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Dan Brown’s intricate codes, symbols and hidden meanings have seduced fans around the world, helping him sell more than 200 million copies of his books, most notably the blockbuster The Da Vinci Code.
But today, he’s at the center of his own real-life mystery with his ex-wife Blythe, whom he divorced last year, after filing a lawsuit accusing him of living a ‘proverbial life of lies’ for at least six years. , of ‘sordid extramarital affairs’ and of ‘secretly looting large sums of his marital property’, which he later spent on four mistresses around the world.
The accusations, more like a character in a daring Harold Robbins novel than a fan of Brown’s books, have stunned the literary world and couldn’t have come at a worse time for the 56-year-old writer, who is preparing to publish. His first movie. book for children.
In his first interview since the sensational July lawsuit, the American author reveals that he is rebutting Blythe, his wife of 21 years, in part for libel and slander, saying her claims are so far-fetched that they belong in a novel.
I am not going to belittle my ex-wife like she has me. But the lawsuit was written without regard to the truth.
Dan Brown and his ex-wife Blythe at the Da Vinci Code party at the 59th Cannes International Film Festival in 2006
‘She got half of everything [in the divorce, which was finalised in December], more than half of everything, actually, and I’m surprised he’s coming back for more and completely disputing his version of what happened. It has all been quite sobering. ‘
The publication of The Da Vinci Code in 2003, Brown’s fourth novel, unleashed a cultural phenomenon, enraged the Vatican and catapulted him from little-known writer to global literary star.
The thriller centers on the fictional Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon who investigates a murder in Paris and stumbles upon an ancient society harboring ancient dark secrets.
The book introduces the notion that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene were married and had children, a premise that so upset the Vatican that it appointed an archbishop to refute the novel’s ‘shameful and baseless errors’.
The Da Vinci Code, published in 2003, was Brown’s fourth novel.
The film adaptation, starring Tom Hanks as Langdon, grossed more than £ 500 million at the box office, with two more films, Angels & Demons and Inferno, bringing the global box office gross to more than £ 1 billion.
Brown is said to have been worth £ 120 million before his divorce.
He says of his ex-wife’s lawsuit: ‘It was designed to humiliate me, ruin my personal life, ruin my professional life. That was the whole purpose. Brown’s countersuit against Blythe, who is 12 years his senior, is sad but extraordinary reading.
He alleges in his counter-assertion that their marriage had become “increasingly dysfunctional” and that the beginning of the end came in 2004 after the great influx of wealth that followed the publication of The Da Vinci Code the previous year.
Furthermore, far from being ‘a devoted wife and an innocent victim’, Brown says she ‘engaged in conduct that caused the marriage to be one in name’ in late 2014.
In one case, he claims that after giving a speech in New York in 2013, his wife told him: ‘It turns my stomach to see you on stage. I no longer recognize who you are.
He says she also regularly poked fun at his love of exercise and fitness, calling it ‘vain and shallow’.
And when his mother was dying in June 2017 after a long battle with cancer, he says Blythe left him alone while on vacation with companions in the Caribbean.
Tellingly, the intimate side of their relationship seemingly ended in December 2014, after which they both sought to fill the void in their lives and find comfort in different ways.
For Blythe, that meant spending more and more time and money on horseback riding (she reportedly spent over £ 7.5 million on her hobby of horses during her marriage). For Brown, it was about dating, more of which later.
Speaking from her home in New Hampshire, she says: ‘Our marriage really ended a long time ago. We just went our separate ways.
“ We were great for a long time together, but we just evolved separately, what people do. I’m sorry that we couldn’t separate ourselves from love and that it turned into this.
“It’s sad, but it hurt deeply.” She insists that “she tried very hard to make this marriage work.”
To that end, he took riding lessons for a year, hoping that a shared interest could bridge the ‘widening gulf’ between them. “I wanted to go to marriage therapy and I asked her many times, but she refused.”
The incident that made her realize that the marriage was probably hopeless occurred in 2012.
It was Brown’s relationship with his Dutch horse trainer, Judith Pietersen (pictured), 29, that seems to have hurt him the most.
Having persuaded him to include a reference to thoroughbred Friesian horses and her own horse farm in Runnymede, New Hampshire, in her novel Inferno, he claims that she demanded that four of her horses be brought to Florence, Italy, to perform in an editorial event.
