Waking Up | EP 10 | Saskia's Story
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This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Hi, everyone. Andrea here. I have some exciting news to share. ABC has turned Betrayal Weekly into an eight-episode anthology, which means each episode features one of your favorite Betrayal Weekly stories. You'll get to see the people involved, hear from people who have never spoken before, and actually see where the story took place. We are so proud and excited to share it with you all. It's called Betrayal, Secrets, and Lies, and you can watch it every Sunday at 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 9 p.m. Central. Please check it out. Throughout the years we've worked on this show, our team has talked to hundreds of people who've been through some kind of betrayal.
Some of their stories are about abuse, left undiscovered or unchecked for years. Others are about financial crimes or secret identities. But across all of these stories, there are similarities. Like in the way people talk about the aftermath and the moment everything changed.
Our life blew up on April 11th. April 2022 is when D-Day happened. And everything just blew up. All of this blew up our life, our kids' lives, our community.
He completely ruined my family.
For so many people, a betrayal is an ending, a death of the life they knew. I often get asked if it's depressing, working on stories like this day in, day out. And the truth is, a lot of the time, it's the opposite. Because as much as these are stories about the moment of destruction, they're also about what happens after that moment. How people get up the next day. How they rebuild after the smoke clears. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say a bomb dropped on Saskia's life. And yet today, seven years after her discovery, she's still standing.
I think it would surprise him to see how much stronger I've gotten even since his attempt to totally destroy me. I was not gonna be just a dispensable person, someone that you can use and abuse and then discard. His focus was on my weaknesses and he didn't realize how strong I am.
I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal Season 5, Episode 10, Waking Up. Before we talk about where Saskia is today, there's something I want to share. It's a bit of a left turn, but it has a lot to do with why I do this work and why I felt drawn to Saskia's story. In college, I was raped. At the time, I was going through a really bad depression. And much in the same way that Saskia did, I drank to cope. One night when I was drunk, a person who I considered a friend assaulted me. It wasn't until the next day when I woke up that I knew something had happened. For years, I blamed myself. Maybe I let him on. Maybe I deserved it. It's a feeling a lot of victims of sexual violence experience. And like a lot of victims, those feelings kept me silent for a long time.
I questioned myself and my understanding of what I experienced. But that wasn't the case for Saskia. As soon as she found out what Mike did to her, she saw the truth clearly. He said, I guess we're both a little bit crazy.
I said, no, no. I have mental health issues. You're a predator and you're a monster.
This is something that's always struck me about Saskia's story. And it's actually pretty rare. Immediately, she knew the gravity of what Mike had done. She went to the authorities to protect herself and to keep others safe. And then she took the stand and stood up to him.
You're a dangerous person who preys on vulnerable and trusting people. You're a sexual predator, Michael Ebengood. You do have this inner... That's Carrie Hartman, one of Betrayal's producers.
Wherever it came from, I've always admired that strength in Saskia. And back in those early days after her discovery, her bravery was clear to everyone around her. It looked like reporting the crime, taking the stand, seeing her divorce trial through, no matter how many insults she had to face. But there's more than one way to be brave. This came up with Ashley Inderfurth, the original prosecutor on Saskia's case. At the end of our interview, just before we stopped recording, there was one last thing Ashley wanted to say.
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