[Getty Images Bank]
[Getty Images Bank]

A woman in her 30s who had promised to marry her boyfriend of 10 months says she was blindsided to learn he was already married with a child — and has since found herself cast as the other woman in an affair she never knew she was part of. Making matters worse, the boyfriend reportedly lied about being in the process of getting a divorce after the truth came out.

According to JTBC's "Sageon Banjang," a TV legal affairs program, on Wednesday, the woman, identified only as A, was in her late 30s when she and her boyfriend began talking about marriage and making plans to have children not long after they started dating. Given their ages, the conversation turned to marriage early on. The boyfriend freely mingled with A's family and relatives and even attended a friend's wedding with her, and the two effectively lived as an engaged couple.

He also remembered A's parents' birthdays and personally brought flowers on Parents' Day.

A's mother was so taken with him that she said "you don't find people like this anymore," and A herself became convinced he was the man she wanted to marry.

Yet the boyfriend kept putting off introducing A to his own parents, repeatedly delaying the meeting.

Then one day he suddenly said he was ill and went silent. After several days without contact, A went to his apartment herself.

His vehicle was in the parking lot, and the last digits of a phone number on a car parked right beside it matched his mobile number.

Something felt off, so A looked inside the car and found a child's car seat. Inside the vehicle was a family photo showing the boyfriend, a woman and a child together — a discovery that left her shaken.

"I saw the car and there was a car seat," A said. "I was so scared I just went home. I knew I had to accept the reality that he had deceived me, but even then I wanted to believe it wasn't true."

A few days later, A confronted him in person, and he ultimately acknowledged that he was married and had a child. He got down on his knees and broke into tears.

"I had been preparing for a divorce all along," he told her. "If that weren't the case, how could I have gone around with you and even greeted your parents? I'll be divorced soon — please wait just a little longer."

However, when A informed the boyfriend's wife of the situation, she learned that the claim about preparing for a divorce was a lie. The wife was also deeply shaken by the revelation.

A said she had dreamed of marriage with no idea her boyfriend was a married man, and that being cast as the home-wrecker — the other woman who destroyed someone else's family — was causing her great anguish.

Attorney Son Su-ho explained that fraud is a property crime, and simply lying about being single is not enough on its own to constitute fraud. "However, if someone deceived another person into believing they were single in order to obtain financial gain or property, fraud charges could potentially apply," he said.

He added that if someone caused psychological harm by concealing their marital status while in a relationship, the victim may be able to seek damages through a civil claim for unlawful conduct.

Son also advised that if A faces a future lawsuit from the boyfriend's wife for being the other party in the affair, "it is important to secure evidence proving that she was unaware of her boyfriend's marital status."

Attorney Park Ji-hoon said A should make sure to preserve text messages and conversation records between the two that show she had no choice but to believe he was single. "Even if an affair lawsuit is filed, that evidence can be used as a defense," he said.


yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com