EP 28 – Hannah, Pt. 1

Summary

Betrayal: Weekly – EP 28: Hannah, Part 1 Summary

Release Date: February 13, 2025

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Introduction

In the twenty-eighth episode of Betrayal: Weekly, host Andrea Gunning delves into the intricate and emotionally charged story of Hannah Pittard. This episode marks the beginning of Hannah's journey through trust, friendship, love, and ultimately, deception. Set against the backdrop of her academic and personal life, Hannah's narrative offers a poignant exploration of resilience in the face of profound betrayal.

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Early Life and Personal Struggles

Hannah Pittard's passion for storytelling began in childhood, rooted in her vivid imagination while living on a farm outside Atlanta. However, her early life was marred by familial turmoil.

“At this point, my heart has just dropped and I feel like I'm in a vomit. The betrayal felt so intentional and possibly like it was a long time coming.”
— Hannah Pittard [02:26]

The divorce of her parents during her elementary years left Hannah as the youngest of three siblings, fostering feelings of isolation. Therapeutic sessions became a regular part of her life, further deepening her sense of loneliness.

Escape through Writing

To cope with her tumultuous home environment, Hannah turned to reading and eventually began writing her own stories. By middle school, her writing evolved from poems to more structured sketches, providing her a sanctuary from reality.

“I read and I would just go into this fictional dream and block out the noise of whatever was happening in the other room.”
— Hannah Pittard [04:42]

This passion led her to Deerfield Academy, an elite boarding school in her teenage years. Despite her expectations of starting anew, Hannah struggled with an eating disorder by tenth grade, viewing it as a means to exert control amidst chaos.

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College Years and New Friendships

Hannah pursued an English degree at the University of Chicago, where her apprehensions about creative writing persisted. Rejected from graduate programs initially, she persevered, eventually gaining acceptance into the University of Virginia's MFA program after dedicated effort.

Settling in Charlottesville marked a turning point as Hannah formed a deep friendship with Trish, a confident second-year student in the writing program.

“It makes you seem authentic. I was pretty excited that she noticed me. She made me feel seen, and we became friends after that.”
— Hannah Pittard [09:43]

Trish's influence was transformative, encouraging Hannah to embrace her femininity and social life. This newfound confidence extended to Hannah's personal relationships, particularly with Patrick, a musician she met through Trish and George, another friend in their circle.

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Developing Relationships and Shifting Dynamics

Hannah's bond with Patrick blossomed from friendship to romance. Their shared love for Scrabble and mutual support in their writing careers solidified their connection.

“He's a really smart guy, and he was an excellent critic, and his brain was razor sharp. So we had great conversations, and he was so much fun.”
— Hannah Pittard [18:08]

However, as their relationship deepened, the influence of alcohol within their friend group began to take a toll. Hannah noticed negative changes in both herself and her friends, leading to growing tension.

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Life in the Farmhouse and Career Milestones

A pivotal moment arrived when Hannah and Patrick moved into Hannah's mother's farmhouse, offering both a fresh environment and temporary distance from Trish and George. This period saw Hannah achieving significant milestones, including the sale of her book and securing a teaching position, while Patrick struggled with his writing career.

“He made me feel desirable. He made me feel intelligent, and he made me feel like it was so obvious that I would be ambitious, and it was so obvious that I was going to be successful.”
— Hannah Pittard [32:41]

Despite Hannah's successes, Patrick's endeavors were met with challenges, contributing to his declining mental health and strained relationship dynamics.

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The Onset of Betrayal

As Hannah's career flourished, Patrick's dissatisfaction grew. Offers for writing residencies presented opportunities for growth, but also set the stage for impending changes.

During a critical summer, Patrick decided to attend a residency in New York, coinciding with Hannah's book launch. This separation became the catalyst for the eventual betrayal, which Hannah only begins to uncover towards the episode's end.

“Did he have sex with Trish?”
— Hannah Pittard [38:54]

This revelation leaves Hannah grappling with the reality of Patrick's infidelity, marking the beginning of her journey through betrayal.

