I HAD the best husband and the best marriage – or so I thought.
Married to actor Eddie Cibrian, 48 — and with great kids, Mason, 18, and Jake, 14 — I didn’t have any stress.
Eddie and I got along great and had the best sex life. I was madly in love and felt like I had the perfect life.
But like Martha Hancock, I discovered my husband was cheating when he was caught on camera kissing the new woman in his life.
There had been warning signs, though. I’m a very jealous Scorpio and there were times I couldn’t contact Eddie and he’d claim his phone had died again.
I’d sometimes visit him on set and notice chemistry with certain co-stars. I’d ask him if something had gone down, but he’d tell me I was crazy.
He’d say I was jealous and that he loved me. Then I’d think it was my fault, that I really was being crazy. But in my gut I knew I was probably right.
Eddie and I were together for 13 years and married for eight. We always promised each other that we would never get a divorce and that we’d love each other when we were old.
But then he shot a movie with country singer LeAnn Rimes, 38, in 2008. I visited the set — and it was not a fun visit.
I could tell they were attracted to each other, though her husband was right there and I was right there too.
Then one day, I ran to the grocery store and pictures of Eddie and LeAnn making out in a restaurant were plastered across magazine Us Weekly.
I went online on my phone — and it was everywhere.
There was video footage of them kissing over the table. It was devastating. I went straight home, passed out in my closet, cried and cried.
He tried to convince me it wasn’t real but I knew it was over.
They were sucking on each other’s fingers in the footage yet he was telling me nothing was happening. It was insane.
I asked him if he loved LeAnn. He said he didn’t — he wanted to be with me for ever and for us to go for counselling.
Weeks later, I turned on the TV and there was this woman being interviewed on Access Hollywood saying Eddie had cheated on HER with LeAnn.
That was Scheana Marie, 36, a local waitress who ended up on the reality show Vanderpump Rules. So he had been cheating on me with a second woman.
Then I went crazy. I was f***ing done. Eddie told me he had stopped seeing LeAnn but I knew he was lying.
All the magazines started calling me, telling me he had been seen on a motorcycle with her.
He had still been seeing her behind my back for the few months we’d been in counselling together.
I was broken. If I didn’t have to take care of my kids, I probably wouldn’t be here now.
It was so public. Everyone felt sorry for me and wanted to hug me. But I wanted to punch everyone in the face.
I couldn’t turn on the TV without seeing something about them. LeAnn had taken over my life and I didn’t have a voice any more.
I did not want my kids around her. She’d got my husband and she was NOT getting my children.
One time, before they were married, I walked up to a soccer game and Jake, who was two, was sitting in her lap.
I had this rage in my body. I really wanted to kill her.
I walked over to her, grabbed Jake and I looked at her and said: “I will f***ing murder you.”
I didn’t cope well. I was angry, I was drinking — chardonnay was my crutch. I was so mad at Eddie for blowing up our life together.
One time I even recorded him saying how he loved me and that he didn’t love LeAnn — and I sent it to her.
I wanted her to know what he was saying. I was out for revenge.
But all the energy I was putting into revenge was eating away at me. I couldn’t move on.
So I started dating immediately and it really helped me to become my own person. I realised I didn’t know myself when I was married. I hooked up with the British actor Gerard Butler.
He was really nice but very paranoid about paparazzi. It was brief but he was a nice guy.
He really hurt my feelings years later when he found out I was on reality TV and said that he never would have done it if he’d known who I was. That was horrible.
It’s actually nice Matt Hancock told Martha about him cheating before the story came out in The Sun.
Eddie knew about the story coming out in Us Weekly but he didn’t tell me.
These days, I love LeAnn, who married Eddie in 2011. She’s great and we all hang out together. I’ve forgiven her.
We’re going to be around each other for ever because of the kids, so why not make the best of it?
Eddie and I still squabble, but it’s like the three of us are doing the parenting — it’s nice to have a third person and she’s usually on my side.
But I will always have trust issues because of what happened.
I haven’t seen my Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills co-star Denise Richards since I revealed we had hooked up.
She has always denied anything happened between us and people still ask me if I’m mad about that. But I’m really not.
It was a knee-jerk reaction where she was protecting herself.
BRANDI has these tips for Martha Hancock as she bids to moves on:
KEEP YOUR HEAD UP. Make sure your make-up is on and you look good. This is your second chapter. You never get over it – you get through it.
IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU. I questioned what was wrong with me. But it’s not about you, it’s about the cheater.
GET BACK OUT THERE. When you are ready, get dating. Life is short and you have to live it.
STAY CALM. Don’t make drastic changes, such as getting a new haircut, to feel different. You are not in your right mind at the moment and will come to regret it.
KEEP A LID ON IT. Never speak badly about your ex in front of your children. Whenever I cried, I would wear sunglasses and tell the kids I had allergies.
MAINTAIN A TIGHT CIRCLE. Stick with the people you trust and be wary of anyone who might want to bring you down.
I feel bad for the way it all went down. I wish we could just sit and talk privately.
I don’t like cheaters and in this instance I felt like I was on the other side of things and that I was a cheater, because Denise has a husband, Aaron Phypers.
Not telling anyone was eating me alive, so I just had to get it out so I could breathe. Now I’m over it and people need to get over it too.
