Wendy
and Alex met for the first time on April 17, 1992 at The Crazy
Horse Restaurant and Night Club in Orange County. Alex saw her
standing in line and came up to her and gave her his heavily gold
embossed card with his title and, although she hesitated, she gave
him her phone number. At the time, Wendy was 24 and had been
working for eight years. She found her first job when she was 16
and still in high school. By working she earned enough money to buy
a car and begin saving until she graduated. She was hired at age 20
as a receptionist at a prestigious law firm in Orange County.
She
has worked nearly continuously and is highly valued at the firm as
a reliable and dedicated employee. This was likely a large part of
the draw for Alex. Wendy was attractive and her job brought in an
income. She was steady and reliable and had an apartment and a car,
all things Alex lacked – and best of all she was an American
citizen.
Alex
called her persistently asking her to go out with him. At the time
he was sofa surfing at the home of Richard
Gipe. This arrangement proved to be wearing for Alex's host and the
Viscount found himself in need of alternate resources.
Because
he had lost access to the car he was borrowing from Gipe's girl
friend, Alex suggested he drive her to work, freeing Wendy's car
for his use. Wendy reluctantly agreed. She had just finished paying
off the vehicle to lower her expenses while she was off work.
By
July, Alex had moved into Wendy's apartment, rapidly displacing her
room mate with his behavior. Wendy had discovered she was pregnant
and was not sure getting married right
away was
a good idea.
In
March, 1993 Alex totaled her modest
1987 Nissan Sentra
and insisted on 'buying her' a Jaguar, going out
to choose it alone. This did not
strike Wendy as an appropriate vehicle, but Alex ignored her
objections.
On
May 7th
Alex came home and insisted they be married immediately. Two hours
later they were standing in front of a Justice of the Peace. Wendy
had been planning a wedding after the baby was born and no one in
her family was able to attend on only a few minutes notice. The
ceremony took place at the Court House at
211 W. Santa Ana Blvd., Santa Ana, 92701 Orange County,
California. A business associate of Alex’s, John
McDonald, acted as witness.
Wendy
was told the emergency wedding was needed to avoid Alex being
deported, but refused
to tell her why.
Their
son, Alexander Michael Charles David Drogo Montagu, Alexander
Junior,was born on the 13th.
As soon as she was
home from the hospital Alex insisted they visit the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services Field Office at 300 North Los
Angeles St. Los Angeles, CA, and later an attorney's office in the
Los Angeles area.
Alex
was finally forced to come clean and tell Wendy he had written a
bad check for the Jaguar. Wendy was forced to borrow from her
401K to cover his bad check. This proved to only the first of
many such incidents. At the time, Wendy was on maternity leave from
her work.
Not
long after giving birth to their son, Alexander, Jr., Alex started
parking the new Jag in the garage at their apartment. Alex
knew, but Wendy did not, that “Cove Motoring” was trying to
repossess the Jaguar until they came to the front door one night
demanding the car. Eventually, the car went missing,
turning up, torched, in the desert. Wendy has always believed Alex
did this himself.
Alex's
unique scheme for financing automobiles continued throughout the
marriage. Wendy would go to work and he would go shopping for cars.
He always assured her he had, “taken care of it, it’s all fine,
the trust will pay for it…" It was never true. Wendy
always ended up having to cover the check, or co-sign for a car of
which she had no prior knowledge.
Looking
at cars was a major focus for Alex, far more than finding, or
keeping, a job.
1994
marked the
first
of the five jobs held by Montagu
during
his second marriage. He was hired to drive the shuttle for Wyndham
Hotel
in Costa Mesa
late
that year.
The
couple
lived
within walking distance. Alex,
Jr.
was less than a year old and Wendy was working full time and taking
care of
the
household when she came home. This job lasted about a month,
according to
Wendy,
who remembers he was excited about the tips. She also noted losing
this
job,
or any of his subsequent jobs, was just was not his fault.
Montagu's
second job
lasted
two weeks in 1995. This involved scraping barnacles off boats in
Newport
Harbor.
Wendy
had to drop him off and pick him up. There was no explanation as to
why this job ended.
Wendy
gave in to Alex's demand he, as the husband, control the money early
in the marriage. This proved to be a devastating mistake which
resulted in nearly yearly evictions from a constant series of homes.