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Conclusion and Teaser for Part 2

The episode concludes on a cliffhanger, setting the stage for the next installment where Hannah confronts the full extent of her husband's deception. Listeners are left anticipating the unraveling of events that led to Hannah's path of healing and self-discovery.

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Notable Quotes

• “At this point, my heart has just dropped and I feel like I'm in a vomit. The betrayal felt so intentional and possibly like it was a long time coming.” — Hannah Pittard [02:26]

• “It makes you seem authentic. I was pretty excited that she noticed me. She made me feel seen, and we became friends after that.” — Hannah Pittard [09:43]

• “He's a really smart guy, and he was an excellent critic, and his brain was razor sharp. So we had great conversations, and he was so much fun.” — Hannah Pittard [18:08]

• “He made me feel desirable. He made me feel intelligent, and he made me feel like it was so obvious that I would be ambitious, and it was so obvious that I was going to be successful.” — Hannah Pittard [32:41]

• “Did he have sex with Trish?” — Hannah Pittard [38:54]

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Final Thoughts

This episode of Betrayal: Weekly masterfully captures the complexity of Hannah Pittard's experiences with trust and deception. Through candid storytelling and emotional depth, audiences are invited to witness Hannah's journey from aspiration to heartbreak, setting the foundation for her path toward healing in the episodes to come.

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Stay Connected

For those eager to follow Hannah's story, stay tuned for Part 2 of this compelling narrative. Engage with the Betrayal community by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, following on Instagram at @betrayalpod, and sharing your thoughts through ratings and reviews.

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Note: This summary intentionally omits advertisements, promotional messages, and non-content segments present in the original episode transcript.

Transcript

[Andrea Gunning]

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[Hannah Pittard]

At this point, my heart has just dropped and I feel like I'm in a vomit. The betrayal felt so intentional and possibly like it was a long time coming. Foreign.

[Andrea Gunning]

I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything. Betrayals often Come with a loss. On this show, we've heard stories from people who lost the love of their life or their understanding of who that person was. Others have had their children, their home, or their money taken from them. We've told stories about people losing their sense of self. But no matter the betrayal, everyone we've talked to has held onto one their story. Even when they lost everything, they still had the truth. But then we heard Hannah Pittard's story.

[Hannah Pittard]

I remember writing stories from the time I was a little girl.

[Andrea Gunning]

Today, Hannah is an accomplished author. Stories have always been a big part of who she is. When she was little, Hannah's family lived on a farm outside of Atlanta. There, her imagination would run wild.

[Hannah Pittard]

We had horses, chickens, barn, kittens. It was a wonderful time.

[Andrea Gunning]

But it wasn't a wonderful time for everyone. When she was in elementary school, Hannah's parents began a bitter divorce. Hannah was the youngest of three and at first the siblings all had each other. But eventually her older siblings went off to boarding school and Hannah was left at home in the middle of her parents custody battle.

[Hannah Pittard]

I was constantly getting interviewed by a different therapist. It felt to my mind like we were constantly going to see a judge.

[Andrea Gunning]

Her escape was reading.

[Hannah Pittard]

I read and I would just go into this fictional dream and block out the noise of whatever was happening in the other room.

[Andrea Gunning]

That's when she started writing stories of her own.

[Hannah Pittard]

By sixth grade, I was writing poems, horrible sad sack poems. And as a 13, 14 year old, I had started writing little sketches and just became pretty serious about it.

[Andrea Gunning]

Writing felt exciting. It allowed her to get lost in worlds of her own creation. But in her real life, Hannah was lonely. So she asked her parents to send her to boarding school. She thought it would be her chance to start over, to reinvent herself.

[Hannah Pittard]

But when she got there, I was still me. Naturally introverted, living in my head, writing stories.

[Andrea Gunning]

Hannah chose Deerfield Academy, a school known for its challenging academics. It was cutthroat, but Hannah hardly noticed.

[Hannah Pittard]

I was blissfully unaware of what an elite institution it was and I was blissfully unaware of any kind of real competition. Truly the worst part of it was what I was doing in private to myself.

