Sorry, Piet... it's over
2003-10-20 14:35
Cape Town - After 12 years with Piet Koornhof, Marcelle Adams has decided it's time to follow her heart.
She'll soon be flying to Germany to marry her lover, German businessman Fritz Cherdron who is the father of her youngest child.
It was a difficult decision. For more than a decade Marcelle Adams had been Dr Piet Koornhof's partner, living under the same roof and raising kids together.
Now she's decided to take her four children and move to Germany early next year so she can be with the other man in her life - Fritz Cherdron, father of her youngest child, 22-month-old Anna.
Earlier this year YOU and Huisgenoot told of the love triangle Marcelle, 34, had become entangled in - torn between former cabinet minister in the apartheid government Piet Koornhof, 78, and Fritz, the 53-year-old German businessman and aerobatics pilot she'd fallen in love with.
Confused
"It isn't right for children to grow up like this," Marcelle says now in another candid interview. "They see their mother with another man while I'm still living here with their father. It confuses them.
"Piet loves the children very much and they love him," Marcelle says. "It's making it difficult to make the final break but I must do what I must do. I've met someone who makes me happy." And nothing will make her happier than finally to live out her childhood dream: her own wedding.
Wedding bells didn't chime for Piet and Marcelle during their controversial 12-year relationship. Piet is still married to his estranged wife, Lulu. But he says Marcelle would be mad to go to Germany "after a man whose wife is sick". Fritz's wife suffers from an illness that affects her memory and she no longer recognises anyone.
Even though he cares for her at their home he's prepared to divorce her and marry Marcelle. "He's always said he wants me to be his wife," Marcelle says.
'Something missing'
When she's in Germany she and Fritz will decide when and where they'll get married. However Piet says he also wants to marry her. "I love Marcelle, end of story. I want her to be happy. I want the best for her. I love my children very much and they love me. All four of them are precious.
"I can always try to get a divorce. But I've been married to my wife for more than fifty years and it won't be easy."
But Marcelle says it's all over. She says she was no longer happy with Piet before she met Fritz. "I didn't know where I stood. I felt something was missing from my relationship with Piet."
The 44-year age gap certainly affected their relationship, she says. When she met Piet at the age of 23 she didn't think it would be much of a problem. "If I'd had more sense I would have thought differently."
Read this week's YOU or Huisgenoot for the full story.
Also in this week's issue:
Shocking lies of SA's rapist doctor
Anke's on the up and up
Fergie, the sun-dried duchess
Snuff movies - 'ultimate porn fix?
Religion turns gay man straight
Stunning new pics of Graeme's Minki