During the time they were together, 13 years, the couple was evicted
twelve times.
This
has also been true of Manchester's life during his third marriage and
to present day.
Not
mentioning inconvenient facts to Wendy was standard operating
procedure throughout the marriage. In 1996 Manchester's mother, Lady
Mary Montagu, finally persuaded Alex to cooperate in filling out the
forms for a divorce from Marion Stoner Montagu, to whom he was still
legally married.
Wendy
remembered Lady Mary calling but was never told why there was a
sudden, and temporary, increase in communication.
One
of the few times Wendy remembers with happiness from her marriage,
except for her children, was meeting Michael Jackson. Manchester
routinely received invitations for official events from the British
Embassy so the couple received one for the memorial service for
Diana, Princess of Wales to be held in Los Angeles in September,
1997.
A
mutual acquaintance, who knew Jackson was trying to find a way to
attend the event, arranged for Michael to attend as their guest. So
on September 13th
the Viscount of
Mandeville and Wendy, the Viscountess, rolled up to the St.
James Episcopal Church in Los Angeles with Michael Jackson. After the
service Michael returned with them to their hotel room and visited
with Alex, Jr. Lord Alex spent his time videoing the game of hide and
go seek which took place in their room at Hyatt Regency.
Alex
immediately tried to sell Michael a plane, for which he hoped to
receive a hefty commission. Jackson declined, but the star did invite
the entire family to spend the day at Neverland on Martin Luther King
Day the next January.
On
June 16th 1999
the Montagu's second child, a daughter, named Ashley Faith Maxine
Nell Beatrice Montagu, was born.
Alex
had been asking Wendy to have more children but she felt they should
have some stability before enlarging their family. Montagu's motive
was monetary. For every child he received an additional monthly
stipend from the Manchester Trust. Wendy never knew what Alex did
with the money provided by the Trust, which Alex refused to discuss
with her.
This
same year Montagu found a third job, this one driving a limo for a
company whose name
was
something like “Five Star Limo,” according to Wendy. This job
ended after less than a month when Alex ran
over someone's foot.
On
July 25th,
2002 Alex succeeded to his father's title, becoming the 13th
Duke of Manchester,
16th
Baron Kimbolton of Kimbolton.
Alex made one trip to England, alone. Otherwise, nothing changed.
In
2003 Wendy bought a car of her own car so she could be sure of having
transportation. It is paid for and she is still driving it
today.
Earlier,
this same year Montagu found a fourth job. The family was living in
Irvine. Alex
became a security guard for Nordic
Security
and was allowed to drive a patrol car wearing a standard uniform.
Excited by this, he became very wrapped up in the job. According to
Wendy, Alex decided he was actually a police officer, buying extra
uniforms in addition to a pair of handcuffs.
Deciding
he needed practice using his handcuffs he clamped them on Wendy's
wrists one evening, dragged her down the hallway, bruising her badly
during a disagreement. He lost the job because of an altercation
while on patrol at a movie complex area in Lake Forest. During
the altercation he was slightly injured.
The
altercation was with a woman manager at the movie theater and the
manager's boyfriend. Alex did not confide any further details with
Wendy except to say he needed to break up a fight and was shoved and
hurt on the job. His employment ended a short time later, the entire
time of employment being about one month.
This
resulted in a claim for workman's compensation which produced
enough money the next year to pay for a colon
reduction to help him reduce his growing weight.
He
had told Wendy, who drove him, he was going in for an operation on
his back. But the nurse turned to Wendy, giving her instructions for
afterward for a very different part of the anatomy as Alex tried with
his hands to signal the nurse to be quiet.
In
early 2005 Michael Jackson, briefly, reentered their lives.
On
March 25, 2005, Wendy began receiving calls from friends telling her
Alex was on television, in fact, being interviewed on NBC News by
Mike Taibbi. It had dawned on Alex he would be only one of two
litigants in the case against Jackson instead of one of many. He also
probably realized Wendy would not lie and could think of no way to
keep her off the witness stand.
Alex,
therefore, needed an excuse not to testify.
Wendy's
friends asked her about the claims Alex was making, including being
threatened by Jackson, being told to stay away from the trial, and
his car and house being vandalized. Wendy told them she was not aware
of any threats and knew, for a fact, the house and car were not
damaged.
