Life

Wife Finds Her Husband's Second Family on Facebook

by Sara Levine

Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge, how it clogged up our news feeds for months, and everybody and their dog was doing it? Well it turns out the Ice Bucket Challenge was worse than mildly annoying for one man, Andrew O'Clee, whose wife discovered on Facebook that her husband had a second family when he was tagged in an Ice Bucket Challenge video. Face palm.

Here's what went down, according to the Daily Mail: in 2008, Andrew O'Clee married his first wife, Michelle Agbulos. Around 2011 the couple started trying to have a baby, which is also the same time O'Clee started an affair with the woman who would become his second wife, Philippa Campbell. Apparently sneaking around at night and pretending to work late wasn't good enough for this cheater, and neither was having a wife and a mistress. No, he had to have two wives. I feel like if I was a stand up comedian I'd make some sort of joke like, "What sort of sick individual would do this...sign himself up for two women nagging him to take out the trash, when he could have just one?" And that, friends, is why I'm not a comedian. Only in my mind.

But so anyway, O'Clee really wanted to have his cake and eat it, too. So to cover up the fact that he was leading a double life, he came up with the brilliant idea to tell his first wife, Michelle, that he was involved in a fraud case and was placed in the Witness Protection Program.

In order to be able to marry Campbell, O'Clee forged a document claiming his first wife had cheated on him so that his church would recognize the divorce. Then he married Campbell and his family even attended the wedding, which took place in 2013, having no clue the shadiest of things was going on! Like, what? I know I'm gullible, but I would like to at least think that I would ask some questions, or maybe Google my future husband? Just a thought.

So every time O'Clee went to see his second wife, he told his first wife that he was being taken to a safe house and nobody could ever know its location. Makes total sense, because if your life was really in danger I'm sure the Marshal service (or whoever handles those cases in the UK) would totally shuttle a victim back and forth from his real home to a safe house, leading the criminals who're after him right up to his own doorstep. Yep, that is totally a thing that really happens in real life I am sure. Not to mention, in what world would they put somebody in Witness Protection and leave his family vulnerable? Okay, clearly I'm thinking way too far into this, but come on. If this isn't proof that everybody needs to watch more Law & Order, I don't know what is.

And just when you thought this story couldn't get any more convoluted, just you wait. See, in 2014 Michelle Agbulos gave birth to his first child. O'Clee was late to the birth of his daughter, cut the umbilical cord, and jetted right after to spend time with Campbell. I think we may have found our candidate for the Jerk of the Year Award.

I would give props to O'Clee--his commitment to this con is really something--except for the fact that what he did was not only illegal, but incredibly messed up, and maybe if he was as committed to his marriage as he was to his double-life, I bet none of this would have happened.

The good news is, after Agbulos saw a video of her husband doing the Ice Bucket Challenge on Facebook, she did a little creeping and found pictures of his second wedding, which she turned into authorities. O'Clee was arrested in 2014 and will serve time. And Campbell is vowing to stay with her husband, so this crazy story has a happy ending, sort of?

Images: Giphy (3)