Peruvian writer and television host Jaime Bayly has revealed the real reason behind his estrangement from his daughters, saying it stems from his 15-year relationship with his current partner, Silvia Nunez.
In his latest newspaper column, Bayly described the drastic step he took against his daughters because of that relationship: he had them evicted from an apartment registered in his name.
The disclosure came after Bayly returned to Peru and spoke of his discomfort at being back in his home country, recalling memories that he said explained his distance from his elder daughters.
An apartment bought for his family
It followed earlier remarks from Bayly in which he said his daughters were happier without him around, a comment that had moved many readers.
During his marriage to Sandra Masias Guislain, Bayly bought an apartment that, on legal advice, he registered in his own name as a precaution against possible future complications. His then wife and daughters decorated the property to their taste, and it became their family home for years during the marriage.
Bayly told the newspaper El Comercio that he should never have bought the property. He said he purchased it twenty years ago because his daughters were living in that city and he was travelling there every month to see them. He said his ex-wife convinced him to acquire an apartment for her and their daughters, and that, naively, he fell into the trap. He added that, weighed down by guilt over being an absent father, he then also bought the flat upstairs, and that on the advice of his lawyer, a man he described as having no belief in the tenderness of love, he registered both properties in his own name.
A new relationship changes everything
Bayly said everything changed when he met Silvia Nunez, who is now his wife. He said the mother of his daughters refused to let him bring her to the property for intimate encounters, out of respect for the family. In response, he withdrew his support for his ex-wife and daughters in favour of the woman who had won him over, and had them evicted with no room to object.
Bayly said that two years after buying the apartment, he fell in love with the woman who is now his wife, triggering a family crisis. He said his ex-wife, consumed by jealousy, forbade his young girlfriend from coming to his apartment to be with him. Angered, he said he forced his ex-wife to leave the apartment with a garden that she occupied with their daughters, and that she could not stay there against his wishes because the property was in his name. He said she left, upset, with their daughters, and that he offered her money to rent a house, which she did not thank him for.
Four years of silence
Bayly said the move cost him what he valued most. He said his ex-wife did not hesitate to turn his daughters against him, and that both punished him harshly with silence, which he called the greatest mistake of his life.
Bayly said his daughters decided to take revenge by distancing themselves from him, and stopped speaking to him for four years. He said he should never have evicted them from the apartment he had given them and which they had decorated with such enthusiasm, calling it a vile abuse and one of the worst mistakes of his life. He said the apartment now stands empty, and that when he visits the city he sleeps in the upper flat, not daring to go downstairs, since the lower floor has become, in his words, a museum of heartbreak and broken promises.
The episode affected his daughters deeply, and they now live outside the country and keep little contact with Bayly.
A reconciliation at a wedding
A few months ago, however, one of his daughters got married and had no problem sharing the occasion with her father's current wife.