But
on April 20th
a
Declaration
made
by Alexander, Duke of Manchester, on the abuse of
his
son by Jackson was entered into the court record. No such abuse had
taken place, and could not have, according to Wendy because Michael
was never alone with Little Alex.
Lifw
with Alex included the unexpected in many ways. In September or
October of 2005 Alex announced he was going to England on important
business with the Manchester Trustees. Wendy, always the dutiful
wife, drove him to the airport having been told he would be gone a
week. Left to arrange transportation for the kids to school and then
care until she was home from work, her hands were full. Alex always
left abruptly and Wendy eventually realized she really had no idea
where he had gone.
Alex
called her constantly. Later, Wendy began to understand he was
checking up on her because he knew what he would do if left alone. So
the calls began even before she was home from dropping him off at
LAX. “Do you miss me?” he asked. Wendy responded she never had a
chance to miss him.
On
this occasion Wendy found out Alex was not in England through Norman
Parker, a family friend who called one night to tell her he had
talked to Alex in Nassau. Norman realized from her response this was
news to her and attempted to cover for Alex, but it did not work.
Next
time she and Alex talked she asked where he was. He lied, getting off
the phone abruptly.
Finally
home after a month he began unpacking his suit cases, one more than
he had left with, to give the kids trinkets from his trip.
Fed
up and angry, that afternoon Wendy began emptying the suit cases so
she could do the wash. She found tee-shirts from Thailand and a
package of condoms with two missing.
Confronted
him about the condoms, he smirked. He liked it when he thought she
was jealous. She she was asking herself, “Who is this man?”
Alex
tried to tell her this was just his friends messing around. Noticing
his passport, she grabbed in. She could see he had been to Russia,
Nassau, and Thailand.
Outraged,
she demanded answers to be told he can't tell her because he is
working for the FBI. This, she does not believe. She tells him he is
living in fantasy world. He tells her they were using him because he
is so stupid. That, she could see, had the ring of truth.
Later,
when Alex was threatening her with death by government assassination
she called the FBI to be told they do not get involved in custody
disputes and divorces. Alex would continue to tell people about his
contacts at the FBI.
In
November of 2005 Alex began training for what was to be his longest
job, working at Disneyland on the Indiana Jones Ride, a far reach
from being Mr. CIA Man.
Initially,
Alex loved the work and made friends, occasionally having drinks
after work. But evidently this also meant he did not have the money
to pay the mortgage on the house they had finally managed to
buy.
After
the family was evicted from their twelfth home in 13 years in Aliso
Viejo the family moved to Laguna Niguel. This occurred around
Valentine's day, 2006 while Alex was still working at Disneyland.
Wendy
said there might have been a short stint at MacDonalds on the fry
machine, but no other real jobs. But this did not mean Alex was not
occupied. During the summer of 2006 Alex joined a dating site
where he met Laura Ann Smith who he would marry the next year,
several days after his divorce from Wendy was final.
It
was during this period that Alex received the largest bounty he would
ever get from the Manchester Trust, a share in the sale of the
Manchester Jewels. Wendy would learn of this in court when Alex's
bank records, which he thought he had adequately hidden, were
produced for him to explain.
Early
in December, 2006, legal separation documents are served on Wendy.
This was news to Wendy, as Alex was still living together as man and
wife on Prescott Street, Aliso Viejo, CA. The papers had been
issued 16th November 2006.
The
Nightmare of the Divorce from Hell had begun.
Christmas
2006 was more like a bad horror movie than a celebration, though
Wendy says every Christmas was similar.
After
being served paperwork for a separation, Wendy tried to keep the
holidays as normal and seamless as possible because she did not want
Christmas ruined for the children. For years Wendy had tried to
have celebrations which included her mother and father but by 2006
Alex had finally succeeded in alienating her from her family.
Alex's
behavior had shocked and disgusted both of Wendy's parents.
Coping
with Alex's dramas, which were always worse on holidays, became
impossible, so Christmas became just the 4 of them.
That Christmas
Day Alex was wandering around like a zombie, according to Wendy. At
the time he was using an enormous amount of sleeping pills to, he
said, cope with the painful memories of holidays he did not spend
with his birth family. Every year these serially repeated
recollections would ruin Christmas Day.
