Episode 188: "I Moved to France With My Prince Charming... Then I Learned Who He Really Was" Part I (Interview with Wendy @rebelle_2929 on IG)

He married four women, kept a secret girlfriend a town over from wife number two, and still cried his way into playing the victim. Then wife number one picked up the phone and called wife number two. This week, Mac and Phil sit down with Dina and Lizzie, the Matadoras behind the podcast Surviving Toxic Relationships, two women who were married to the same narcissist and became best friends because of it. 🏍️ Two very different love bombings: a 19 year old in a light blue tux walking over to Dina’s KFC job, and a man who took over Lizzie’s grocery runs for her four boys ⛪ How he faked vulnerability at church, cried through worship songs, and used couples counseling to turn himself into the victim 😭 The sobbing childhood trauma story he told Dina, and what he admitted about it later 📖 The phone book incident Dina walked in on, and the “friendly pervert” confession that followed 💸 Locked out of the phone account, cut off from credit cards, and handed $20 for a whole weekend before Lizzie walked out 📱 The Facebook message and phone call that told his secret girlfriend Lizzie existed, and the red coat he said an old lady gave her 🚔 What she did next: a lawyer by Sunday, cops and a restraining order waiting Monday, and an annulment filed for fraud 💍 The woman he married two months later in another state, and the 27 women on his phone This one is wild, ridiculous, and funny in the way only survivors can be, and proof that two women who could have been enemies became each other’s biggest win. ⚖️ Disclaimer (because our lawyers make us say this): Dimming The Gaslight is based entirely on true events, except for the stuff we totally made up. Names, locations, and other identifying details have been changed. If you think we’re talking about you in this podcast, newsflash, you’re the narcissist. Watch Surviving Toxic Relationships on YouTube: @survivingrelationships12 Also on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Website: survivingtoxicrelationships.org Follow us: @dimming_the_gaslight Join us on Patreon | Discord | DTG Merch Store | dimmingthegaslight.com

A stranger stopped her outside Grand Central. Eleven years later she was broke, trapped, and signing leases for his entire family. This week, Mac and Phil sit down with Victoria Morgan, a pharmacist and research scientist who runs @one_strong_mother, to hear how a man with a $10 million story and a Wikipedia page turned her escape from one abusive marriage into a decade of financial and psychological control. 🚉 He approaches her the day after Valentine’s Day and says he sold his company for $10 million 🏠 His “house” turns out to be one rented room, and the landlord slips her a note warning her about the other women 📱 Two young women only friended him and commented on his posts, and they turned out to be fake profiles he ran himself 🏪 The cell phone store, the leases, and the lines of credit were all in her name while he kept the commissions 💸 Invitations he said cost $1,200 were $226 and a photographer he said cost $3,000 was $400 👨‍👩‍👦 The wife he swore was his ex lived in the house, and his parents were told Victoria was just a tenant 🚨 A breakup, an order of protection, him outside her door at 2am, and a burner phone text that pulled her back in 🗝️ Ten months in the worst house of her life, a mattress on her back as she left in a U Haul, and the free five step escape plan she built He told her she would never meet anyone like him if she left. Peace is priceless and freedom is the prize. ⚖️ Disclaimer (because our lawyers make us say this): Dimming The Gaslight is based entirely on true events — except for the stuff we totally made up. Names, locations, and other identifying details have been changed. If you think we’re talking about you in this podcast… newsflash: you’re the narcissist. Follow Victoria: @one_strong_mother (her free escape plan is linked in her bio) Follow us: @dimming_the_gaslight Join us on Patreon | Discord | DTG Merch Store | dimmingthegaslight.com

