Fay Weldon's husband writes poetry about break-up, saying he was 'discarded cruelly'
Fay Weldon's husband has penned poetry expressing his hurt at their break-up and says he was "discarded cruelly on a whim".
The 89-year-old author walked out on her third husband, Nick Fox, after 26 years of marriage, accusing him of "coercive control and financial mismanagement".
But on Wednesday night Mr Fox said he was left "stunned, bewildered and sad" by the claims and feels he has been treated "like a dog".
The poet and jazz musician, who managed his wife's affairs, has written a series of poems about the split, saying he loved her for three decades and "Now he's just her cur, To be discarded cruelly on a whim".
The split emerged when Weldon wrote an email to friends and family, apologising for being "out of touch for a long time" and revealing that she had been in hospital for a large part of the last year.
"In the meanwhile, I have left my husband and am divorcing him, complaining of coercive control and financial mismanagement," she wrote.
The "separation poems", published on Mr Fox's blog earlier this month, allude to "Veiled threats and slanders shadowy and mean" and he writes that "they will not let her talk to me", comparing his situation to a "Sicilian vendetta". (One of the poem's, Love's Lesson, can be read below).
The poems say she will not talk to him "from madness or malignity" and suggest that "Your love was fake".
Mr Fox also references his estranged wife's most celebrated work, her 1983 novel The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, noting wryly in his final haiku that he "should have trusted book's title".
Speaking from their marital home in Shaftesbury, Dorset, he told The Telegraph: "This development has left me stunned, bewildered and sad. This was someone I gave my life to. We had a relationship of love and trust for 30 years. I feel like a dog that does everything and runs up wagging its tail and doesn't expect to be kicked in the face."
Mr Fox, who acted as Weldon's manager and publicist, said he had always done his utmost to stand behind her so she could pursue her career as a "great writer" because "I was in love with her".
The couple met in the 1980s when he was running a bookshop, but did not get together for around 10 years. Weldon, who has said that "my only ambition was always to be married", had already married twice.
A single mother at 23, her first marriage was one of convenience before she met antiques dealer Ron Weldon at the age of 29. The couple went on to have three sons before he left her for his "astrological therapist" after 30 years. He died of a heart attack on the day their divorce was finalised in 1994.
Later that year she married Mr Fox, undeterred by the scandal over the fact that she was 60 and he was 45 when they got together. She has admitted they had "terrible rows" but said that it was mostly over grammar, as he also acted as her editor.
It can now be revealed that she left the marital home in December and is staying with her eldest son, Nic Weldon, in Northamptonshire. Since leaving, she has initiated divorce proceedings.
Mr Weldon said she was too frail to discuss the split as she is recuperating from a stroke. "It has been a very difficult time for her," he told The Telegraph.
She was hospitalised in October last year after breaking a bone when she had a fall, Mr Weldon said. When she left hospital she moved in with her son and was "getting better", but had a stroke in June. She spent another two months in hospital, and is now back at home with him.
He was reluctant to discuss his mother's relationship issues, saying that it was her story to tell, but revealed: "There had been issues contacting her friends and family for quite a long time."
He added: "It didn't really emerge until later. I think some women don't realise they are in that situation and then when they do they haven’t got the network to get themselves out of it. I think quite often the perpetrators are not aware they are doing it. It is a bit she-said-he-said and you can get sucked up in it.
"It is a horrible situation, the whole thing. It is awful when these things go pear-shaped."
Mr Fox said he did not want to comment on her claims, but added: "I refer you to the ninth commandment: 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour'. It just ain't true and it's unclear to me what is driving this. Probably it's best if fiction stays on the page.
"I've done nothing and I'm being impugned and it's very upsetting. I don't know what she's doing because she's been sequestered somewhere else with her family and has not been in contact with me, despite my attempt to mend fences."