[Andrea Gunning]

By 10th grade, Hannah developed an eating disorder. And as a note to listeners, we're going to talk about some details of her experience. For Hannah, controlling food was a way for her to feel a false sense of control. It only made the divide between her and her peers grow wider.

[Hannah Pittard]

You're a kid with a secret and it's a really big secret. It is a secret. Where you are hurting your body in this intentional way and you're not relying on the outer world and you're not trusting anybody else because you don't want to get caught. You're just so much by yourself. Socially, I was definitely isolated and isolating.

[Andrea Gunning]

She kept her head down and focused on her studies, especially her English and creative writing classes.

[Hannah Pittard]

By the time I graduated, I'd won a couple writing awards. So I had this idea that maybe I was good or I could be good for college.

[Andrea Gunning]

She went to the University of Chicago and got her degree in English.

[Hannah Pittard]

I was too intimidated to take a single creative writing class. I didn't want to be told that I wasn't as good as I felt like I'd been on Deerfield's campus. I thought, if I'm not saying what I want, then nobody knows to be disappointed in me or embarrassed on my behalf. Oh, you didn't get it. You wanted to be a writer and you didn't get it.

[Andrea Gunning]

Pursuing a real writing career terrified her. But she dreamed of a master's degree in fiction writing. So she sent in a few half hearted applications.

[Hannah Pittard]

I think I sent them something that I might not even have reread. And swiftly was rejected. And I'm so glad that I was rejected because it was a wake up call that if you want this, you have to try.

[Andrea Gunning]

She spent the next year honing her craft as best she could.

[Hannah Pittard]

It paid off. I got into several different programs and ultimately ended up at the University of Virginia.

[Andrea Gunning]

She packed up her life and headed to Charlottesville. And she made a promise to herself. The same one she'd made before boarding school.

[Hannah Pittard]

You're gonna get to grad school and you're going to become the social person that you know you want to be. You're gonna change your life.

[Andrea Gunning]

From her first day in the program, that vision felt within reach.

[Hannah Pittard]

The program had its very first meeting. All of the second years in the program were there and all of the new first years were there. I will always remember the first time I saw Trish. She was captivating.

[Andrea Gunning]

Trish was a second year in the program.

[Hannah Pittard]

She had on a great outfit. Red lipstick. I think she had on a pair of yellow ballet flats. Her hair looked amazing. She just was cool.

[Andrea Gunning]

Trish was everything Hannah was not. And Hannah wanted to make a good first impression.

[Hannah Pittard]

Back then, I was being plagued with situational rosacea, which I've had all my life. If you made eye contact with me, I either cried or blushed. And it's not just blushing. You know, I think sometimes people Hear the word blush and they think of, like, these two little cherries on either side of your cheeks. It's like a rash that crawls up my neck and makes my cheeks splotchy.

[Andrea Gunning]

So when she introduced herself to the group, she turned bright red.

[Hannah Pittard]

And Trish noticed I'm still bright red. And she came over and she put her hand on my arm and she said something like, it's really sweet how you blush when you're nervous. It makes you seem authentic. I was pretty excited that she noticed me. She made me feel seen, and we became friends after that.

[Andrea Gunning]

That day was a new beginning for Hannah. She was starting to have the social life she'd always wanted.

[Hannah Pittard]

People from the program would call to invite me out, and they'd come back to my house for house parties. And meanwhile, we're all just reading and writing and going to coffee shops. It was the fantasy that I had imagined for myself.

[Andrea Gunning]

And at all these events, Hannah would watch Trish command the room.

[Hannah Pittard]

Trish seemed so comfortable in her skin. She seemed comfortable being pretty. She seemed comfortable being perceived as somebody who wanted to look pretty. Meanwhile, I am all day long non stop thinking about my body. During this time, I was so embarrassed of having anyone think that I wanted to be pretty or sexy or feminine, even though that is desperately what I wanted.

[Andrea Gunning]

Trish started calling Hannah to hang out, and her confidence began to rub off on Hannah. For so long, Hannah had been trying to make herself small emotionally and physically. For instance, she would only wear sports bras.

