A woman answered a collect call from her local county jail, never expecting it would unravel her marriage. What began as shock quickly turned into the discovery of a web of lies that ultimately reduced her relationship to a “co-parenting” arrangement. As Renee (@reneewey) shared, “I legitimately wish I could say that this was not a factual story, but it was.”
Renee first spoke publicly about the experience, which happened in 2021, in a video that has since surpassed 64,000 views. At the time, she was married with two children and felt hesitant to share anything negative about her partner. Eventually, she decided she was ready to tell the story of her cheating husband.
Renee gets a call from the county jail
Renee explained that her husband, a veteran, regularly went out drinking at the local American Legion. Staying out until “3 or 4 a.m.” had become routine for him over “years and years.”
What Renee didn’t know was that those late nights hid something more. One night, her phone rang twice early in the morning. She ignored the first call because she needed rest to care for her children. When it rang again, she answered.
The voice on the line told her the call was from the county jail. An inmate wanted to speak with her—her husband. Stunned, Renee accepted the call and immediately noticed his slurred speech.
“I accept it, and he’s on the other line. He is so belligerently drunk that he’s not making any sense,” Renee said. “I can’t even piece together what’s happening. He’s like, ‘You just need to get down to the jail and get me, like, you just need to figure it out.’”
Renee heads to the police station
Disoriented, Renee called her best friend so someone could stay with her children. She then drove to the jail, signed paperwork making her responsible for her husband for the next 24 to 48 hours, and waited nearly two hours for his release.
When he finally came out, he was still heavily intoxicated and incoherent. Realizing she wouldn’t get answers that night, Renee took him home and let him sleep.
The next morning, they talk
Once sober, Renee’s husband told her what he claimed had happened. He said a group of men in a Dodge Hellcat ambushed him and tried to steal his car. According to his story, he pulled out a gun to defend himself. They fired shots at him, and he fired back. He then called police to report his car stolen.
Officers arrived and arrested him instead after determining he was extremely drunk and openly carrying a weapon in a public place.
Renee said her husband was convinced he had done nothing wrong. He even talked about suing the police department. To support his case, he returned to the American Legion to obtain security footage and later showed it to Renee.
That’s when she noticed something troubling.
Renee spots another woman in his car
In the footage, Renee saw a woman she recognized—Meghan—sitting in the back of her husband’s car around 2 a.m. He appeared to have forgotten she was there.
Renee asked him directly, “Why is Meghan in your car?”
Her husband reacted angrily and accused her of focusing on the wrong issue.
“He like started to blame me. He was like, ‘So I like get into this whole altercation and it was super dangerous and there was weapons fired and you’re just concerned about some girl in my car,’” Renee recalled.
He claimed he was simply “showing her his wheels” because Meghan liked cars. Still, Renee felt unsettled. Over the following weeks, her husband became distant. He slept downstairs while Renee stayed upstairs, and the emotional gap grew.
Months later, he got a new phone and left the old one on the counter. When it buzzed, Renee picked it up.
Renee uncovers the truth
Scrolling through the messages, Renee found proof of multiple affairs. One woman messaged about struggling to separate the “physical from the emotional.”
“There was my confirmation that like they had been doing stuff, and then there was also some other girl, and that he had been going over to her house, but lying about it, saying that he was going to the Legion,” Renee said.
She later realized there had been several women over time. Despite the evidence, leaving wasn’t simple. Her husband had placed all major assets in his own name and repeatedly told her that everything belonged to him.
Being part of a military family also left Renee isolated, with little support nearby. That isolation, combined with his control, kept her trapped longer than she wanted.
Some viewers asked why she didn’t report him to his commanding officer. Renee explained that the military often shows little concern for marital issues.
A marriage reduced to co-parenting
Eventually, Renee and her husband stayed together under the same roof only to co-parent. He continued his affairs, while she focused on their children.
After leaving the military, his drinking worsened. One night, Renee woke up to a blaring fire alarm and smoke filling the house.
“I jump out of bed, I run over, I grab my kids, [and] I head downstairs,” Renee said. “We see that my husband is like passed out in his gaming chair and there’s smoke that’s filled our entire downstairs.”
He had fallen asleep drunk while something burned on the stove. Though everyone was safe, the incident terrified Renee. Her husband apologized, appearing remorseful.
The following weekend, it happened again.
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