August 5, 2010 2:04 PM

Lynn France Learns of Husband John France's 2nd Wedding...On Facebook

By
Edecio Martinez
Topics
Daily Blotter

Lynn France Learns of Husband John France's 2nd Wedding On Facebook

Lynn France and John France's Wedding Photo (AP Photo)

CLEVELAND (CBS/AP) Lynn France suspected that her husband, John France, was cheating on her.

The dread of not knowing hung in the air, so the 41-year-old searched for the other woman on Facebook.

Click.

And there it was, the stuff of nightmares for any spouse, cuckolded or not. Wedding photos, and Lynn France wasn't in them.

At Walt Disney World, no less, featuring her husband literally dressed as Prince Charming. His new wife, a pretty blonde, was a glowing Sleeping Beauty, surrounded by footmen.

"I was numb with shock, to tell you the truth," says Lynn France, an occupational therapist from Westlake, a Cleveland suburb. "There was like an album of 200 pictures on there. Their whole wedding."

Lynn's husband, John France, claimed Thursday that his marriage to Lynn was never valid. He said she knew earlier about his recent marriage, and was making the Facebook claim as a publicity ploy, amid a custody fight.

John France does not deny that he is newly married. Rather, he simply insists that he was never married to Lynn in the first place.

"I don't think I was cheating," John France said in an interview aired Thursday on NBC's "The Today Show." "If you have a marriage that's not right from the beginning, it's not right at the end."

John France's attorney, Gary Williams, issued a statement Tuesday saying his client is asking a family law court to declare that his marriage to Lynn was "void since its inception."

"While it appears that John and Lynda France were both under the impression, once upon a time, that they were married, the fact of the matter is that their marriage was never legally proper," Williams wrote, "and, therefore, it does not actually exist."

That was news to Lynn.

"If that were true, then he's lied to the IRS," says Lynn France's lawyer, Andrew Zashin. "He's lied to insurance companies. Banks."

In June 2009, against the advice of her attorneys, Lynn France dropped divorce proceedings when her husband came home and persuaded her to reconcile. But Lynn claims three months ago her husband took their 2-year-old son out of her arms and vanished.

"He threw them in, no car seats, no nothing, and took off," she says.

She hasn't seen either son since. John France had taken them to Tampa, Fla., where he currently lives with his new wife.

Lynn France called 911, but as in many parental custody disputes, little could be done. She is in contact with the Center for Missing and Exploited Children and has a team of attorneys preparing for a court fight. Authorities have told her not to attempt to take back the children forcibly.

For Lynn, the only glimpse of her children now comes, ironically, from the same Facebook page where she found those nightmare wedding photos - the pictures she's not in.

"The only way I've been able to see my children is on her Facebook page," she says. "It's stranger than fiction to watch this woman living my life."



Add a Comment
by thisbehecate November 23, 2010 2:43 PM EST
It IS made up.
John and Lynn's marriage isn't legal, Lynn knew about Amanda, and knew that they were getting married, and she also signed custody of the boys to John following her attempted suicides.
She's psycho.
Reply to this comment
by TruthTeller2011 December 18, 2010 10:17 AM EST
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=8055877&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=116036925113848&aid=-1&id=739500328&oid=116036925113848

He tried to get Italian lawyers to get his marriage made invalid, but they said it wasn't possible. He KNEW he was gong to be a bigamist and is using the 2 little boys as leverage to get out of bigamy charges and to invalidate any prenuptial agreement they may have. Jennifer Pipitone, you really need to ask yourself why you are so obsessed with defending them for parental kidnapping!
by stace91 August 11, 2010 10:13 PM EDT
This is unreal! How can he get away with taking off with the kids like that and no one do anything? If he stated to the IRS that they were married and if they were living together as a married couple..how can he say he was never married to her? And the woman he married the 2nd go around must be a complete idiot! How can she want to raise someone else's kids knowing that the real mother is out there and loves them and misses them. THIS WHOLE THING IS SICK! This should be pretty cut and dry. If he put the kids in the car and drove them all the way to FL from OH without a car seat that should be endangerment if anything!

Lynn I really hope things work out and that son of a B***** pays for the hurt and pain you have to be going through.
Reply to this comment
by dlmills August 7, 2010 9:23 PM EDT
this is the unbelievable f-ing thing I've ever read. He should be in jail. He's an a$$hole.
Reply to this comment
by browniesanyone August 6, 2010 5:32 PM EDT
wow. this beats all don't it.
Reply to this comment
by Wildwood1966 August 5, 2010 2:39 PM EDT
you can't make it up!
Reply to this comment
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