[Hannah Pittard]

I was eliminating curves, but I was also eliminating the embarrassment of being perceived as somebody who wanted to be sexy.

[Andrea Gunning]

But Trish inspired Hannah to make a change.

[Hannah Pittard]

For the first time ever, I stopped wearing jog bras. And then I started wearing skirts with her encouragement. And I started showing off my body. I'm coming out of my shell and she's helping me come out of my shell.

[Andrea Gunning]

Trish liked to go out. It was something Hannah hadn't really done before. But pretty quickly, she realized she liked it too.

[Hannah Pittard]

When Trish would call me, it was meet me at this bar. She drank beers, she drank shots. And so I started drinking beers, and I started drinking shots. And I noticed that it was a lot easier to be at bars and easier to talk to townies and strangers. And I followed her lead.

[Andrea Gunning]

Over time, Hannah began distancing herself from the other first years, and she was spending more and more nights with Trish.

[Hannah Pittard]

I felt like here at last is a friend who's cool, who I can talk to and go out with. Here's my first female adult friend. Her friendship when I was feeling so vulnerable was transformative.

[Andrea Gunning]

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[Andrea Gunning]

Trish was Hannah's first real friend and their bond only grew stronger during Hannah's second year in grad school.

[Hannah Pittard]

We were brought closer by the fact that my stepfather, who had adopted me, was sick my entire second year.

[Andrea Gunning]

He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Trish knew what Hannah was going through. She had lost her own dad a couple years earlier.

[Hannah Pittard]

She understood grief and she understood loss. And when I would become quiet or start crying at a bar, she was not judgmental. She knew how to act around me.

[Andrea Gunning]

Hannah's other grad school friends just didn't get it.

[Hannah Pittard]

And so I ultimately ended up isolating myself from them and sort of glommed onto Trish and the Charlottesville music scene.

[Andrea Gunning]

Trish was dating a guy named George, a poet in the program. The two of them were very plugged into the live music scene in town, so they would often bring Hannah to shows. That's how Hannah met Patrick. He was a musician in a local band.

[Hannah Pittard]

Trish and George, they loved the band. They loved this guy. Trish said one night, you gotta meet him. He's so great. He's so cute. He had a girlfriend, so I didn't think of him as a love interest, But I did meet him, and I was like, ah, he is cute.

[Andrea Gunning]

During this period, Hannah was often traveling home to spend time with her family and visit her stepdad in hospice.

[Hannah Pittard]

Trish knew that I played a lot of Scrabble with my family, and she knew that Patrick played Scrabble. And I never would have made the first move to be in touch with Patrick because I didn't really know how to have male friends at that point in my life.

[Andrea Gunning]

But Trish insisted that the two of them should hang out, so she gave Patrick Hannah's number.

[Hannah Pittard]

I got a phone call one day from Patrick saying, trish says, you play Scrabble? I said, yeah, I play Scrabble. And he said, okay, well, I'm on the downtown mall. Why don't you bring your Scrabble board and let's play? And I said, I thought, you have a girlfriend. And he's like, this isn't a date. I do have a girlfriend. I want to play Scrabble. And I thought, oh, okay. Weird, bizarre. I'm not doing anything. So I went. We played Scrabble at a coffee shop, and we just started playing Scrabble all the time. And he became my first male friend.

[Andrea Gunning]

Like Trish, Patrick was confident, maybe even a little cocky, but they had a real connection.

[Hannah Pittard]

He's a really smart guy, and he was an excellent critic, and his brain was razor sharp. So we had great conversations, and he was so much fun.

[Andrea Gunning]

Their relationship was. Was platonic. Even after Patrick broke up with his.

[Hannah Pittard]

Girlfriend, he just started dating a lot of women. And I thought, this is so wonderful. I've got a male friend who I get the male Perspective from. He gets the female perspective from me.

[Andrea Gunning]

But their dynamic started to shift after Patrick had a major surgery. It meant he needed to spend a lot of time resting at home.

