A woman who discovered her husband of almost two decades was secretly married to someone else after her death – meaning she may have to hand over her home to his first wife – has revealed how she uncovered his vast web of lies.
When Laurinel Owen, now 68, walked down the aisle with Klaus, an Oxford-educated nuclear physicist and divorced father of two who was 17 years her senior, in 1991, she thought she had her happily ever after.
For 18 years, she and her husband, whose name has been changed for privacy reasons, lived a quiet and happy life together on Long Island, New York.
But after his death in 2009, Laurinel’s entire world was turned upside down after she discovered a series of horrible secrets that her husband had hidden from her.
She found a cache of vulgar pornography hidden in her closet, and discovered a horrible connection her family had to the Nazi party.
A woman who discovered her husband of almost two decades was secretly married to someone else after his death has revealed how she uncovered his vast web of lies.
But the biggest revelation of all was that he had been married to another woman throughout their relationship.
This meant that their marriage was not legal and she was no longer a beneficiary of his will, and the other woman was entitled to half of his belongings, including Laurinel’s house and savings.
In addition to having to deal with the reality that her husband was not who he said he was, Laurinel now risked losing their home and all the money they had worked hard for.
She became embroiled in a years-long legal battle against her wife as her mental health deteriorated.
Now, Laurinel, who recently published a book about the devastating experience, called Strings tied together: a memoir of betrayal, bigamy, and self-discovery – spoke exclusively to DailyMail.com about it.
Laurinel met Klaus in 1981, when she was a young, budding cellist who had just moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, after securing a place in the National Symphony Orchestra.
The musician, then 24, recalled looking out into the audience and noticing the same man attending his performances “week after week.”
“My partner (on stage), who was also a young woman, and I were always looking at the boys in the audience,” she explained.
When Laurinel Owen (seen when she was younger), now 68, walked down the aisle with Klaus in 1991, she thought she had her happily ever after.
“And there I was. I was completely alone. Always. Week after week after week.”
Laurinel said that she and Klaus finally met and…They got along well from the beginning.
They began dating shortly afterward and, looking back, she says there were no “red flags” in those whirlwind first few months of their relationship.
“We spent a lot of time together. He was a PhD nuclear physicist who was educated at Oxford. You don’t expect people like that to be such good liars,” she explained.
“I thought, ‘This is the man of my dreams.’ He was everything I had ever wanted in a partner. I was madly in love.”
After a year together, Klaus (who told her he was a divorced father of two) asked Laurinel to marry him, and convinced she had found her soulmate, she said yes.
He then invited her to join him on a family holiday to the coast of South Africa so she could meet his children – a trip that would completely “shatter” their perfect romance.
Upon arriving at the glamorous getaway, a The woman opened the door and introduced herself as Klaus’s wife.
“I felt like a deer caught in the headlights. Everything I had come to know was suddenly shattered,” Laurinel recalled to DailyMail.com.
Laurinel explained that when she confronted Klaus about it as soon as they had a moment alone, he insisted that he “never loved” his wife.
She added that he told her “all kinds of stories” about how “bad” their marriage had been, which made her “feel bad” for him.
“His reaction was absolutely calm,” she reflected. “He told me not to worry. I was in disbelief.
“I thought, ‘How could this happen to me? ‘ But I was very young and naive. I wanted to believe everything he said. I just didn’t have the wisdom or the experience.
“He had me totally manipulated… He told me all kinds of stories, as I’m sure many men who are good liars do.”
Despite the horrible discovery that her boyfriend had been lying to her and his wife, Laurinel decided to stay with him.
“I was madly in love. Looking back, what worried me most was that without him I was nobody,” she added.
Over the next few months, Klaus continued to lie to Laurinel, telling her that he was in the process of divorcing his wife, but making excuse after excuse as to why it was taking so long to happen.
For 18 years, Laurinel (pictured here when she was younger) and her husband lived a happy life together in New York. But after he passed away in 2009, their world turned upside down.
She discovered a number of horrible secrets that her husband had kept from her, including the fact that he was actually married to another woman. She is seen when she was younger.
“No matter how many times I asked him what was going on, he always found some (excuse or) promise,” she continued.
‘He said that divorce courts only open on Tuesdays every other week, so he was just waiting.
“Then the date would come and his lawyer would be sick. He always had some reason.”
Eventually, she said she was “so fed up” that she decided to leave Klaus, quit her job and return to the US, telling him: “Find me when you’re divorced.”
Nine months later, in May 1987, Klaus went to see Laurinel in the United States and insisted that he had officially separated from his wife.
“I wouldn’t have come if I wasn’t divorced. This topic is too painful, so don’t ask again,” she claimed he told her.
Ultimately, Laurinel thought she had gotten her well-deserved “happily ever after” and told DailyMail.com: “I finally felt like he had chosen me.”
They married in 1991 and for 18 years had what seemed to be a perfect marriage.
But after his death in 2009, she uncovered layers of lies that left her wondering: Who was the man she married really?
First, Laurinel discovered that Klaus’s father was a Nazi assassin who “laundered money for Hitler” from the United States.
She eventually fled the United States after the FBI began to suspect her of being the “head of the American Gestapo,” according to newspaper clippings from the 1930s that she obtained from her local library.
In addition, she found in his closet a box full of “pornographic articles,” among which was one about “the libidinous effect of urinating on the opposite sex.”
Now, Laurinel (seen recently) has spoken exclusively to DailyMail.com about the devastating experience.
She also unearthed a “strange” book he had been writing that was full of “sexual exploits” in which he described himself as a “hero.”
“He was writing a novel that was going to contain his best ideas in physics because he said they were so advanced that the physics community couldn’t accept them,” Laurinel said.
“I was going to write a mystery novel and put those ideas into it, but I found it and it was just a collection of sex scenes and exploits where he was the hero. Pretty weird.”
But the biggest shock came after the funeral, when Klaus’s daughter broke the news that he had never actually divorced his first wife.
Laurinel recalled hearing the news: “It was a total betrayal. My first reaction was, ‘Who is this guy I spent 27 years with?’
“My second thought was, ‘Who was I to not see this and endure all this?’ There was so much shame and guilt.
He published a book about his journey, called Strings Attached: A Memoir of Betrayal, Bigamy, and Self-Discovery, which he hopes will help others who have been “betrayed.”
“I don’t want to fall down that rabbit hole because I’ve worked so hard to get out of it, but it made me feel terribly worthless.”
Laurinel explained that throughout their nearly two-decade marriage, she paid for virtually everything, while Klaus put almost all of his earnings into a retirement fund.
But now he was told that he might never see the money and that his first wife could receive it instead.
Klaus still being married to another woman also meant that the other woman was now entitled to half of his belongings, which included his house.
She fought hard in court for years and eventually “reached a settlement” with Klaus’ wife, but said the ordeal left her “in a spiral.”
“You can’t imagine what I had to go through to prove that I had been paying the expenses of the journey. I had to prove everything,” he shared.
“And I found out about many of his financial infidelities. I was in a state of anxiety, constant anxiety.
“I couldn’t bear it. I couldn’t get over it. I didn’t even have a chance to cry.”
Eventually, she realized she “needed help” and began therapy, which, despite “taking a long time,” helped her heal.
Laurinel now believes she “needed to go through it to grow” and hopes that by talking about it she can help others.
“That’s why I ended up writing this book,” she continued. “A lot of people are being betrayed and I want people to know that there are others out there.”
‘I want to support other people who have been really betrayed and feel traumatized.’
As for why she thinks Klaus did what he did, she said she’ll never understand, but added, “If he hadn’t died, I would have killed him.”