Yvonne Nelson had a deep love for Jamie Roberts, the father of her child and the man she hoped to marry, but that love was shattered by an email she received from his Nigerian former wife. In her memoir ‘I Am Not Yvonne Nelson’, she revealed that “The email was meant to ruin him in my eyes, to keep us apart.”
She did not disclose the specifics of what the ex-wife said about Jamie, but she remembered that it contained every dirty detail about him, exposing secrets that could break any woman, no matter how much she loved a man.
“She wrote the email in a way that left no doubt or room for failure on her part. She knew what she wanted to achieve with the email and she got it,” Yvonne said.
“The email was detailed and extremely explicit. She took her time to tell me all the dirt about her ex-husband, details that would shake any woman no matter how deep her love for a man is. My love for Jamie was deep. It was the reason the email tore us apart.”
“When someone you love with your heart hurts you, they hurt you deeply. And to say I was hurt reading the email is an understatement. I was broken,” Yvonne added.
The email made her lose trust in Jamie and led to her “decision to leave the relationship despite being pregnant for him. It was hard for both of us.”
However, Yvonne praised Jamie for being a caring father to their daughter, Ryn, something she (Yvonne) never had as her father was never there for her.
She said: “Jamie is still very much present in the life of our daughter. He is one of the most caring fathers I know. Having lived without a father, the last thing I would do is prevent my daughter from enjoying fatherly love.
“When Jamie visits to see Ryn, I give him the guest room. Sometimes, after a week, he would tell me he is going back.”
After Jamie’s encounter, Yvonne said she “lost the essence of falling in love and believing in a man” and her “worldview about marriage also changed afterwards”.
She now believes “in partnership, having someone you want and not having to sign a contract. As a woman, I’m trying to work hard and be independent. If marriage is to solve the insecurity of what happens when a man leaves, that doesn’t really apply to me now. If you’re in love with someone, why do you sign a contract? Signing that contract is like an acknowledgment that it won’t work and the contract cannot save it. You can sign a contract to be responsible for the kids and for other commitments, but you cannot sign a contract to love someone.”
Yvonne and Jamie welcomed Ryn in 2017. In 2019, she confirmed she had broken up with the British photographer who had two children from his previous marriages.
In her book, she said she would have been “his third African wife had things not ended so quickly and painfully.” She described Jamie as “a black man in a white man’s body” due to his love for “African food, music, and of course, its women.”
