Venus Morris Griffin: Woman’s heartbreaking story of how her marriage fell apart over husband’s double life
‘The abuse escalated so gradually that I didn’t even notice’
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A woman’s heartbreaking story about how her marriage fell apart due to her husband’s disturbing double life has gone viral.
Venus Morris Griffin shared the story in a 13-part series on the popular ‘Humans of New York’ Instagram account, telling how she met her “stinking cute” future husband John “Tripp” Morris at the University of South Carolina - and he eventually turned into an “abusive” husband and child molester.
The mother of six – who gave birth with the help of a sperm donor – said despite her marriage with the former USC cheerleader falling apart following his imprisonment in 2012: “You’d think I hate him, but I can’t. Because I loved him..”
More than 150,000 people have so far reacted to Ms Griffin’s posts with shock and sympathy for the Augusta, Georgia, real estate agent.
In her posts, Ms Griffin said she had been “intimidated” by Tripp’s wealth and family-run business, with her own upbringing being somewhat atypical, and that he seemed to be “the perfect gentleman” when they met as 20-somethings.
She wrote: “We were Parent Teacher Association presidents together, and everyone liked Tripp more than me, Because I’d say what I thought But no matter how ridiculous the person was being, Tripp would make them feel heard.”
“He taught our Bible study. He hosted all the school fundraisers. He coached all our son’s football teams”, Ms Griffin recalled. “Tripp used to play for the University of South Carolina, or so we all thought.”
She later discovered that he had been injured in his freshman year at USC and was allowed to keep his scholarship by cheerleading for the football team.
In the following years, Ms Griffin said Tripp became increasingly “abusive” towards her and was taken away by police at their son’s baseball game for screaming. On another occasion, she said he “lost his temper and pushed me into the bathtub....I thought I broke my back. I was screaming that I couldn’t get up.”
Explaining how she came to realise that her husband was leading a “double life”, she wrote that a woman informed her that Tripp had been sleeping with others. He also allegedly ran-up significant debts behind her back.
“There was always that side of him,” Ms Griffin wrote. “When his temper would flare, it would flare. But I think the abuse escalated so gradually that I didn’t even notice”.
Georgia court records show that Tripp was eventually arrested and sentenced to 45 years in prison for child molestation in 2012, and according to The State he was refused a retrial, and is currently held at Baldwin State Prison in Milledgeville, Georgia.
While this was not the first time Ms Griffin had shared her story publicly, it was the first time it had been picked up this widely. She added on Humans of New York that she has now remarried and had her children over for dinner on Wednesday night.
“We were together in the living room, talking and laughing. That’s still my biggest joy: watching these people love each other, helping them navigate through life,” she said.
The Humans of New York account has dedicated itself to telling peoples’s life stories from all over the world since 2010.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments