Cheating author spun a web of lies, says ex-wife
The novel that catapulted Dan Brown to stardom was a tale of deceit and intrigue with a secret relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene at its heart. Now a court has been told by Brown’s former wife that he led his own ‘‘life of lies’’, siphoning money from their joint accounts to buy presents for a Dutch horse trainer who was one of his four lovers.
In a lawsuit filed in
New Hampshire, Blythe Brown says that the author of The Da Vinci Code engaged in ‘‘unlawful and egregious conduct’’ during their marriage and ‘‘secretly siphoned’’ off some of their money ‘‘to conduct sordid, extramarital affairs’’.
The couple married in 1997 and divorced last December. Blythe Brown, a painter and art historian who is 12 years older than her former husband, is suing him for misrepresenting their shared wealth in a sworn financial affidavit that formed part of their divorce agreement and for intentionally and negligently inflicting emotional distress. Before their separation, Forbes put his annual earnings at US$20 million; his net worth has been estimated at more than US$150m.
In 2013, Blythe Brown brought the trainer, identified in the lawsuit only as J P, to the US to train one of the couple’s horses. She alleges that Dan Brown began an affair with J P in 2014, then secretly bought her a horse, a new car and a horse transport truck, and paid to renovate her flat in the Netherlands.
Blythe Brown claims that when she confronted her exhusband this January, he admitted also having an affair with a hairdresser. She says she then found out that he had conducted further affairs with a ‘‘political official’’ and his personal trainer.
Dan Brown has denied the allegations. – The Times