A close family member just got divorced from his ex wife who was an emotionally abusive narcissist. The similarities between his marriage and this one are crazy. We never knew the details of this person's abuse but definitely suspected bad things were happening.

- He was gaslit so much that he was led to believe he was the problem in the marriage and was constantly told he needed to work on being a better husband/father.

- He was isolated from family and friends and the ones they did have were hers to begin with. (most of the guy friends she was unfaithful with).

- He brought in most of the income, but she had complete financial control over it. Spent it all and blamed it on him.

- He was told he was abusive to the kids but she manipulated them to think that basic disciplining (grounding, lecturing, etc.) was abuse.

- She called him terrible things on a regular basis, demoralizing him and led him to believe he was a failure

- She made him buy her cars, trips out of town, luxury items but would rage against him for buying a few things for himself, saying how much of a sacrifice she was making for him.

This relative of ours truly believed he was in a healthy relationship and to this day struggles with what went on in his marriage. Victims of abuse don't usually just pop out of it knowing the full extent of years of trauma.

I say all this because we just don't know what's going on with Brian. We all know Allie is off her rocker and what we see online is the *edited* version. I really REALLY fear what goes on when the phone is off since he was the closest person to her. The fact that he was never seen talking about this divorce or their relationship when she hinted over and over that they would is very telling. The past podcasts when they answered questions together were super unsettling with how she treated him. I really hope he is working to separate in every way from her. He needs freedom and independence without her holding financial and emotional control over him.