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Insight: Mar 27

SBS hears from 5 women speaking about discovering their partners’ other lives, and how they dealt with deception.

This week Insight hears from 5 women speaking about discovering their partners’ other lives, and how they dealt with deception.

Rochelle Rees was young when she got into political activism and met Rob Gilchrist, an older activist. They were friends and eventually started a relationship.

Rob seemed committed to many causes – from animal rights, to peace, to the environment – and was well-respected among activist communities.

So when Rochelle stumbled across information that suggested her partner was spying on her, and others, for the New Zealand Police, she was shocked.

But rather than confront him, the computer programmer put her emotions aside and used her IT skills to beat him at his own game.

Rachel Carling-Jenkins is a state MP in Victoria with Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives. One day she excused herself from Parliament to go home and search her husband’s computer while he was at work.

He had been acting odd, but Rachel was in no way prepared for what she and her teenage son found. The images and videos of child abuse remain imprinted on her mind more than two years on.

“I went into hysterics to be honest”, she tells Insight host Jenny Brockie. “I did not understand – this did not gel with the man I had married. This was just beyond my comprehension, beyond anything I had ever anticipated viewing.”

Almost as shocking for Rachel have been the reactions of some of her husband’s family and friends after she reported his online activity to police and cut all contact with him.

Tuesday 27 March at 8.30pm on SBS.

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