Another Joost lover confesses
2009-11-03 22:30
Philip de Bruin and Sanri van Wyk
Johannesburg - Former Springbok captain Joost van der Westhuizen cheated on his wife, Amor Vittone, with former Springbok athlete Charmaine Weavers (Gale), it was revealed on Tuesday.
This came to light after Van der Westhuizen said as recently as Sunday that his contact with the young woman in the infamous sex video was "the first and only time" he was unfaithful to Vittone and denied that he had a relationship with Weavers.
Weavers, 46, said on Tuesday she is glad Van der Westhuizen has now openly admitted he was the man in the sex video.
"It's just such a pity that his confession was so selective, instead of rather confessing to everything.
"Today is the first time I am speaking in public in my own name about my relationship with Joost. I believe the things must come out so that the book of the past can be closed for everyone concerned," Weavers said.
She spoke about her connection with Van Der Westhuizen earlier this year in an interview with Huisgenoot/You without her identity being revealed at the time. In that article she said she and Joost had sex even while Vittone was pregnant.
Plea for forgiveness
When Beeld approached Van der Westhuizen about Weavers' claim on Tuesday, he said: "There were many sins and I did many wrong things. My plea for forgiveness in my book reaches wider than just the video; it includes my general past.
"From now on I just want to walk the straight and narrow (path) and do things right. Charmaine Gale, Mike Bolhuis (Van der Westhuizen's private investigator) and anyone else is free to reveal whatever they want to.
"I confess my sins and I apologise, I ask for forgiveness, and that is that."
Weavers represented South Africa at the 1992 Olympic Games. At the time she was described as one of the most attractive women in world athletics.
She said on Tuesday that her affair with Van der Westhuizen started while he was still married to his first wife, Marlene, whom he divorced in 2001, shortly before marrying Vittone.
Amor: There is anger and disappointment
Meanwhile, Vittone told a radio interviewer on Monday her heart has been "ripped out".
"There is anger and terrible disappointment in my heart. If everything had come out in the beginning [that it was Van der Westhuizen in the video] it would have been much better."
Speaking to DJ Darren Scott on his Gauteng breakfast show, Amor said she asked Van der Westhuizen every day for eight months, "Joost are you sure it isn't you in the video?"
Vittone said her husband entangled himself in a "web of lies".
"He thought he could get out of the situation."
Vittone said that the night Joost confessed to her while she was cooking, she just looked at him.
"I didn't speak to him for three days. I wasn't a mother for those three days. I don't know where I was. It was the loneliest time of my life. My parents were in Canada and the man I'm married to, wasn't there."
More bad news
Vittone said that soon after the video saga erupted, doctors found that their little boy, five-year-old Jordan, has only 20% hearing in one ear and 40% in the other.
"It was even worse for me [than the video saga]. Why this as well?"
The singer says she began to see the danger lights when she, Joost and her parents received threats several times over the past three years. She believes the same people that threatened them, were selling the sex video.
Vittone says it is "so untrue" that her parents asked her to divorce Joost.
She also said although she thinks they should perhaps spend time apart, it isn't true that she asked him to move out.
"I feel I was let down, but I am sorry for him. I still do love him. I am physically and mentally tired.
"I honestly don’t know whether everything will be 100% OK again, but I am prepared to give 110%. There is still a lot to be thankful for. Life is so short."