Samantha | Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly
Samantha Gray, a psychology professor, recounts her 10-year marriage to Michael, a man she believed was devoted and supportive—until she discovered he had been cheating on her with at least 15 women for nearly their enti
Key takeaways
- Michael lied about being in North Carolina while attending church in Knoxville, Tennessee
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) Hi, everyone. We have some exciting news to share. ABC News Studios has turned Caroline Berega's story from Betrayal Season 4 into a docu series. You'll get to meet the people involved. You'll hear from people who have never spoken before, and you get to see where this story took place. We are so proud and excited to share it with you all. You can stream Betrayal: Dirty Secrets on Hulu and Hulu for Disney Plus starting on August 4th. This is an I-Heart podcast, Guaranteed Human. Speaker 1: Hi listeners, I'm Andrea Gunning, host of the Betrayal Weekly podcast, and I'm excited to share this riveting story with you. I'm also excited to tell you that you can now stream every episode of Betrayal seasons 1 through 5, as well as Betrayal Weekly, seasons 1 and 2, completely ad-free. Plus, get exclusive one week early access to all Betrayal Weekly season 3 episodes, with an IHeart True Crime Plus subscription, available only on Apple Podcasts. Plus, you'll get access to other chart-topping true crime shows you love, like creating a con, the story of BitCon, paper ghosts, Picked in Massacre, murder homes, unrestorable, the godmother, the girlfriends, and more. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for IHard True Crime Plus, and subscribe today. Hi, listeners. I'm Annes Infield, the host of the Girlfriend Spotlight Podcast, and I'm excited to share these incredible stories with you. I wanted to let you know that you can now get access to all episodes of The Girlfriend Spotlight, as well as seasons 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of The Girlfriends, 100% ad-free with an IHeart True Crime Plus subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Plus, you'll get access to all episodes of The Girlfriend Spotlight one week ahead of everyone else, available only to True Crime Plus subscribers. So, don't wait, head to Apple Podcast. podcast, search for IHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today. Paul Verzi here, and I want to talk to you about Paul's best podcast. I'm Farrow's Big Money Players Network and IHeart Radio. I sit down each week with a special guest and we discuss the absolute best of things. It's that and then there's everything else. Dude, his whole life has sounded like the first drop of a roller coaster. I mean, I can't even tell you, Paul, how crazy he was. It was insane. Listen to Paul's best podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Munges Chitigler, and I'm back with a new season of my podcast, Skyline Drive. This time I talked to scientists, biopunks, kermudgens, blues owners, super seniors, and Goa's top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with living forever and what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble along the way. I'd say probably start bone-smashing. That doesn't work. To make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, How to Live Forever, on the Eyeheartedly app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. It was like not being able to look away from a car accident. I couldn't look away. I couldn't put it down. It was almost like reading a novel, but this was my real life. I'm Andrea Gutting and this is betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything. Samantha Gray is a professor of psychology. Over the years, she's taught a variety of classes. I was teaching couples in family therapy. I taught adolescent development. I taught an undergrad class called Psychology and Technology. She got her start in the academic world exploring how tech shapes our personal identity and how we relate to each other. Samantha has always loved technology. When she was growing up in the 80s, her favorite toy was a whiz kid. It was literally a laptop. It had a little handle, so I would carry it like it was a little briefcase. That kind of went along with my vibe. Her vibe, which Samantha describes as... Opinionated, inquisitive, and bookish. Whenever she was around her more rowdy cousins. I was just kind of like patting my pearls like, oh my. I'm like, they're going to play in the dirt? Like, I don't know. I had my little purse, and I was just. right at the adults table. Samantha wanted to be the first in her family to go to college. I'd read the newspaper with my dad, and we'd watch the nightly news together. Samantha's dad was in the military. Growing up, they moved a lot. I was born in Chicago, but then we moved to Texas, and then Georgia, and then we moved to Germany, and then California. Finally, her family settled down in Indianapolis, Indiana. In high school, Samantha floated between a few social groups. I wasn't in the super nerdy group. I wasn't in the cool kids group. I was right there in the middle. I was the editor for my high school newspaper. She wasn't really into high school sports, unless she was writing about a game for the school paper. We got passes to go to the football games and report from the sidelines. I was like, VIP coming through. My access to the cool kids was having to interview players. One of those cool kids was a guy we're going to call Michael. Michael was popular. He was a football player. He was tall and big. Everyone called him Big Michael. Michael had moved out of his parents' house and lived on his own. He already seemed like an adult. And Samantha admired that. He was already kind of grown. And maybe that helped him be the cool. guy because he had his stuff together. They both stayed in Indianapolis for college, but they weren't in touch. A few years into college, a guy Samantha was talking to invited her to a house party at his place. He lived with a roommate. When Samantha got to the party, her date went off to smoke with his friends, leaving Samantha alone. I didn't smoke. I didn't drink. I felt uncomfortable. Samantha wandered through the party, feeling out of place. Then she walked past the door to the garage. She immediately recognized Michael. It turned out he was her date's roommate. He had converted the garage to a game room. He had speakers hooked up in there. Michael and some of his friends were hanging out on a couch in the garage playing video games. So I was like, okay, like video games. Like, there's a targeted activity with these people in this room. Samantha made her way over to the couch. Michael saw her approaching and immediately made room for her to sit next to him. He handed her a controller and showed her how to play. He's very charismatic, very gregarious, charming. I remember having a great time. They took turns playing a golf video game and laughed at each other's mistakes. Hanging out with Michael, Samantha finally. felt relaxed at the party. After a while, Samantha got up to head back into the main house. You had to go down a step to get to the loom. I was coming out of the garage and I fell off that step. I hyper-extended my knee and the whole party got quiet. Everyone stopped and stared at her. She was so embarrassed. I was in searing pain. I was like, let me just go home and get out of here. will be fine. I went to stand up and I couldn't bear weight on it. She couldn't get up. She looked around the room waiting for someone to help her. She spotted her date, but he just seemed embarrassed on her behalf. But then, she felt hands lifting her up. It was Michael. Michael went into straight action. He came over. He's like, can you stand on it? We tried that. I couldn't. When it became clear that she couldn't stand on her own, Michael didn't hesitate. He literally scooped me into his arms in front of my date, takes me outside, carrying me, puts me into his car, buckles me in, drove me to the hospital. Samantha was awestruck. Michael was taking care of her like it was the most natural thing in the world. I thought highly of him and was grateful because my date, I don't think, had a call. car or a driver's license. He literally swept me off my feet. The next day, she got a text from Michael. He had gotten her number from someone at the party so he could check in on her. He asked her how her knee was doing. After that, it was like, we'd never stop talking. She learned more about his life. Even though they were young, Michael was already a dad. He had two daughters with his ex-girlfriend. He was balancing parenting with going to college. This didn't scare Samantha away. Michael was responsible and seemed like a great dad. It just felt like we had so much to talk about. Their conversations became more and more flirty. Michael invited her back to his house to play video games. This time, it was just the two of them. We had our first kiss at his house in that garage. pretending to play video games. After that, they started going on dates. In a lot of ways, Michael and Samantha were pretty different. But the more they hung out, the more they found things they had in common. We were two kids coming from families that we were the first generation to go to college. He was innately intelligent. He was quick-witted, for sure. And so I think we kind of connected over. both wanting an academic life, like to go to college and to talk about the classes that we were in. Whenever she was with Michael, life felt brighter and more fun. I was definitely head over heels. Michael could do no wrong in my eyes. He was so kind to me. He was hilarious. Six months later, they made their relationship official. When people from their high school saw them out to get them out to get, they were confused. Michael was super social in high school. Everyone remembered him. But Samantha had flown under the radar. I'd be standing right next to him and they'd be like, Michael, what's up, Big Mike? They would not acknowledge me and I'd realize they didn't know that we were together. And so then when he would bring me into the conversation, they were like, oh, hey, how do you know Mike? Did you go to our high school? And I was saying, Like, yep. People seemed to think they were an odd couple, but neither of them cared about what other people thought. We would drive up from Indianapolis to Lake Michigan. There was this gorgeous pier, and we'd go out on the pier, and we would pack like a picnic. This was more than just a summer fling. They continued dating throughout college. As the seasons changed, their relationship stayed steady and grew stronger. A lot of things weren't very traditional. I didn't really cook and clean. He did the cooking. Another untraditional thing they did is that while they were both in college, they decided to get married at the courthouse. One, because they were in love. And two, because being married would help Samantha qualify for financial aid on her tuition. The arrangement worked for both of them. Samantha and Michael made just enough money to scrape by. We were really struggling. We only get gas at a gas station called Speedway, and we'd save up our points. There were times where that was dinner, like hot dogs, nachos, whatever. In her senior year, Samantha started applying to PhD programs. And I got into a PhD program straight out of undergrad. The program was in Tennessee. It would be a big change. But this was more than just an academic. academic opportunity. There was a lot at stake. When I got into a PhD program, it was this amazing opportunity to really change our lives. So Samantha and Michael decided to move to Tennessee for a few years. Michael's daughter stayed in Indiana with their mom. It was a big sacrifice for him to be away from his kids. But they knew they were building a better life for all of them. Starting over was challenging. Grad school was tough. It was very obvious that My peers had backgrounds that were different than mine. They would talk about their vacation backpacking through Europe or whatever. We qualified and were on food stamps. Even though their lifestyle wasn't glamorous, they were happy. He was so fun. He was this bigger than life character. Like he wanted to grab life and live it. And so even though we didn't have a lot of money, we were also in a new part of the country. We were in eastern Tennessee, which butts up to the Smoky Mountains. We would pack a picnic and go to the Smoky Mountains. Michael always reminded Samantha that life wasn't supposed to be one long sprint. They had to take time to slow down and enjoy where they were. Sitting by his side, the Smoky Mountains wrapping around them, she remembered how far they had come. here we are with this fresh mountain air and like here you are on a PhD program things are looking up we're still poor but gosh darn it like we're just on the cusp of things being good Samantha and Michael dreamed of having a child one day Michael was already supporting his two daughters back in Indiana and they just didn't have the money to afford to raise a child of their own I knew we did not have money but I did want to have a kid I still wanted to dream about it, and we