Jared Fogle’s ex-wife Katie McLaughlin claims in a new interview with CBS This Morning that she had no idea her ex was a pedophile.
“You could look up every word in a dictionary or thesaurus for ‘horrible’ and none of them describe what this year has been like,” McLaughlin, who was married to the former Subway spokesperson for five years, told CBS’ Anna Werner in a sit-down interview.
McLaughlin, who shares a 5- and 3-year-old with the convicted felon, told Werner that she didn’t know about Fogle’s sex crimes until the FBI knocked on her front door.
“That’s how I found out,” she said while recalling the horrific day back in July 2015. “I knew nothing about his involvement in anything. … They just walk in and you’re just in shock … I didn’t understand any of it to be honest. I mean, you just — you float out of yourself because the FBI shouldn’t be in your house.”
A professor at the University of Ottawa in Canada who analyzed the former Subway spokesperson testified that his conclusion was Fogle suffered from mild pedophilia, hypersexuality and alcohol abuse and dependency, according to the Associated Press. As previously reported, Fogle struck a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty in November 2015 to one count of distribution and receipt of child pornography and traveling to have sex with a minor. He was sentenced to 15 years and eight months in federal prison, and has since agreed to pay a total of $1.4 million in restitution to his 14 victims.
“I can’t even think about him at this point in my life,” McLaughlin told CBS when asked if she still loves the father of her children. “Of course there is anger there … he had two lives going on. He was home with the kids and I in one life, and he was out on the road in a different life. … He was able to keep them very separate in a way I can’t even fathom.”
McLaughlin is also suing Subway for negligence, alleging that the company was aware of at least three different complaints against Fogle and that they failed to alert to the police.
“[He ruined] my ability to trust, my ability to think that things will be OK,” McLaughlin concluded. “I think I was always a pretty happy person who thought if everyone puts in their hard work, things will end up OK. And now I’m not so sure about that.”
