Based on the podcast "Betrayal," hosted by Andrea Gunning, "Betrayal: Dirty Secrets" brings to light the story of Karoline Borega, whose life was turned upside down when her then-husband, Joel Kern's, years of alleged misconduct as a police officer and his secret sexual life were revealed.
On The Red Carpet had the chance to speak with Borega and Gunning about the story.
"It was like a bomb had just detonated in front of me," Borega explains of the moment her then-husband revealed "just a slice, just a snippet of his actions that had caused what had turned into this storm that would destroy our family."
A betrayal is one thing, but the added layer of Kern's profession brought a whole new level of dishonesty.
"It is the bedrock of, you know- The oath that these police officers take is to be honest and truthful, because they can take people's basic liberties away," Gunning explains.
After Kern's alleged misconduct at work and years of infidelity had been brought to light, Borega explained a time where their daughter Nicole was hospitalized with sepsis. Assuming her husband was "working some really crazy hours," Borega spent days with her daughter at the hospital. Eventually, Borega requested that Kern come by so she could "grab a shower, get a change of clothes." A photo of the three of them is shared in the series.
"This picture is time stamped, and that same day, I have time stamps of him exchanging messages with someone where he made arrangements to meet them. He was doing things that were dishonest and deceitful to our family and to our marriage while we were there," says Borega. "This picture infuriates me now."
Borega shares that reclaiming her story has been healing for her.
"There had been so many lies and narratives created where the finger was pointed at me like, 'Oh, Joel had to go do this because Karoline X, Y, and Z.' There was no ownership of what he had been doing as a professional, as a colleague and as a friend to others. People really had a lot of blind trust in his word," shares Borega. "Something that a lot of people don't know or understand about the podcast and the subsequent docuseries, is that anything I say has to be vetted. It's fact checked. It's corroborated by multiple sources or people and ran through legal. So, it was so incredibly vindicating and validating to be able to have the truth out there."
With the success of the "Betrayal" podcast, docuseries and weekly primetime series "Betrayal: Secrets and Lies," Gunning knows what people are looking for, saying, "I always say people come for the intrigue of what the lie and the deception is, but they stay for the healing and the resilience. They stay for that."
"Betrayal: Dirty Secrets" is streaming now on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
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