[Hannah Pittard]

His recovery corresponded with the beginning of the grieving process because my stepfather died and we started spending just a ton of time together.

[Andrea Gunning]

Hannah would even bring Patrick along to check on her mom, who was now living outside of Charlottesville.

[Hannah Pittard]

I took Patrick out to my mom's farmhouse one day and the three of us played Scrabble. And it was like the first time I saw my mom laugh. And the two of them loved each other. They got along so well. And it got to the point where my mom would call Patrick when she'd come into town and say, I'm going to the grocery store. And Patrick would go to the grocery store with her. He would take her to bars. I mean, he was helping her find small amounts of joy.

[Andrea Gunning]

She started to see a different side of him. As they grew closer, they started going out with Trish and George.

[Hannah Pittard]

The four of us had become this kind of Charlottesville unit. I would see Patrick and we'd play Scrabble and then we'd go to a bar and meet up with Trish and George.

[Andrea Gunning]

The four of them were always out together talking to strangers and laughing until the bars closed down.

[Hannah Pittard]

You feel young and invincible, and this is where stories are happening. You're interacting with people. You're overhearing strange bits of dialogue.

[Andrea Gunning]

She was finally living life and she was channeling these experiences into her writing.

[Hannah Pittard]

I had so many ideas and I was still getting all of my writing done. And because I was in my 20s and made of elastic, I'd wake up the next morning at 7 and just start writing.

[Andrea Gunning]

She was a good writer. She regularly submitted to literary magazines and she was getting published.

[Hannah Pittard]

It felt like this fantasy that I had was within my reach. As long as I keep trying, as long as I keep trying, I keep writing. There's a possibility that this could be my life.

[Andrea Gunning]

And Patrick actually started to write short stories of his own. He wasn't in school or in their.

[Hannah Pittard]

Writing program, but hanging out with Trish and me. Fiction writers hanging out with George, a poet. He did start writing stories.

[Andrea Gunning]

The two of them would often spend Scrabble games talking about books and story ideas. Hannah also trusted Patrick to read her works in progress.

[Hannah Pittard]

He would get wistful sometimes and say, I don't know how you're, like, how you are. You're just so cool and you're such a good writer and nothing seems to bother you. And of course, inside, I am nothing.

[Andrea Gunning]

But roiling turmoil with these kinds of comments. Hannah started to wonder, was Patrick into her?

[Hannah Pittard]

It felt good to be seen, and it felt good to be perceived as attractive. And it felt good to have this attractive man perceive me as attractive. And before I knew it, I was crushing pretty hard on him.

[Andrea Gunning]

She wasn't going to make the move. She knew Patrick had other women in his life, and it was hard to tell for sure if the feelings were mutual.

[Hannah Pittard]

And then it was one of those nights that was not uncommon for the four of us where we had shut the bars down. We went back to his house. You know, he'd kind of been doing that thing where he was touching my elbow with his elbow and making eye contact a little too long. He's making some inside joke references about things that we'd been talking about during Scrabble. And it's just incredible tension that is mounting. Then at a certain point, probably like 4 in the morning, George and Trish went back to their apartment and I was gonna call a cab, but she.

[Andrea Gunning]

Didn'T call a cab. They kissed and she spent the night.

[Hannah Pittard]

We went from being best friends to one night make out, to basically living with one another. There were so many mornings when I would wake up and I would look over and I'd see that it was Patrick in bed. And I would think, I am so lucky. I get to do this for the rest of my life. I actually like the person that I'm waking up with. And it was just. It was bliss.

[Andrea Gunning]

They were in love. Still, much of the time they'd spend together was in their group of four.

[Hannah Pittard]

It was nonstop double dating with Trish and George.

[Andrea Gunning]

But eventually the group's lifestyle started to catch up with Hannah.

[Hannah Pittard]

Trish and Patrick weren't just drinkers, they were late night drinkers. And so that's what I became to for a little while. There were a lot of moments where I would reflect on what I was doing and how I was behaving, and I'd be pretty scared.