After
13 years of attempting to rectify this early deprivation by providing
him an environment of family, friends and holiday traditions, Wendy
thought he could have moved on from his childhood. There were new
holiday traditions, children, and new memories to make with his own
family. But, no, it always had to be about him, no matter what
the cost to his wife or children.
That
year Alex spent Christmas Day sleeping off and on, and stumbling
through the house naked. By the time dinner was ready and Wendy
sat down with the children, they were still trying to wake him up to
join them for dinner.
Exhausted
mentally and physically, Wendy remembered saying to herself, “I
will not spend another Christmas like this again.” She had no idea
she was going to get her wish. This would actually be their final
Christmas together.
As
she and the children began to eat Wendy apologized to the both of the
kids for how the day had gone.
Alexander,
Jr. said to her, “why mom, it’s not your fault dinner is
ruined”. Wendy choked down her supper with an enormous lump
in her throat. But January was even worse.
On
January 5th Alex
made a call to Wendy's workplace, informing the receptionist he had
issued a restraining order against her. This was followed up with a
call from the sheriffs’ department that this action had been filed
and she would be required to appear in court and answer
to these charges.
Wendy
was stunned to learn Alex was claiming she had chased him around the
house with a knife. Immediately, Wendy complied with every
thing the court asked her to do. She was evaluated by court appointed
counselors to determine if she was a fit mother. It was
determined that she could have unsupervised visitations
with the children during the divorce proceedings but Alex refused to
comply with the instructions of the court, himself. For months Wendy
barely saw her children and all of the exchanges with the children
were at the police station.
Wendy
was left with only the possessions in her purse when she left for
work on January 5th. Her heritage china and crystal, her
mementos from friends, family, and school were never returned to her
or was her jewelry, most of it gifts from her mother and grandmother
and valuable.
Living
in a starkly unfurnished apartment Wendy thought of nothing but her
children. Turning to her parents and family for support, she knew she
could never go back to Alex, no matter what. During this time she
endured bizarre emails from Alex, who she found was lying about her
to everyone they knew and to the new acquaintances he was making. At
the same time, he was attempting to get her to go back to him and
realized this whole scenario was an attempt on his part of control
her even more completely than he already did.
The
Judge, having heard all the reports from the CPS evaluator and
psychologist awarded physical custody to Wendy. CPS indicated that
they had observed one of the worst cases of Parental Alienation
they had seen.
On
August 23 Alex was stripped of physical custody. He turned the
children over to Wendy in their pajamas. They were permitted to bring
nothing they owned with them. On the 30th of August the
marriage between Wendy and Alex Montagu was dissolved, with some
issues
Although
Alex, who the court discovered had nearly a million dollars in the
bank, was ordered to pay for court costs. He was also ordered to pay
both alimony and child support. This was accomplished by the
Manchester Trust sending the funds directly to Wendy for herself and
the children.
Alex,
now single, was featured in an article titled, The Duke of Hazard.
To the public he was a celebrity playboy.
Three
weeks later, on September 21, Alex
married Laura Ann Smith, a spinster in her 40s whose father was a
farmer in Michigan, where she grew up.
Visitation
was a nightmare. All exchanges took place at the police station until
Alex left the state. The reserved issues were heard on September 15,
2008.
The
next year, on June 5th,
Wendy received a call from Alex that he had still been married to
Marion Stoner at the time of their wedding in 1993. Their union was
not legal and he had so informed the Manchester Trust.
The
Trust was forced to suspend their payments because of Alex's
confession to them of his bigamy.
The
next two years were a financial disaster for Wendy and the children.
But the Manchester Trust filed a suit to be heard in the High Court
of the Chancery, London, on the issue of the children's legitimacy.
On July 19, 2011 support for the children was restored. The court had
found they had rights as beneficiaries.
The
news media erupted with articles on the bigamist duke and his three
wives, something Alex had evidently not anticipated. In complete
consistency with his previous behavior Alex now denied having
informed the Manchester Trusts and also that he had ever been married
to Marion Stoner Montagu.
The
children never saw their father again, though occasionally he would
call them, attempting to manipulate them, issue threats and disparage
their mother.
Wendy
calls it the marriage, or unmarriage, from Hell.
