By her own admission, Michelle O’Clee’s story of heartbreak and deception reads like the plot of a best-selling novel.
A devoted wife, she was cruelly duped by her bigamist husband – who explained away his long absences with a web of lies involving secret safe houses, witness protection, police escorts and serious fraud.
It was not until pictures of him doing the ice bucket challenge with his new bride were spotted on Facebook that the awful truth emerged.
Now, Michelle, 39, has spoken of her shock and anguish at discovering that her husband of six years had been leading a double life.
‘In my head it was like dominoes – flashbacks of everything and it all made sense,’ she said.
'I went into survival mode. I didn’t know how he was going to act and I thought, “I don’t even know this man”.’
Far from being the loyal husband she believed him to be, Andrew O’Clee, 36, had secretly moved in with finance manager Philippa Campbell, who lived 40 miles away.
He went on to marry her in a lavish wedding while Michelle was pregnant with their first child.
The bigamist told his first wife he had to leave their home because he was on a witness protection scheme – and even left mid-way through the birth after claiming that police were waiting for him outside.
Last week the ex-soldier was jailed for eight months after admitting bigamy.
It later emerged he may even have been searching for wife number three after a profile with his name, age, height and location was spotted on a dating website.
Michelle told the Sun on Sunday: ‘They were extraordinary lies. It’s like something from a John Grisham book.
‘This was a man I loved and trusted for 14 years. I’d thought he was the perfect husband.’
Michelle met O’Clee in 2000 when they were both working at a branch of River Island. They got engaged a year later.
Years after, he would present Miss Campbell with an engagement ring identical to the one he gave Michelle.
‘I thought he was a nice, polite, well-mannered guy,’ Michelle said.
‘We were attracted from the start and he was quite flirtatious. Our first date was on Christmas Eve and he proposed a year later.
The ring was exactly the same as Philippa’s, platinum with a princess cut diamond and diamonds on each side. He asked me at the same spot where we’d first kissed.’
After years of saving, the couple spent £30,000 on their dream wedding in 2008, including a lavish reception at the Great Conservatory at Syon Park in West London.
But starting a family proved a struggle. Michelle finally discovered she was pregnant in June 2013.
‘It was that year he told me about the witness protection programme and he had to move out,’ she said.
O’Clee, who worked for business services provider ISS, claimed he was involved in a fraud trial, which meant he had to leave their rented flat in West London to be placed in a ‘safe house’. In reality, he had moved in with Miss Campbell, 40 miles away.
The pair married in August the same year at St John the Baptist church in Kirdford, West Sussex. Miss Campbell, 30, who did not know he was already married, is standing by him.
O’Clee forged a decree nisi and told friends and family he had divorced Michelle because she had cheated on him. He even abandoned her while she was giving birth to their daughter, Amelia.
‘At the peak of my labour I was holding on to the bed, and he said “I have to go because the police are waiting for me”,’ Michelle added. ‘I said, “Can you not tell them you’re having a baby? You can’t leave me”.
But he did. He joked and said, “Hold it in until I get back”.’ Soon afterwards Michelle began to grow suspicious. Her sister Jasmine eventually learned the truth while browsing Facebook last year.
She stumbled across the video of the ice bucket challenge – in which people are filmed being drenched in freezing water for charity. It was captioned ‘uncle Andrew’ and ‘auntie Philippa’.
Michelle said: ‘My sister saw it on Andrew’s brother’s Facebook page and thought, “Oooh, who is auntie Philippa?”, then it clicked on to her Facebook page and she saw the profile wedding picture. She told my best friend, who told me Andrew was living a double life. I went into a state of shock.
‘He had isolated and cut me off from everybody. I found out he had told his family we had divorced. I didn’t see his family for a year because he told me he had fallen out with his mother and brother.’
Michelle said she felt ‘stupid’ but had no reason to doubt her husband. ‘He is a liar and I had no idea,’ she added. ‘He was always vague. When I look back, I never asked questions, I just carried on.’
After discovering her husband’s lies, Michelle said she immediately turned for help to her friend, the musician and TV presenter Myleene Klass, whose own marriage to security boss Graham Quinn failed. The pair have been friends for 15 years after they performed together in Miss Saigon in the West End.
‘I knew Myleene would be able to help me,’ Michelle added. ‘Not only is she a strong woman but she has had to deal with difficult issues herself. She’s my rock.’
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