Jeffrey Donaldson

He says, I will regret that to my day and day.

I will forever be thankful that our marriage continued.

And then he says being open about it actually helped us to stay together.

Yeah, he said, obviously, the whole away from home a lot.

He had said even though previously when he worked in Belfast, even when he was in local politics, he'd still been home most weekends, but then he was working flat out.

Mr. Vaughan asked, did they seek any help with this?

And Mr. Donaldson said that yes, they'd had support from some counselling, and that was from David and Linda Hoy.

And we have heard a lot about David and Linda Hoy.

If you go back to some of the previous podcasts, they give evidence earlier in the trial.

He says his wife had suffered with her mental health and that she'd suffered from postnatal depression.

He says Eleanor fought very hard to be strong, but then he said there were times, just like anyone else, that she struggled with me being away a lot.

And I probably didn't see some of that.

He said the demands of my political career were such that I didn't give her the support she needed, he said.

And then Mr. Donaldson was asked about events in 2020.

He was.

He said COVID was a difficult time and he said Eleanor was very fearful.

He said he had travelled back and forward to London as he was exempted as he was a politician.

And he said that at one stage he was self-isolating because he had been in a meeting in London and some of those at that meeting were later found to have COVID.

And if we go back to the recordings of Eleanor Donaldson's interviews with police when they were arrested in 2024,

She actually said he had a meeting with Boris Johnson and then come back and had to self-isolate because of COVID.