In a never-before-reported interview with the Sunday Herald Sun, Brynne Edelsten also revealed the pair, who were married in a glam wedding at Crown Casino, were never intimate.The star of My Bedazzled Life also denied claims made by Edelsten following their split that she was a gold digger.Brynne appeared to be living a seemingly enviable life of fame, luxury, red carpets, designer handbags and gowns, multimillion-dollar abodes and jetsetting holidays with her medic husband of five years.But she said all was not as it seemed in her fairytale coupling when meeting this reporter over lunch on Collins Street in 2016.The explicit details of their life together can be revealed for the first time following Edelsten’s death at his St Kilda Rd apartment on Friday.In the bombshell interview, Brynne also told of her horror when she discovered her adoring husband was addicted to online dating sites and was romancing women constantly behind her back during their five-year marriage.Brynne also revealed that despite being in love when they tied the knot, she and Edelsten never had sex during their relationship.She said Edelsten’s addiction to online dating sites cruelled her dream marriage.Brynne added that she was swept off her feet by Edelsten, 40 years her senior, when they met through friends in 2008.The couple wed in a $3 million extravaganza at Crown in 2009, complete with Seinfeld star Jason Alexander, The Nanny star Fran Drescher and Margot Robbie as guests. She was 25, he was 65, and the bride knew barely a handful of guests in the 550-strong room.Their love match, however, was beset by challenges just weeks after the glitzy nuptials when Brynne discovered her husband’s dirty little secret — he was frequenting an online dating site.“I found out not long after the wedding and I felt like a fool, like an absolute fool, because I had come to Australia, I had married this man and there was a lot of public interest, and I was like: ‘Oh my god, what did I do?’,’’ Brynne said.Despite assurances that his interest in sites such as sugardaddy4me.com was finished, Brynne said his secret online life continued during their marriage.“Geoff was addicted to dating websites and Geoff loved to go meet other girls,’’ she said.“When I would go and visit my family (in America) he would have other girls come to Australia. When he would go to America he would take other girls travelling with him.“That was something I was not OK with and he knew I was not OK with it. He would lead these other women to believe he was in the process of getting a divorce.“I think what it comes down to is Geoff likes people to stroke his ego.“Geoff likes to hear about himself, Geoff likes the attention, and there is nothing wrong with that.“But there is if you have a wife and you are lying to her and you are lying to these other women making them believe you are in the process of a divorce that has never been spoken about. There is something wrong with that.’’Compounding the problems was a lack of intimacy in the marriage.“We never had a sexual relationship at all,’’ Brynne said.The couple separated towards the end of 2013, however the split was not made public until Brynne moved out of the lavish inner city penthouse they shared in Melbourne in early 2014.“At that point (when we separated) he knew I could not move out because I did not have the means to move out,’’ she said.“There was nothing worse than having to live with him under those conditions, but at the same time I did not have anywhere to go. I don’t have family here, I did not have a friend I could go and stay with, and I did not have income to be able to afford places.“Geoff decided to sleep on a couch outside my bedroom door every night, and he goes to bed at 7pm to 7.30pm at night and there were hardwood floors so you were tiptoeing around …. awkward.“I just tried to go out as much as possible so I wasn’t home when he was home.’’She refuted Edelsten’s branding of her as a gold digger, who he gave millions of dollars to during their marriage.“OK, you know what, he probably spent a lot of money on me — fine,” she said.“And he brought my family out here several times — yes.“But as far as cash I had to tell him ‘OK, I need $85 for dry cleaning, I need this amount for groceries’ … I had to tell him the exact amounts I needed and the exact reasons why.”Brynne said she knew she was in for a torrid time when she finally left Edelsten.“I knew when I left Geoff it was going to be really hard. I know Geoff and everyone who knew me advised me that it was not going to be a pretty divorce. I think that is why I stayed for a long time,” she said.“But I finally got to the point where enough was enough and I felt I had the confidence to do it, but nothing could prepare me for how bad it has been.“When Geoff decides he wants to be nasty and bitter he dwells on it and … goes out of his way to make that person miserable.’’The couple reached a settlement in April 2014, which involved weekly spousal support payments, however Brynne said the payments ceased after six weeks and she is still owed thousands. Later she was declared bankrupt after failing to pay lawyers, who represented her during the divorce, with fees totalling $70,000.Brynne admitted there was a time when she was “so in love” with Edelsten.“I left everything I knew to be with Geoff. I honestly believed I was the luckiest girl in the world,” Brynne said.“But with how he has been to me (after their split and divorce battle) it is hard to think of the good memories.”In some final words in her 2016 interview, she said: “I am not a mean person, I am not a nasty person, but as far as I am concerned he does not exist.”fiona.byrne@news.com.au
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