A woman has recounted the devastating story of how she discovered her fiancé had been lying about his entire life just weeks before their wedding.
Most of us are guilty of telling the odd white lie when dating, but how far would you go in order to impress a potential significant other?
For Megan Clarke, 27, she thought she’d found her happy ever after when she begun a relationship with Lord Bertie Underwood, a charming horologist (someone who makes and repairs watches).
However not everything was as it seemed.
Megan has now recounted her harrowing story on Channel 4’s Love Cheats (Channel 4)
Although she wasn’t looking to settle down, Megan – who was 20 years old at the time and working as a bar manager on the Isle of Wright – was soon swept off her feet by the dashing Lord, who treated her to luxurious date nights and invited her to live in his lavish seafront home.
“He was charming, kind, thoughtful, loving. A real gentleman,” Megan recounted of their relationship during an interview with Metro.
The relationship moved quickly. Within a month the pair had said ‘I love you’ and Bertie would pop the question six months later, surprising Megan with a Cartier diamond ring.
However if things sound almost too good to be true, there’s a chance that something more sinister is lurking beneath the surface.
Bertie would request that Megan didn’t post his face on social media, claiming it was because of his dad’s high-ranking career in the navy (which in hindsight should be the second red flag after the name ‘Lord Bertie Underwood’).
However the fairytale would begin to unravel when Megan noticed letters arriving at their home under various different names. Bertie claimed they were for previous tenants, but the former bar manager was not convinced and decided to investigate further.
What Megan then discovered would bring her world crashing down entirely.
‘Lord Bertie Underwood’ – real name Robert Madejski – is currently on the run from prison (Sussex Police)
Megan later discovered that Bertie had multiple bank cards under various aliases and after googling the names, she uncovered that her Lord actually had a long track record for fraud, using names such as Robert Doughty and Robert Soanes-Madejski to get away with his crimes.
The truth devastated Megan, who would be dealt another crushing blow once the pair split – with ‘Bertie’ having racked up around £30,000 of debt in her name.
“We went to the police and action fraud,” she recalled to The Sun. “[But] unfortunately there wasn’t a great deal they could do.”
Megan has since worked to pay off the debts and rebuild her life while ‘Bertie’ has since been arrested on fraud charges and sentenced to five years in prison. However he escaped in 2022 and currently remains on the run.
The fact that ‘Bertie’ is now on the run is something which has left Megan unsettled, as she added to Metro that she would ‘freeze’ if she encountered him on the street.
Megan’s story appears as part of the series Love Cheats, which is available to watch on Channel 4.