'My soulmate left me for my best friend and now they live opposite me'

Heartbroken: Catherine McGhee's husband lives with her best friend OPPOSITE her

Life seemed so ideal for Catherine McGhee.
She was expecting a much longed-for third baby to the childhood sweetheart husband she had been with 21 years.
And her soulmate and best friend since she was six years old, Lynne Hogan, lived just across the road.
But her cosy existence in their quiet, surburban street was to be suddenly and devastatingly smashed to pieces.
Because her taxi driver hubby John McLachlan suddenly walked out of her life saying he no longer loved her.
The shock and distress was so overwhelming that she suffered a miscarriage .

 

Best pals: Catherine and Lynn aged 10

But when she turned to Lynne for comfort, her mate split from her own husband, moved John into her home – and is now expecting his baby next month.
Distraught Catherine, 37, sobbed: “I’ve lost the two most important people in my life. It’s like a bereavement. What’s worse is they live so close.
“When John left, I felt so lucky to have Lynne. I spent hours crying on her shoulder.
"But when I saw John’s car parked outside her house, I felt sick to my stomach. Everything suddenly made perfect sense.”
Catherine, mum to John’s children, Jade, 21, and Aidan, 11, says she looked through his old phone bills and found 53 calls and hundreds of texts to jobless Lynne’s number, dating from months before their split.

 

Happier times: Catherine McGhee and John McLachlan on their wedding day

But she was met with silence when she tried to confront the pair, both also 37.
The couple have said they will only communicate with her through lawyers.
Catherine said: “I should have seen the signs. John became really protective over his phone. He even took it to the toilet.


“Every time Lynne came round to see me, she would talk to John all night – but I thought it was totally innocent.”
Her betrayal was shattering for trusting Catherine.
The best pals shared almost their whole childhood and both met John when all three started secondary school.

 

Old life: Catherine McGhee and husband on holiday

Catherine and John got together when they were 14 and, a year later, she unexpectedly fell pregnant with daughter Jade.
No-one expected the two teenagers to stay together.
“But against the odds, we did,” said Catherine. “Having a baby so young was a struggle. We had our ups and downs, but we managed to muddle through.
“I knew I could always turn to Lynne whenever I was having a bad day.
"Ironically, John wasn’t her biggest fan then. He didn’t think she could be trusted and said she was sneaky, but she was like a sister to me.”
In 2004, Catherine gave birth to Aidan only to suffer severe post-natal depression.
“Without John and Lynne, I don’t think I’d have got through it,” she said.
“John did such a great job of looking after the children and Lynne phoned constantly to check I was OK.”

 

Betrayla: Catherine McGhee and Lynn at Aiden's Baptisim

In 2007, the couple got married after John proposed during a romantic holiday in Ibiza.
In the seven years that followed, they saw neighbour Lynne – by then also married – regularly. And Catherine assumed John was blissfully happy.
But everything changed like a bolt from the blue one day in February 2014.
“He just said his feelings had changed,” said Catherine, who is unable to work because of depression.
“I couldn’t understand it. I was hysterical. My mum literally had to pick me up off the floor.
"I couldn’t eat or sleep. A few days later, I found out I was pregnant with the third child we’d both wanted so much.
“I was so stressed that I miscarried. Lynne was amazing, though. She came round every night and we ranted about how badly John had treated me.”
But after a few weeks, Lynne began ignoring Catherine’s texts and calls. “I was hurt,” Catherine said.

Chris Watt Photography

No escape: Catherine McGhee lives opposite the couple

“I went round to her house but she made it clear I wasn’t welcome. I was really confused.
“Then I heard from another neighbour she was having marriage problems of her own so I assumed she was preoccupied.”
But when Catherine spied John’s car outside Lynne’s home everything suddenly fell into place.
“I hoped he might just be dropping something off,” she said. “But hours passed and the car didn’t move. I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach.
“I sank to my knees, crying. I phoned John and demanded to know what was going on and he told me they were just friends.
"But, weeks later, a friend told me John had taken Lynne on holiday to Blackpool with him.

Chris Watt Photography

Too close: Catherine McGhee's husband and childhood sweetheart John left her for her best friend of 30 years

“I then found out that Lynne’s husband Mark had moved out of their house and John had moved in. I ­struggled to hold it together.
“It wasn’t long before Lynne was ­pregnant. It felt like they were rubbing salt in the wound, as they’d both known how much I wanted another baby.”
Lynne’s baby is due next month and now John and Catherine are in the middle of a bitter divorce wrangle.
“It sounds silly, but I really miss them both,” said Catherine, of Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire.
“Sometimes, I roll over in bed and reach to cuddle John before I realise he’s not there.

 

 "And I often go to dial Lynne’s number and then I remember we’re not friends any more. It kills me.
“I’m not sure how I’ll react when their baby arrives and I see them pushing their pram along the street. I feel physically sick at the thought.”
When we contacted John he said: “My ex wife is alcohol dependent and depressive.
"I had been separated from Catherine due to her alcohol behaviour. I’ve got an ongoing legal thing with her just now.”
Catherine hit back: “I knew that was coming. I’m not an alcoholic .”
Lynne said: “John didn’t walk out. He was thrown out. We weren’t having a relationship. We started having a relationship in June.
“She came to my house a few times after her and John had split up. I was unwell with diabetes and told her I had enough going on in my own life.”