[Andrea Gunning]

She didn't like what heavy drinking did to her, who it made her become. And she certainly didn't like what alcohol did to Trish.

[Hannah Pittard]

She could be pretty aggressive, she could be rude, she could piss people off in bars.

[Andrea Gunning]

When Trish got like this, it would set Patrick off.

[Hannah Pittard]

He had a bit of a temper too. So their tempers could kind of go up against one another.

[Andrea Gunning]

Nights would often end in fights, and even when they didn't, things like this would happen.

[Hannah Pittard]

The four of us were out. Trish and I were at the bar. George and Patrick were sitting where we could see them, but it was pretty packed and she was saying, I knew he'd come around. I knew he'd realize he loved you. I knew it. I just knew it.

[Andrea Gunning]

Trish wasn't being the supportive, encouraging friend Hannah had first met.

[Hannah Pittard]

She wanted to just remind me that he hadn't crushed on me as hard as I'd crushed on him at the beginning. And she always loved to point out that she had been friends with him first.

[Andrea Gunning]

Instead, it felt like she was going out of her way to cut Hannah down.

[Hannah Pittard]

And this drove me a little bit crazy.

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[Hannah Pittard]

We needed a new place to live and we were broke. I was waiting tables, he was gigging and teaching music and we were so desperate for money. I was desperate for money. So when my mom offered this free place to live, it was not lost on me that this farmhouse came with a happy coincidence of having some emotional distance from Trish and what felt to me like her constant oversight. So we had this kind of break and I thought it was magical, just magical.

[Andrea Gunning]

Moving into the farmhouse allowed Hannah to make writing her priority. She submitted more stories for publication and even began writing her first novel. To her surprise, Patrick wanted to do the same.

[Hannah Pittard]

He started wanting to focus on writing and some of the stories were good and he got a lot of publications all on his own.

[Andrea Gunning]

Other times he leaned on Hannah.

[Hannah Pittard]

It felt like every time I got a story accepted, his first response would be, you should tell the editor about this story I just wrote. And every time I would email the editor and say, hey, there's this great story that I just read by a friend of mine, right? And he got a few publications that way.

[Andrea Gunning]

But his success was limited compared to Hannah's and he struggled with being farther away from town. It took a toll on Patrick.

[Hannah Pittard]

Every day I'd get up, I'd write, and at 3:30 I would drive into Charlottesville and start my shift at the steakhouse and he'd stay home and that's where he started drinking during the day.

[Andrea Gunning]

Hannah's mom also noticed a change in Patrick. She once called Hannah during her work.

[Hannah Pittard]

Shift and she said, I saw Patrick this morning, he was wearing a robe. And I said, well, it was morning, Mom. And she said yes. And I saw him again just now and he's still wearing a robe and it's 5 o'clock in the afternoon. It was a moment when I realized she could see what I could see that troubled me.

[Andrea Gunning]

Life in the farmhouse wasn't working for Patrick. Hannah was worried. She knew they needed a change. That's when her book sold.

[Hannah Pittard]

When I got that book deal, it was all of those dreams, everything I'd wanted for so long.

[Andrea Gunning]

And the good news didn't stop there. On top of the sale of her book, Hannah was offered a teaching position in Chicago. Plus Patrick was offered a spot in an MFA program in Boston. He could complete it and then go meet Hannah in Chicago. They decided it would be a great change, a fresh start.

[Hannah Pittard]

So we knew that we were going to be leaving Charlottesville. And at about the same time, George and Trish decided that they were going to move to New York.

[Andrea Gunning]

Trish and George were also ready for a new beginning. By this point, they were married, and Charlottesville was feeling small. With big changes coming, the group became nostalgic. Trish and George were still Hannah and Patrick's close friends, and no one knew when they'd all be together again. So for their last couple months in Virginia, Hannah and Patrick moved back into town to relive the old days as a group of four.

[Hannah Pittard]

And suddenly it was like the four of us together again. But I think what I told myself was, we all are doing this because it's a last hurrah, and we know that things are about to change. We're moving to Chicago and they're moving to New York, and therefore it's a last hurrah.

