Most women would find it hard to forgive a love rat like Garry Bannister.
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First he cheated on his fiancée Charlotte Clark – the mum of his baby daughter – with her sister.
Then he went on to marry the sister, Rebecca, and have five children with her.
But Charlotte has buried the hatchet for the sake of their daughter Serena, now 11, and even went to the pair’s wedding.
“Finding out the man I loved, the father of my child, had been sleeping with my sister almost broke me,” she said.
“It took a very long time to forgive them but I did it for the sake of my daughter.
“Now we are like one big family. We have Christmases together and spend days at the beach.”
Charlotte, now 34, first met Garry, 52, when he was a chef at a pub where her best friend worked in 2005.
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Garry already had two kids from a previous relationship.
Charlotte, an apprentice assessor originally from Redhill, Surrey, recalled: “Garry was a lot older but I was attracted to his humour. He was very funny and we bounced off each other.”
In 2009 Charlotte gave birth to Serena and they got engaged in Croydon, South London.
She said: “He was a great dad, we were happy. I thought we’d be together forever.”
But Charlotte invited her younger sister Rebecca to spend more time at their home because she was going through a difficult time at work.
Ironically, at that point Rebecca hated Garry.
“Her and my mum didn’t think he was there enough when I was pregnant and they didn’t agree with the age difference,” Charlotte said.
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“Rebecca would come over and they’d barely say a word to each other. It was awkward, I just wanted them to get along.”
Then, one night in 2010, Charlotte asked Garry to drive her sister home – and he didn’t come back for four hours.
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“When I asked him where he’d been, he said they’d just been talking,” said Charlotte.
“Initially, I was pleased they had started to get on but, as the weeks went on, Rebecca and Garry became thick as thieves.
“Then one day, I got home from work and found her in my house. She’d come to see Garry while I was out. I went mad and told Garry it had to stop.
“When it carried on, I confronted them but they swore nothing was going on between them.”
Finally, in 2011, Charlotte found Facebook messages between the pair saying: “We need to tell Charlotte we’re in love, how do we tell her?”
She recalled: “I knew something wasn’t right but I didn’t expect that. I was shaking, crying, heartbroken.
“I confronted Garry and he admitted everything. They’d been sleeping together for weeks. I couldn’t bear to look at Rebecca. I’d invited her into my home and this is how she repaid me. I worried I would hit her if I saw her.”
Charlotte moved out with her daughter and less than a month later found out that her sister was pregnant.
“I remember thinking, ‘This must have happened while they were cheating on me,’ said Charlotte. “The pain was awful.
“I didn’t want to see either of them but I had to maintain a relationship with Garry for the sake of our daughter.”
Charlotte made up with Rebecca when she learned she was having problems with the pregnancy. “We talked for the first time since she broke my heart,” Charlotte said.
“I saw her and related to her as one mum to another. When you’re pregnant, all you can think is, ‘I would die if anything happened to my baby’. Since then she has completely forgiven the pair – even attending their wedding at Godstone Church in Surrey in 2017.
She said: “I did wonder in the weeks leading up to the ceremony, whether I could be there.
“But my daughter is sister to Garry and Rebecca’s kids. They are close and, despite everything, Garry is a good dad.
“On the day, I didn’t feel any jealousy. I don’t feel anything towards Garry anymore. It hurt when Rebecca got pregnant with her first child but I got used to it and soon it was just, ‘What? Another one?’”
Rebecca and Garry now have Emma, seven, Zach, six, Hannah, five, Isla, three, and Ava, one. Now Charlotte, Rebecca, Garry and their brood are like one big family and see each almost every day.
When Charlotte went to live in Port Talbot in South Wales, Rebecca and Garry moved to be close to her and Serena shortly after.
Charlotte explained: “It works well. I still do things with my sister, we go shopping together or we will sometimes go out without the kids.
Serena is very close to her siblings. She says they drive her mad, but she loves them really.
“She is too young to understand the full family dynamic. She knows mummy was with daddy, then they split up and he’s married to her auntie.”
Serena is sister to her dad’s kids with Rebecca but also their cousin. Garry is her dad but also technically her uncle.
Charlotte added: “I have moved on. I’m happily single and, unless someone really special comes along, I’ll stay that way. It was hard for me to trust anyone after what happened.”
Rebecca, 32, a community support worker, said: “I hated Garry when he was with Charlotte but, once we started to talk, we just clicked. Looking back, we fell in love that first night when he drove me home.
“Of course I felt guilty for what I did to Charlotte but, at the time, I’d have done anything to be with Garry.
“I loved him so much. I didn’t care what the rest of my family thought about me.”
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