Today’s story is way more than “husband catches wife cheating”. Renowned poet Molly Brodak's clandestine life as a serial cheater was unveiled by her grief-stricken husband while assembling photos for her funeral, he disclosed. Brodak, a famous writer and contestant on The Great American Baking Show, killed herself in March 2020 after struggling with a brain tumor and recurring mental health issues. She was 39 years old.
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Her devastated widower, thriller writer Blake Butler, aged 44, penned a cathartic memoir titled 'Molly,' born out of the aftermath of his profound loss. In this raw account, he revealed the shocking revelation of her infidelity, discovered as he sifted through her phone for images to feature in a tribute slideshow.
The phone contained explicit photos of Brodak in lingerie with intimate accessories, accompanied by evidence of an affair with a student merely five days post their marriage. Butler found it hard to accept the truth, even though there was a lot of evidence to support it. He just couldn't get away from the painful truth.
Butler uncovered a trail of infidelity extending beyond digital images, stumbling upon receipts for clandestine trips, intensifying the agony mere days after Molly's tragic suicide.
In the aftermath of Brodak's suicide, Butler, in an interview with DailyMail.com, described how the memoir was a manifestation of his intense anger. Early versions of the book served as a personal "brain dump," with Butler acrimoniously acknowledging Molly's justification for infidelity, attributing it to past transgressions.
Despite Brodak's public success as a poet and writer, her private struggles were laid bare. Butler gave moving glimpses of her last days, when she struggled with self-doubt even though she seemed to have everything together.
The morning of March 8, 2020, became a watershed moment as Butler jogged through his routine, unaware that Molly had left a suicide note in their front door. Butler went on a mad search after reading the note, which explained her plan to leave the world and gave details about where she was going.
Butler tells the graphic details of the most important events leading up to Molly's death in clear, honest writing. He talks about how the extremes of the story reflect the extremes of the situation.
The memoir doesn't hide the harsh truth about how hard it was for Butler to stay afloat after the event. Writing was his way of dealing with his bad mental state, and this piece shows how terrible it was.
At first, Butler wrote to relieve stress, but as the project grew, he realized it could have a bigger purpose: to help people who could relate to his journey. When he talks to people who are going through similar things, he starts by recognizing how confusing tragedy and trauma can be and stressing how healing takes time.
Butler talked about times when Molly's expressions showed that she was having inner struggles as she thought about how dark she was. Their relationship was shaped by the morbid humor and closeness they felt over the world's darker sides. Molly had a lot of professional success, but her suicide note showed that she felt deeply inadequate and had unfulfilled hopes.
Butler did something that had never been done before: he published Molly's last diary entries to show the silent battles she fought behind the scenes of their seemingly normal life. The excerpts paint a moving picture of her last moments and show how unrealistic appearances can be.
"Took a bath, said goodbye to my body. We ate grilled halloumi and made love after dinner and watched our favorite things on TV," the excerpt read. "Feel like I can see everything with such clarity this morning. I've been pretending my entire life."
"Molly Brodak's experience teaches us that relationships can be super tricky, and cheating often happens because of bigger issues. We shouldn't just blame the cheater; we should try to figure out how they feel and what's going on in the relationship. In Molly's situation, her cheating might have been because she was dealing with tough stuff inside herself and things that weren't settled between her and her partner," notes Wilda Harrison, a relationship psychologist.
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