[Andrea Gunning]

Right away, they fell back into their old patterns. Hannah always ended the night feeling hurt or embarrassed. But whenever she asked Patrick if they could cut back on time with Trish.

[Hannah Pittard]

And George, he would say, they're part of my past. They're part of who I am. I don't know how to have a social life without them.

[Andrea Gunning]

Patrick was in a fragile place, and Hannah knew that Trish and George made him feel like his old self. So instead of demanding that they cut off their friends, she went along with it, at least for the time being.

[Hannah Pittard]

I will just deal with it. I have always dealt with the things that are uncomfortable. I can handle it. I can handle it. It'll be fine.

[Andrea Gunning]

It was clear to Hannah that she'd outgrown the group. It was a challenging couple of months, but then it finally came time for Hannah and Patrick to move on. He spent a year in Boston, and.

[Hannah Pittard]

Then we moved to Chicago, and I wrote another book.

[Andrea Gunning]

Through this big transition, Patrick was there for Hannah.

[Hannah Pittard]

He made me feel desirable. He made me feel intelligent, and he made me feel like it was so obvious that I would be ambitious, and it was so obvious that I was going to be successful.

[Andrea Gunning]

He was her champion. But when it came to his own career, he felt discouraged. He was writing his first book. Unlike Hannah, he had a difficult time getting published. So once again, his mental health took a turn for the worse.

[Hannah Pittard]

He really was struggling with giving up who he'd been. In Charlottesville, which was a big fish in a small pond, his band was the popular band at the time when he was living in Charlottesville. So he'd gone from kind of like golden God in Charlottesville to a dude struggling to find work and writing his first novel in Chicago. Living with a novelist who's got a full time job.

[Andrea Gunning]

It wasn't an easy time for Hannah either. Her second book wasn't finding a publisher as quickly as her first.

[Hannah Pittard]

And then my agent was shopping that second book and it was getting rejected. And that's when Patrick proposed.

[Andrea Gunning]

She said yes. Finally, they had something to look forward to. So they started planning the wedding.

[Hannah Pittard]

We wanted it to be small, intimate, Charlottesville based. It was a beautiful wedding.

[Andrea Gunning]

Of course Trish and George were there. Even though those last couple months together were rocky for Hannah, they remain the couple's closest friends.

[Hannah Pittard]

They were the origin story. That's how I met him. So they were one of three couples who were there that were not somehow related to us.

[Andrea Gunning]

The day was everything Hannah hoped it would.

[Hannah Pittard]

We did our own vows, we wrote them together and we put on like, it was like a scene that we did. He cried. I felt so happy. I felt so happy getting married to him. And then, and then her book did.

[Andrea Gunning]

Find a publisher and she sold a third book right after that. She was elated. But Patrick wasn't.

[Hannah Pittard]

That third book deal, I think really, really hurt him. I think my shadow just got bigger for him and he started feeling smaller.

[Andrea Gunning]

He turned to Trish and George for support.

[Hannah Pittard]

They always made him feel like the person he had been in his 20s.

[Andrea Gunning]

In Charlottesville, they made more of an effort to see Trish and George. With vacations and visits back and forth.

[Hannah Pittard]

It felt like they were our best couple friend again. They were always there. They were always there.

[Andrea Gunning]

Hannah also helped Patrick secure a teaching job when she got a new role at a university in Kentucky. The move and the job did little to help Patrick and his dreams of a book deal.

[Hannah Pittard]

He'd gotten close a couple times, but it just didn't happen for him.

[Andrea Gunning]

By this point, they'd been together for nearly 10 years. Hannah was accomplishing everything she wanted in life. Meanwhile, her husband was miserable and she couldn't help but feel that he resented her for her success. He was lost and grasping for any sense of purpose. She didn't know how to help him. Finally, Patrick was given an opportunity. The second summer after they moved to Kentucky, he was offered two prestigious writing residencies.

[Hannah Pittard]

One was in France and one was at Yaddo. And there was a two week down period between the residencies.

