DUP LEADER Peter Robinson has said that when he learned of his wife Iris’s affair last March he made it clear to her that she could not stand again for public office.
In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Mr Robinson has spoken of his despair since learning of the affair with Kirk McCambley and his wife's procurement of a £50,000 loan for Mr McCambley to set up the Lock Keeper's Inn in south Belfast.
Mr Robinson also spoke about claims by some other newspapers that Ms Robinson had affairs with two other men. “Now I have seen these accusations so I’m saying to these journalists show me your proof . . . because I have decisions to make about my life too.”
He wanted to repair his marriage and he was travelling a road without any guarantees. “I travel that road on the basis of an understanding that I have been given all the key facts,” he said.
He referred to the night in March of his wife’s attempted suicide. “Afterwards, despite the hurt and pain that I felt, I told Iris that I would attempt to repair and to continue with our marriage provided that she told me everything and that there were no secrets between us.”
Mr Robinson said that since March he has lost 2½ stone, “although it’s not a diet plan I would recommend to anyone”.
He said there were “days when were it not a case of getting up and getting on with things for the sake of the family, your instinct is just to get into bed . . . and not come out again,” he told the newspaper.
Referring to last March, he said: “I made it clear to her that she could see out her present terms but could not stand again. . . I told her she would be far better off being on the outside in that scenario and she accepted that.”
Mr Robinson said his wife was under acute psychiatric care and that she had not seen any of the media reports. “I think there are some reporters out there who would be disappointed if they could not punish her into the grave . . . I honestly believe she would have been treated better had she been a serial killer.”
He added: “I think anybody who is married will understand . . . I attempted to come to terms with it, but having to assimilate all that for 10 months in private was nothing to having to deal with it in public.”
He said he did everything he could to assist Ms Robinson after she attempted to take her life, notwithstanding that he later went to the Assembly chamber to speak at the despatch box. “It just seems I cannot win over this business.”
Of Ms Robinson’s affair, he said: “To be blunt I had found out that I was the victim yet I had to give sympathy to the person who had brought out such hurt upon me.”
Mr Robinson said that when his wife’s full story was written – “and one day it will” – including details about her childhood, there would be more understanding for the path her life has taken.