he was seven years old the first time her uncle called it a game. Twenty years later her own father skipped town on New Year's Day and left her a letter blaming her for it. This week, Mac and Phil sit down with Sofia Moreno, survivor turned author and founder of a nonprofit supporting survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. 🚨 What happened when Sofia's mother walked in on the abuse firsthand, and the local police response that amounted to nothing but a piece of paper 👨‍👩‍👧 How her father's side of the family closed ranks around her abuser while blaming a seven year old for "dressing promiscuously" 🎭 The Jekyll and Hyde covert narcissist playbook her father ran for years, beloved by everyone outside the house and a completely different man behind closed doors 💸 The secret second mortgage, the drained accounts, and the affairs her father tried to pin on her mother instead 📺 The Dear John letter waiting on top of the television the day he disappeared, and who he blamed for making him leave ⚰️ Finding out her grandmother's memorial had happened without her, and the email that finally severed the relationship for good 📚 How Sofia turned decades of trauma into two published books, a nonprofit, and a biweekly support group for survivors still finding their words This one goes to some of the darkest places the show has covered and still lands somewhere hopeful, proof that the story doesn't have to end where the abuse did. ⚖️ Disclaimer (because our lawyers make us say this): Dimming The Gaslight is based entirely on true events — except for the stuff we totally made up. Names, locations, and other identifying details have been changed. If you think we're talking about you in this podcast… newsflash: you're the narcissist. Check out Sofia's books, "I Am a Survivor" and "A Message to My Abuser" (available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble)

She spent years trapped in a cycle of love bombing, addiction, and violence with a man who once strangled her unconscious. Then one night, scrolling Facebook on her back porch, she watched his death unfold live on her screen before anyone told her. This week, Mac and Phil sit down with Randin Steed, who writes as Sunshine Faye, author of Dance With the Devil and The Manipulation Whisperer, and cohost of the podcast Stories We Weren't Supposed to Tell. 🕯️ The night she said goodbye to her abuser, not knowing it was the last time she'd see him alive 📱 How she found out he'd been murdered, not from a phone call, but from a Facebook Live video of the scene 🚓 The time police drove her to jail instead of him, after he choked her unconscious and dragged her by the hair ✍️ Why she wrote her first book raw and unfiltered, and what happened when she realized how many people needed it 🧠 Her breakdown of the hook, the love bombing and future faking that gets survivors stuck before they even see it coming ♟️ The difference between gray rocking and what she calls yellow rocking a co parent who won't disengage 💬 Why she believes healthy people gaslight too, and where the real line between normal conflict and manipulation actually sits This one is heavy, unfiltered, and honest about the messy, nonlinear road out. Randin doesn't hand you a bow on top. She hands you the truth and tells you to stand up. ⚖️ Disclaimer (because our lawyers make us say this): Dimming The Gaslight is based entirely on true events, except for the stuff we totally made up. Names, locations, and other identifying details have been changed. If you think we're talking about you in this podcast, newsflash, you're the narcissist. Books: Dance With the Devil and The Manipulation Whisperer by Sunshine Faye, available on Amazon Podcast: Stories We Weren't Supposed to Tell Follow Randin: @sunshine_solitude_softball_ Follow us: @dimming_the_gaslight Join us on Patreon | Discord | DTG Merch Store | dimmingthegaslight.com

After years of therapy before she even had a word for what happened to her, Jenny Rudd built an AI that could see it plainly — and it started with her own decade-plus marriage. This week, Mac and Phil sit down with Jenny Rudd, founder of Dispute Buddy — a platform that scans years of text messages with an abusive ex and surfaces the patterns of coercive control survivors can't always name themselves. 🔍 What happened when Jenny finally ran her own texts through her own app, and it handed back a decade-plus documented pattern of coercive control she'd normalized for years ⚖️ How the system finds tactics like being accused of the exact thing your abuser is doing, disparaging family to isolate you, and disguising financial abuse as "consequences" 📵 Why responding to messages out of order isn't disorganization — it's a deliberate way to control the narrative and keep you confused 🧠 Jenny's take on why 25% of Dispute Buddy users are men, and what that number reveals about who's actually suffering coercive control and staying silent ♀️ Her view on feminism as fundamentally about emotional equality for men — and why she believes that's the missing piece for real economic equality for women 👨‍👩‍👧 How the app approaches parental alienation, and why she believes both sides of that debate are carrying real, valid pain 🏛️ Why she built Dispute Buddy to close the access-to-justice gap for people without the money, time, or safety to document their own abuse This one is validating, sharp, and unexpectedly funny — proof that the patterns you couldn't explain to anyone finally have a name, and now, receipts. ⚖️ Disclaimer (because our lawyers make us say this): Dimming The Gaslight is based entirely on true events — except for the stuff we totally made up. Names, locations, and other identifying details have been changed. If you think we're talking about you in this podcast… newsflash: you're the narcissist. Learn more about Dispute Buddy: disputebuddy.co Follow Jenny: @[handle] Follow us: @dimming_the_gaslight Join us on Patreon | Discord | DTG Merch Store | dimmingthegaslight.com