When his application was rejected, he says she reprimanded him for not siding with her and demanded that he fire her team for not following her instructions.
Brown refused. As he says now: ‘Marriage is difficult. People move in different directions, and some people can’t handle money either. Change who you are. I loved Blythe deeply and there will always be a part of me that loves her. ‘
Perhaps the most inflammatory part of Blythe’s lawsuit centers on her claims that the soft-spoken writer had had a number of lovers, including a hairdresser, her personal trainer, and a political official on the Caribbean island of Anguilla (where the couple had a vacation home). .
Brown admits that he had some dates with his hairdresser, but that his ex-wife’s characterization of him as a scoundrel “was completely unfair.”
He explains: ‘She was throwing everything on the wall, hoping something would stick. We both know why she was upset and she had a right to be, but we were alone and we sought fulfillment elsewhere. ‘
It was Brown’s relationship with his Dutch horse trainer, Judith Pietersen, 29, that seems to have hurt him the most.
Mr. Brown and his wife Blythe left the Carlton Hotel on May 16, 2006. Despite their lawsuit, Brown says he wishes Blythe “a lot of peace in the future because obviously she is not at peace now.”
She met the author in 2013 after Blythe hired her to train her horses. According to Brown, their relationship became romantic only after their marriage became one “in name only.”
He later gave Pietersen a £ 260,000 Friesian horse called the LimiTed Edition as a gift.
Brown claims, however, that his ex-wife, despite having ten other world-class horses, wanted the animal for herself, “to inflict pain on the woman her ex-husband loved.”
Although reluctant to talk in depth about his Dutch lover, Brown says, “We are very close and very happy.”
Furthermore, he vigorously denies claims that he diverted funds from his marital assets, saying, “I gave Blythe half of everything she had earned and more on top of that.”
Until their acrimonious breakup, Brown had often credited his wife with her role in his phenomenal success and her help in the genesis of several of his books.
They met in 1990 when he wanted to pursue a career in music, and Blythe, director of artistic development at the National Academy of Composers in Los Angeles, took him under her wing.
When his music career didn’t take off, he went on to write and produced three novels that, he says, “sold about a dozen copies each.”
In his first interview since the sensational July lawsuit, the American author reveals that he is rebutting Blythe (pictured), his wife of 21 years, in part for libel and slander, saying that her claims are so far-fetched that they belong to a novel.
Then came The Da Vinci Code. The couple never had children, choosing instead a life of “creativity.”
Brown says: ‘It can be a terrible thing to say to anyone who has children, but for every moment that I regret not having children, I have three or four moments where I say,’ Thank God I don’t! ‘
‘All I have to do is sit next to a screaming baby on a plane and say, “You know what? I’m fine.” But I have many children in my life: I have nephews. ‘
He also teaches suspense writing through the online celebrity tutoring service MasterClass.
So her latest project, a children’s book titled Wild Symphony, is a natural development, as she hopes to “instill in children an appreciation for classical music.”
Featuring an illustrated animal orchestra whose 21 members each have their own piece of music (composed by Brown himself and performed by the Zagreb Festival Orchestra), readers download a free app and hold their mobile phone over the page to play the song. correct song for each animal. .
Complete with Brown’s trademark hidden codes and riddles (there’s a Masonic cipher at the end of the book), it reads, “It was a pleasure to see the youngsters excited about that.”
It’s a huge change of pace for someone who has been condemned by the Vatican.
In fact, that experience has given him a lot of sympathy for Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who has fallen victim to the so-called ‘cancellation culture’ for her comments about transgender people.
Looking back, he says: ‘You don’t write a book that says Jesus had a love story and you expect the world to appreciate it universally.
“I’ve gotten really used to people saying things about me that aren’t so nice.” But he never expected one of those people to be his wife.
Despite her lawsuit, Brown says she wishes Blythe ‘a lot of peace in the future because she’s obviously not at peace now.
“I choose to remember all the good times we had and all the creativity we had together.”
So after everything that has happened, do you think you will remarry? You don’t need anyone to decipher the encoded message behind your reply. ‘Not!’ he answers. I really don’t.
- Wild Symphony is released by Puffin Hardback on September 1 at £ 12.99.
