EXCLUSIVE Mother reveals decades-old secret about how she met her late husband during emotional podcast interview with daughter
A mother shared a decades-old secret with her daughter about how she met her late husband on the latest episode of the Mail's The Apple & The Tree podcast.
Lesley Snell, 73, made the revelation during an emotional conversation with her daughter Lisa, 43, while reminiscing about her husband Ken, who died 23 years ago.
The podcast, hosted by the Reverend Richard Coles, brings together parents and their adult children to answer questions about their shared family history.
Asked about her pregnancy with Lisa, Lesley revealed that, before marrying her dad, she had been caught in a love triangle with a much older man.
Lesley explained: 'I first met your dad in 1969, when I joined a theatre company.
'I didn't think he would like me at all – but secretly, he apparently did. He was in the throes of a divorce. I was married to quite an unsuitable person.
'My husband was twice my age – I was 20, he was 42. Anyway, that wasn't working out and I started seeing your dad while I was still married.'
'I knew it! You have never told me that before!' Lisa, now a broadcaster and journalist, said.
Lesley admitted the situation was complicated, with both of them having to navigate leaving their existing marriages.
'It wasn't all roses in the beginning', Lesley remembered.
'He only ever seemed to want to go out with me when he felt like it. But then, one day, he was planning to go on holiday and asked me to look after his cats.
'I had to move in for a couple of weeks to look after them and then, never left. That was in 1977.
'We held our wedding in secret – only the twelve people that were invited knew what we had done.
'It was January, and it had snowed. He'd borrowed a marquee from the theatre group, and we had the wedding party in our back garden.'
Lisa, who works for The Daily Mail, admitted she continues to struggle with her father's absence more than two decades on from his death.
The journalist lost her dad when she was only 20 and expressed sadness that he never got to meet her children, Sonny and Teddy.
'It has been 23 years and it's still hard', Lisa said.
'You two were married for 23 years – which means he's been gone longer than he was here.
'I recently bought my dream home with my partner. It's funny because I got into having these long text chats with dad's best friend, sending him pictures of the house and stuff.
'I think I was doing it because I wanted him to tell me that Dad would've liked it.'
Lisa, who is gay, asked what her father would have made of her sexuality. She had only been in long-term relationships with men before coming out at 30.
Lesley replied: 'He would have just accepted it. Your dad was pretty cool like that. In the theatre business, we had a lot of gay friends – he wouldn't have made anything of it.
'He would have loved your partner, Lynsey. I remember when you told me you were gay - you came in, sat down on the settee and started to cry.
'You told me you were going out with a girl – and I said, as long as you're happy – it doesn't change a thing. I would love you whatever.'
Lisa revealed her own secret on the podcast, joking with her mother about secretly seeing women since she was a teenager.
'I never told you - I used to sneak a girl into your house', she admitted.
To listen to the full interview, where Lisa discusses using IVF to conceive and how mother and daughter parent differently, search for The Apple & The Tree now, wherever you get your podcasts.
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