The true story of Alison Wilson, as represented by her granddaughter Ruth in the BBC drama, enthralled viewers. She felt she had the perfect marriage until she found her husband, a self-proclaimed “spy,” had other spouses. While watching the BBC program, Mary Turner Thompson, 53, felt as though her life was being played out on film. She, too, felt she had the ideal marriage until she learned that her ‘CIA agent’ husband had another wife and at least 13 children with six different women.

She never imagined it would come to this because William Allen Jordan was a fantastic father to their children. The man was a habitual liar who had another wife during their 6-year relationship. He was condemned to prison for bigamy in 2014. “Watching the series felt a lot like gazing at my own narrative,” Miss Turner Thomson explained. “I met William online when I was a single mother with a nine-month-old baby. We exchanged emails since he was so lovely…

“We started dating, and within two weeks of meeting, he asked me to marry him – I said no, but we eventually got engaged and married for four years.” I became pregnant after six months of dating, which was a major surprise because he had told me he was infertile because he had mumps as a child. “I was terrified he’d believe I was having an affair because he was so convinced he couldn’t have children.”

Jordan fooled his wife into thinking he was a CIA spy on secondment to MI5. His time gone on missions gave him the perfect excuse to see his other girlfriends. He even convinced Miss Turner Thomson to pay £200,000 to ‘blackmailers’ who allegedly threatened to kidnap their children. “When I was pregnant with Zach in 2004, he informed me that someone he met on an undercover operation was going to kill our kids, kidnap them, take chunks off them, and mail them to us unless we gave them money,” she claimed.

“By this point, I had been under his control for four years, so I sold everything I owned – my house, my car, my life insurance, everything.” There were no undercover missions or blackmailers, but Michele Lewis, another wife, contacted her in 2006. “ ‘Are you Mary Turner Thomson?’ she asked. “I agreed.” ‘Are you also Mrs. Jordan?’ she inquired. When I said yes, she said, ‘Well, I’m the other Mrs. Jordan.’

“We met in a café and talked for about 12 hours. I texted him and ditched him when she left at six o’clock in the morning. “I kept talking to him to acquire more information, but he never modified his tale and insisted that time would vindicate him. “It was all gibberish.”