Melissa’s Listener Essay | Betrayal Weekly — BONUS
episodePreviously titled “Betrayal Weekly: BONUS EP 5 - Melissa’s Listener Essay” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 5, 2026
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Hi, guys. I'm Andrea Gunning, host of Betrayal. I'm excited to bring you all Season 4, a story of a cop and his double life. I'm also excited to tell you that you can now get access to all episodes of Betrayal Season 1, 2, 3, and Betrayal Weekly and every single episode of Betrayal Season 4 ad-free and one week early through the iHeart True Crime Plus subscription available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Plus, you'll get access to other charred-topping true crime shows you love, like The Real Killer, The Girlfriends, American Homicide, There and Gone South Street, Burden of Guilt, Murder on Songbird Road, The Idaho Massacre, Paper Ghosts, and more. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for iHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today.
Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season 1.
Every time I hear about my dad, it's, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.
I was becoming the bridge between Jeremy Scott and the son he'd never known.
At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.
Listen to new episodes of Bone Valley Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hi, listeners. I'm Melissa Jeltsin, host of What Happened to Talena Zarr. It's the story of a woman who disappears in the early days of COVID lockdowns and the group of online sleuths who try to find her.
I didn't want to be talked out of this plan. After I post this, I am turning off my phone for exactly this reason. I kept just kind of asking everybody, anyone else think this is strange? You'll notice that about me. I don't lurk. I'm out there. I'm an action kind of girl.
You can now get access to episodes of What Happened to Talena Zar 100% ad-free with an iHeart True Crime Plus subscription. I'm a subscriber and you should be too. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search iHeart True Crime Plus and subscribe today.
Explore the winding halls of historical true crime with Holly Fry and Maria Tremarcki, hosts of Criminalia, as they uncover curious cases from the past. The legend of the highwayman suggests men dominated the field, but tell that to Lady Catherine Ferrars, known as the Wicked Lady, who terrorized England in the mid-1600s. Her legend persists nearly 400 years after her death. Highwaymen are in the hot seat this season. Find more crime and cocktails on Criminalia. Listen to Criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey guys, it's Andrea Gunning. A few weeks ago, we put a call out for your listener essays. We wanted to hear from you about resilience after a devastating betrayal. And we received so many incredible essay submissions. So for this episode, we're going to feature the first of two listener essays that really moved me. This one is written and read by a listener named Melissa.
Pain has been both my burden and my teacher, breaking me open in ways I never wanted and shaping me into someone I never expected to become. As a teenager, my world fractured in an instant. My father, my anchor, was ripped away, not by death, but by his own betrayal. He was sent to prison for raping a teenage girl. The man I looked to for protection became the reason I no longer felt safe or sure of who I was. It wasn't just the act he committed. It was the way it shattered everything I thought I knew about love, trust, and family. That wound didn't heal. It seeped into the fabric of my life, dictating the person I became. The echoes of that betrayal followed me like shadows, coloring every decision I made, lingering over my shoulder, and even scaring away some who learned the truth. In my desperate need to find stability, to build a life that felt whole, I married a man who was battling his own demons. He was a secret addict and an alcoholic, someone who hid his pain while drowning it in substances.
When I learned of his struggle, I thought I could save him. I believed that what I went through early on would give me the strength to push through. Maybe, deep down, I thought saving him would somehow redeem the parts of my life I couldn't. But love cannot survive where it is consumed by unrelenting chaos. We bore a son together, my saving grace. I stayed with my husband until I couldn't anymore.
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