A Perfect Nightmare: My Glittering Marriage and How It Almost Cost Me My Life

“A chilling portrait of the ways that abuse can be hidden behind a glittering façade. It’s also a compelling story of a woman learning to navigate pain, mental illness, and trauma, until finally becoming an advocate for her own strength and healing.” –ELIZABETH RENZETTI, author of Shrewed: A Wry and Closely Observed Look at the Lives of Women and Girls Karen Gosbee had it all: a successful husband, three beautiful children, the homes, the cars, the jewelery, the A-list invitations. Her life looked perfect and as her husband, George, liked to say, appearances are everything. But at the height of his success as an owner of a major American sports franchise, cracks appeared in George’s carefully constructed façade. Karen could not ignore his increasingly erratic and self-destructive behaviour, which spiralled from affairs and hard-drinking to prostitutes and drug abuse. Nor could she escape his abuse as emotional bullying escalated into dangerous beatings. A Perfect Nightmare is the story of a woman’s awakening to the realities of her failing marriage and her desperate struggle - one that would end in headlines and tragedy - to bring herself and her children to safety.