Pastor leaves wife for church sister

The wife of a clergyman from eastern Jamaica is warning women to be careful of the friends they keep, after a 'friend' who helped her through heartbreak, stole her husband.

The woman told THE WEEKEND STAR that in 2018, her husband, who has been a pastor for more than 20 years, started a four-year affair with a church sister.

"It was so hurtful because we have been married for almost 30 years and he did not care about how I felt. He didn't care that he was embarrassing me, and he stood by while that woman taunted me and disrespected me," said the woman. She said that she was on the brink of giving up on the union, but made a friend at another church who encouraged her to "fight for the marriage".

"I remember how she would sit down and counsel me and tell me 'Don't give up. I've been through it', and to be honest, she was one of the main reasons why I stayed," the woman explained. Rather than get a divorce, she followed her new friend's advice and the couple got counselling to help repair their marriage. As time passed, the marriage started to heal. She then introduced her friend to her husband and all three became friends - the friend even joining the husband's church. For a while, all was well.

However, while on a one-month vacation to Canada, she began receiving unsettling calls from members of her congregation who said that her friend and husband were becoming inappropriately close.

"A part of me didn't believe them because I was saying she was there for me when he was having the first affair and she saw how hurt I was, so she wouldn't do that to me," the woman said. However, when she returned to Jamaica and saw the interactions for herself, she decided to do further investigations.

"When I got back I checked his phone and I found messages of him telling her how much she was going to be his next wife and how he was going to take care of her, and I even found sexual messages," the woman said. Already devastated, nothing could have prepared her for the heartache to come.

"I found out that he moved her into another property that was willed to him, because I had an aunt who came from overseas who loves fruits. So when she reach [here], I took her there to get some because the yard has a lot of fruit trees. But when mi reach, my key wasn't working, so I thought something was wrong with the lock. Anyways mi jump the wall and when mi reach the house, mi see her (the friend) and she run and hide," the woman explained.

She later confronted her husband, who told her that he not only wanted to be with her friend, but had decided to resign from his pastoral position, sell two of the couple's cars, and move into the house with his mistress.

"After everything that has happened, I know my marriage cannot be saved. But what I want is for other women out there to be careful. Be careful of who you introduce to your husband. Even if he's a good man, things can happen and he can be deceived, and there are women who will throw themselves at your husband," the woman explained.

She also told THE WEEKEND STAR that her husband's mistress has filled a protection order against her out of spite.

"I have never done this woman anything, me and her never have an argument. The only time mi even say anything to her was when we were in the town and she show mi middle finger, and mi seh to her 'Look at you, who tek mi husband. Let's see how long it is going to last,'" the woman explained.

She said that her focus now is on doing God's work and being the best mother to her children.