John Meehan's first wife, Tonia Sells Bales, tells her aspect of the "Dirty John" saga in a brand new podcast, 'The First Wife: John Meehan’s Reign of Terror.'
When Wondery and the Los Angeles Times first launched the Dirty John podcast within the fall of 2017, the gripping tale captivated listeners who downloaded it in droves. The six-episode series instructed the tale of con man John Michael Meehan, who earned the "Dirty John" nickname when he was once a girls' man while attending the University of Dayton in Ohio as an undergrad.
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Though the podcast did supply some backstory about John Meehan's early life, schooling, and first marriage, it in large part curious about his manipulation and verbal abuse towards his 2nd wife, Debra Newell, and her circle of relatives.
John Meehan died in 2016 when Debra Newell's youngest daughter, Terra Newell, stabbed him in self-defense all the way through an alleged tried abduction. A scripted TV series in response to the podcast debuted on Bravo in 2018, and the tale of John Meehan and his lies has persevered to stay the general public enthralled.
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While many know of John Meehan in relation to his life with Debra Newell, the con man first had a family with Tonia Sells Bales (who went by way of Tonia Meehan on the time). The pair had two children together during their 10-year marriage, and Tonia Bales handiest came upon the true extent of her husband's deceit as their marriage used to be coming to an finish.
She's speaking out about the John Meehan she knew within the new Audible podcast The First Wife: John Meehan’s Reign of Terror — and she discussed the collection and her marriage to a "psychopath" with Distractify.
What happened to John Meehan's first wife, Tonia Sells Bales?
The nurse first met John Meehan when she was once out with pals after operating a shift at a sanatorium in Ohio in 1988. He claimed that he was a 24-year-old legislation student at the University of Dayton, and that John used to be brief for Johnathan.
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The lies began instantly, but Bales didn't realize it but; Meehan used to be in fact a lot older than he said he was once, and his start identify was John. When Bales saw his real birth 12 months on his license at the bar on that first night, he claimed that it was once a faux ID he had used to purchase alcohol, and that he hadn't but gotten around to fixing it.
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"He would never falter in being able to quickly have an answer or an explanation, or to ease my anxiety about those things," Bales told Distractify about how easy it was for her ex to lie. "It started, honestly, in the first 15 minutes that I met him."
She stated that her ex sought her out as a result of he knew instantly that she was "naive and vulnerable." It took her years to work out that he used to be a "psychopath."
The two were given married in 1990 (none of John Meehan's family members attended), they usually later welcomed two daughters together: Emily and Abigail "Abby" Meehan.
Their union got here to an result in 2000, and the couple divorced. She later contacted some of Meehan's family members for the first time, and he or she realized extra about his past run-ins with the law and his battles with drug dependancy.
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Tonia Bales has since gotten remarried, and her two daughters at the moment are adults. The circle of relatives is "thriving and happy" in Georgia.
"We're survivors of this ... There are so many people who feel stuck, and like they can't ever get out or live an authentic life where they are respected," Bales stated. "I am here to tell you that it is possible."
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John Meehan's first spouse, Tonia Sells Bales, is now telling her aspect of the tale in a podcast.
From her first meeting with John Meehan to how her satisfied domestic existence first began to resolve to how she realized about her ex-husband's passing, Tonia Bales is telling all in The First Wife: John Meehan's Reign of Terror.
"None of us were ready..." Bales stated in regards to the popularity of the Dirty John podcast and TV display. "There's been a lot of growth from when we found out that John had died until today."
When Bales first discovered of John Meehan's death, she mentioned that she started "trembling."
"I always knew that something was going to go down in a big ball of fire — I just didn't know when or how..." she shared. "It was unimaginable to me, and I felt like I was in some sort of dream and that I was going to wake up."
Working at the series proved to be "healing" for Bales and her daughters, who're talking publicly for the first time about their overdue father.
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"This has helped my children to understand who he was and that they played no role in what John did. It's not their shame," she concluded. "Now, they can stand in their truth."
You can concentrate to each and every episode of The First Wife: John Meehan's Reign of Terror exclusively on Audible. The sequence comes from Aliza Rosen's AYR Media and Audible, Inc.
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