What Really Happened to Her Marriage?

March 8th, 2006

To Religious Freedom Watch:

I was married to Tory Christman for 26 years. She left me in July 2000 while I was away on a business trip.

When I spoke to her the night of July 19, 2000, she said she was leaving for a while and would be home in a week or two. She lied repeatedly about where she was going, and refused to talk to me any further about what was going on. When I asked her why she was leaving, she told me to call our friends and they’d tell me what was happening. She said she had to go and hung up.

I called our friends and they told me that Tory was going to Florida and would be changing planes in Chicago the next morning. I drove to Chicago and stopped at my sister’s house. She said she’d had a long talk with Tory and Tory told her that she was leaving me, saying she was leaving Scientology and was unhappy with our relationship. Tory also told my mother, step-father and brother that she was leaving me, saying it was no big deal as we weren’t getting along anyway. (All this from a woman who told me two weeks earlier that I’d thrown her “the best birthday party ever and that I was the most wonderful husband in the world.”)

I drove to the airport and met Tory as she was changing planes. I told her I’d cancelled the rest of the business trip and wanted to go to a resort and talk with her and find out what was going on. She told me she did not want to be a Scientologist anymore and that she was leaving the Church. I said, “Okay, you don’t have to be a Scientologist if you don’t want to, just don’t leave me. Let’s go away by ourselves.” She told me, “No way, my ticket is paid for, I have to go.” She then threatened to have me arrested if I “bothered” her again. I then told her I’d get a ticket and fly with her and we could talk. She repeated that she’d have me arrested if I didn’t leave her alone. I took a later flight to Florida and found her in an airport hotel.

I tried to talk to her again in private but she refused, saying she’d only talk to me in the presence of her new friends. She again threatened to call security if I insisted on talking with her away from her new friends. I took a room and invited her up for dinner and a movie. She said “maybe later” but she never called me.

The next day I called her to talk and she said she was sleeping and asked if I could bring her some toiletries. When I went to set them outside her room, the door of the next room opened and she was sitting on the bed talking to one of her new friends. She was in her night gown. She didn’t want to talk to me and she got angry when I questioned the motives of her new friends. I talked to her once more that night with her friends waiting in the next room

After that night, she was out of touch for weeks. Whenever she called me she needed money and her epilepsy medicine, both of which I arranged for her. As a side note, Tory has complained to reporters that the Church ordered her to stop taking her medication. This is a complete fabrication. She wanted to quit taking the medicine because she didn’t like it, but she was never told to do so by the Church at any time since I’d met her in 1974. In fact, she was told by the Church and by a Scientologist doctor that it was not necessary for her to stop taking her medicine.

Several months later Tory called me saying she was going to move to Florida permanently and was coming home to pack. She wanted her car serviced so she could drive it cross country. When she finally arrived home, she showed up with her friend Nancy Many who helped her set up an inexpensive divorce agreement by recommending we utilize “We the People” – a business which does this. Tory made the appointment and she wanted me to be the petitioner, as she was going to move to Florida and it’d be easier for them to contact me.

After helping her pack for a month, she decided she wasn’t going to go. She thought we could live in the house and split the rent. I agreed to this in the hopes of repairing our marriage. But in the six months we lived under this arrangement, I never saw a dime from her. I covered all the rent, utilities, phone, food, etc. During this time she tried several jobs, but never made a go of it. I helped her and coached her and set up a financial plan for her, but to no avail.

She finally left permanently.

She now has been quoted a number of times over the years as saying I left her. It is time to put this lie to rest once and for all. She left me and our 26-year marriage with no notice at all and resisted all attempts to put our relationship back together. That is a truth she can never run away from no matter how far she goes.

Harold Bezazian