserable existence.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

[dirtbiker]

As for the adultery aspect, those who break their vows deserve a miserable existence.

And they usually do..(Just ask my ex-wife...)

[ThreePuttinDude]

I wouldn't be surprised if she was a "redhead"

They've got spunk....and I love them

[SantosLHalper]

I think its cool. As for the adultery aspect, those who break their vows deserve a miserable existence.

Thank you! My "Wife" and I have been together for seventeen years and have never had affairs outside our relationship.

If you make a promise, keep it, is the moral of this story.

[MadIvan]

It's unclear what her hair colour is - her website is as follows:

www.myspace.com/janesrevenge

I suspect she would appreciate messages of support from America.

Regards, Ivan

[Quix]

ouch!

Sounds a bit fitting, though.

[Grampa Dave]

Excellent use of her money.

If she had posted pictures of the two love birds, it would have been even better.

[GVnana]

BWAHAHA! I Love it! At least she has the good sense to name people for what they really are!

[jjm2111]

Good for her.

[Victoria Delsoul]

There's something terribly wrong when people have the need to air their dirty laundry in public.

It is also funny when the same people also say.... it's their life, their privacy, their affairs, and no one else business.

Why do people feel the need to publicize their love affair, betrayals, divorces, and their miseries? I just don't know - perhaps they are in need of some words of comfort from people they don't even know.

Maybe someone should invite this woman to FR, so she can post a vanity thread and tell us about the dissolution of her relationship and the adultery. I bet she will get lots of replies. :-)

She has already emptied their joint bank account and burnt his clothes, but that's still not enough for her. She needed to advertise her husband's infidelity and her friend's betrayal. This is the new tarred and feathered of the 21 century, but I never care much for tarring and feathering people.... with some exceptions of course, especially if it was a public figure who did grave things.

There are things best kept private. Hire a lawyer and take him to the cleaners, but this modern tarring and feathering is too uncivilized for my taste.

[HitmanLV]

I agree. The thing is that invariably with these types of stories it's easy to take the side of the spurned party, since all else being equal they seem to deserve the sympathy.

Things are seldom so straightforward. Almost every person I knew who has been cheated on in a marriage was either a neglectful or otherwise poor spouse themselves. That's not to say that they deserved being betrayed, but it is to say that they appeared to take the 'for better or worse' vow as a license to drift to the 'worst.'

In any event, i don't care for these types of antics either. Nobody is a saint, and it's entirely possible that hubby (if he could still afford it) could fill a billboard with info about his wife, too.

Seems to me neither billboard is good, nor productive.

[bvw]

Yes, you are right.

99.97% of the time in cases like this, best that dirty laundry not be forced upon the innocent public.

Yet, "Hooray!" for the billboard, and the publicity-- may the public lesson preserve a thousand marriages by it's being made.

And just how "innocent" is the public? It is more like public lessons like this are needed, when "Desperate Housewices" is a ratings winner.

[HitmanLV]

If you make a promise, keep it, is the moral of this story.

The problem with these types of stories is that the the cheated upon party tends to instinctively get too much credit. Truth be told, we don't know how well the snubbed wife kept promises, or whether she was otherwise a good spouse herself.

Usually (but not always) both parties share some responsibility in situations like this. That's not to say blame. But responsibility.

[bvw]

(Following on my last reply, above in thread.)

Or when tourist marketing campaigns use morals-challenging slogans such as "What happens here, stays here!", eh, Mr. ChopJobLV?

[Petronski]

Imagine this!


LOL

[HitmanLV]

I call em like i see them. Marketing slogans aside, all we know in this case is that the guy cheated on his wife with her best friend.

On it's face, it's deplorable. That's not to say she was a good wife (or a good friend, for that matter). If she was a sucky spouse, I don't blame him for looking for affection elsewhere. What's the alternative - continually enabling a poor spouse and living a terrible life, or ditching a dead-end person in a dead-end relationship?

We don't know the details here. On its face, he is a sucky husband and she is a sucky friend. But there is more to this than what's on the face - there always is.

[bvw]

Hmmm, because of my eariler wilder life I can say with the confidence of real-world experince to your "there always is more there", that: "No, there isn't. Lust and back-stabbing infidelity are very simple things. Just that."

[HitmanLV]

While I agree that lust and back-stabbing infidelity are simple things, that's not to say that there isn't more there. They aren't mutually exclusive. Nor do I advocate that behavior.

It's just that more often than not, things are not as straightforward as an cheated-upon spouse describes.