by Ian David Corbert-Walker      © 7 July 2014

The end of my marriage

In 1988 my marriage of seven and a half years came to a shuddering halt. If you had known me then you would have said my family was typical of most Christians. I worked for BT in the Post room. My wife Therese (not her real name) and my two daughters and I attended a lively charismatic community type church where we were fully involved in activities and built up good friendships. We were particularly close to a couple I will call Zac and Anthea, who had a young family like us.

We hadn’t been going to the church for long before we invited Zac, Anthea and their family to tea. Therese was upstairs showing Anthea around whilst Zac and I washed up in the kitchen. To this day I don’t know why I did it but I suddenly blurted out, ‘I am a homosexual. I have homosexual tendencies’. Zac handled this well and said something like, ‘It’s going to be alright’. I don’t remember much more of the conversation, just a feeling of relief that I had finally told someone my deepest, darkest secret. Just days before, I had visited an ‘Adult’ cinema and was feeling really guilty.