[Andrea Gunning]

It would mean A lot of time apart. But Hannah thought this was good for Patrick and for their relationship. Besides, she'd be traveling a lot that summer promoting her third book. She told Patrick to go.

[Hannah Pittard]

The idea was by the end of July, we would be back in Kentucky together. He would get therapy, and we would figure things out.

[Andrea Gunning]

Between France and his next residency in the States, Patrick had a week off, and he spent it in New York visiting old friends.

[Hannah Pittard]

He decided to go to New York City and stay with our very good friend Hugh. And the idea was he would go back and forth between Hugh's place and Trish's and George's place so that he wasn't a burden. And then he goes to Yaddo and he keeps writing.

[Andrea Gunning]

And that's what happened. Or so Hannah was told. The week after Patrick went to his second residency, Hannah needed to be in New York for her book launch. She was going to crash with their friend Hugh, just like Patrick had the week before. She got in a day early. And the night before her book launch, she and Hugh stayed up late talking randomly. They got on the topic of jealousy.

[Hannah Pittard]

And I said something like, well, I'm not a suspicious person. And he said, maybe you should be more suspicious. And I said, that's a really interesting thing to say. And he said, you should ask me questions.

[Andrea Gunning]

She didn't know where this was coming from, but Hugh seemed serious, like he had something he needed to say, like he was trying to tell her something.

[Hannah Pittard]

And I said, is this about Patrick? And he said, yes. And I said, did something happen when Patrick was in New York last week without me? And he said, yes. At this point, my heart has just, like, dropped, and I feel like I'm in a vomit. And I said, did Patrick have sex with someone? And he said, yes.

[Andrea Gunning]

She knew the question she really wanted to ask. She was just afraid of Hugh's answer.

[Hannah Pittard]

But finally I said, did he have sex with Trish? And Hugh said, yes.

[Andrea Gunning]

On the next episode of Betrayal, my.

[Hannah Pittard]

Agent sent me an email, and the subject was, have you seen this? And I opened it and I read it and I read it again, and I wasn't able to really make sense of what I was reading.

[Andrea Gunning]

If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal team, email [e-mail] that's betrayalpodmail.com and be sure to follow us on on Instagram etrayalpod. We're grateful for your support. One way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review Betrayal. Five star reviews go a long way. A big thank you to all of our listeners. Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Faison, hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning. This episode was written and produced by Caitlin golden and Monique Laborde with additional production by Ben Federman. Associate producers are Kristin Melcuri and Kaitlyn Golden. Our iHeart team is Ally Perry and Jessica Krynczyk. Audio editing and mixing by Matt D'Alvecchio additional editing support from Tanner Robbins. Betrayal's theme composed by Oliver Baines Music Library provided by MIB Music and for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Loving cold cases is one thing. Loving cold weather? That's completely different. Warm [e-mail] it doesn't matter how you travel as a family relaxing on an adults only getaway. Visit CheapCaribbean.com for all types of all inclusive beach vacations. Just book your spring break travel in March or April to unlock an extra $250 off your package price. This offer is valid through February 27th on vacation packages of four nights or more. Don't wait. Book now at CheapCaribbean.com GLP1 injections have helped many people lose weight, but they can be costly and out of reach for some. That's where Henry Meds makes a difference. Even if you don't have health insurance, you can save over $1,000 a month with no hidden fees. Henry Meds offers affordable compounded GLP1 treatments from licensed US pharmacies and their team of providers is with you every step of the way. Take control of your weight management journey. Visit henrymeds.com now. Results may vary. Not all patients are eligible. Compounded medications are not FDA approved. Consult a healthcare provider to determine if treatment is right for you. Meet Greens the new way to get your daily greens in one easy step. Say goodbye to messy powders and large pills. These all in one. Eat daily gummies. Simplify your health routine with 20 plus vitamins, minerals and 60 whole food ingredients. They're vegan, gluten free and they taste just like a fruit snack. Plus check out Groons kids for your little ones Right now. Go to Groons Co and get up to 45% off your first order with code Betrayal. Discover Groons. Get your daily greens the easiest way possible. You're gonna love it.