According to online reports, ESPN analyst Steve Phillips has taken a leave of absence from the sports news network after admitting to an illicit affair with a 22-year-old ESPN production assistant.
The first mistake that Marni Phillips made was not leaving her husband when she found out he cheated in the workplace.
Marni Phillips made the mistake so many women make when their husbands cheat in the workplace: she gave him a second chance. As I wrote in an earlier post, most men will cheat if they have the time and opportunity, and most affairs occur in the workplace.
Men don’t cheat by accident — they cheat by nature. If they did it once, they will do it again.
Police say Phillips’ mistress Brooke Hundley began calling Phillips’ wife on Aug. 5, taunting her with text messages describing his birthmarks. Hundley also messaged the couple’s 16-year-old son on Facebook, posing as another teen to get information about his family life.
Marni Phillips called police Aug. 19 when she came home to find Hundley standing in her driveway.
Hundley had tacked a letter to the Phillips’ front door just before Marni Phillips drove up. When she saw Phillips, Hundley put her car in reverse, smashing into a stone column and then driving across the front lawn to escape.
“I knew instinctively that this was the woman Steve was involved with and I was terrified,” Phillips wrote in a statement to police.
“I’m a real person in his life and I care deeply about his happiness,” police say Hundley wrote in the letter.
Steve Phillips claimed his affair with Hundley was “three meetings that all took place in July.”
ESPN, which no doubt has a no fraternization policy, said it took “appropriate disciplinary action” when the affair came to light back in August. But it wasn’t clear what that disciplinary action was.
Police plan to interview Hundley when she returns from vacation next week. But here’s the best part: Marni Phillips filed for divorce Sept. 14, according to court records.
