Wife Leaves for "Brain Tumor" Treatment and Gets a Second Opinion (a.k.a. Husband)

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 17 March 2021)

                        Truly, a bizarro relationship.

H.Ç. (47), who works at a textile workshop in Istanbul, married N.Ç (40)

in 1998.  The couple have three children.  In 2014, N.Ç. told her husband

that she had a brain tumor and was going to Tekirdağ for treatment, 

taking her young daughter with her.  H.Ç. and the other two children told

N.Ç. that they wanted to accompany her, but every time she demurred,

telling them "I don't want you to see me in this condition."

N.Ç. sent them photos ostensibly from a hospital and H.Ç. regularly sent

money to his wife for her expenses.  Every few months when N.Ç. came

to the house, H.Ç. handed her some more money,  But their oldest son R.Ç.

noticed that N.Ç. was withdrawing the money from a bank in the Etiler

section of Istanbul, rather than one in Tekirdağ.  

R.Ç. persuaded his mother to talk to him about this oddity so she 

summoned him to a house in Istanbul, where R.Ç. saw that his mother

was living with a man as a married couple, together with the man's

elderly parents. (!)

At a hearing for the divorce, which H.Ç. has filed for, R.Ç. testified 

that "my mother would send us cropped photos and prevent us from 

coming to visit her. Nevertheless, I couldn't find fault with her.  But

when I looked at the internet banking ledger,  I saw that she was 

withdrawing the money my father sent her from Etiler, rather than

from Tekirdağ.  I called her and she summoned me to the house in

Istanbul.  When I went there my little sister was there, along with

an elderly couple.  Then a man came and I asked him he was. He

told me 'I've been her husband for five years.'  He knew that my

mother was involved in a divorce with my father.  My little sister 

calls the man 'daddy''" (!)

When H.Ç. learned that his wife's "brain tumor" pretext was a lie

he filed for divorce.  He has asked the court to make her return

400,000 TL (about $60,000) he had sent her for "treatment" (!)

and another 250,000 TL for psychological compensation.  

As for R.Ç., she told the court that H.Ç. had become distant from

her after their daughter was born and became obsessed with his

computer till the early hours of the morning.  She added that

"when I told him I wanted a divorce he threatened to kill me. I went

to work as a live-in caretaker, thinking that he would miss me. I

want custody of the children and 400,000 TL in compensation."