PEOPLE.com has a new celebrity blogger: Garcelle Beauvais. The beautiful actress and mother of three used her second column to discuss recovering from the heartbreak and betrayal she felt after her ex-husband, Mike Nilon, cheated on her in 2010, leading to their divorce. Nilon is the father of Beauvais’ adorable twin sons, Jax and Jaid.
“I thought I had won the lotto in husbands. Caring? Check. Attentive? Check. Loyal? Well, un-check,” writes Beauvais. “It only took one text message to change my life. That’s when I discovered my loving husband had been unfaithful.”
The Franklin and Bash star discusses the overwhelming pain, which prompted her to send off a fiery email to his colleagues and their friends outing him as a cheater: “The shock was like a freight train hitting me. The pain was unimaginable. I couldn’t breathe. I wanted to exit my body.’
Like so many women who have experienced infidelity, the 45-year-old was left wondering why. “I had so many questions. What happens next? Do I stay for the sake of the kids? Do I stay because, well, that’s what some women do? And oh my God, what do I do with all of this anger?”
Beauvais worked through the grief by first leaning on close friends and loved ones who “did everything in their power to distract me from my sadness with hundreds of bottles of wine, spa days, and girls’ nights out.”
She then sought therapy and wisdom from a list of great books, which helped build her back up. Two years later, Beauvais describes how she conquered the betrayal for the sake of her children. “We have even come to a place where we can hang out together with our boys to make sure they have a solid, stable upbringing.”
“After doing all this work on myself, something miraculous happened. I found my strength. I found my voice. I found the real me that I hadn’t realized was lost.”
We salute you, Garcelle! Send your well wishes to her now.