Almost two months after the passing of Nobel prize-winning Canadian writer Alice Munroe, her youngest daughter, Andrea Robin Skinner, shocked the world by revealing her late mother’s dark secret.
Andrea said that she was nine years old when she was physically abused by her mother’s second husband, Gerard Fremlin. That incident led Andrea to have mental trouble, leading to insomnia and migraine.
After years of struggle, when Andrea finally opened up to her mother, Alice, and wrote a letter about whatever had happened to her, she received nothing but her mom’s disbelief.
Narrating the moment, she wrote, “When I tried to tell her (her mom Alice Munro) how her husband’s abuse had hurt me, she was incredulous. ‘But you were such a happy child,’ she said.“
Even after learning what her husband Gerard Fremlin had done, Alice Munro returned to him and remained by his side until his passing on April 17, 2013.
Gerald Munro, the husband of Alice Munro, later went to prison on an abuse charge!
In her 2004 interview with the New York Times, author Alice Munro complimented her husband, Gerald, saying that she was absolutely fortunate to have him in her life.
Despite knowing all his misdeeds, Alice said so about her husband, which made her victim daughter Andrea absolutely disturbed and furious. After that, Andrea straightly reached out to the police and filed a case against her stepfather.
In this regard, she wrote, “Now, I was claiming my right to a full life, taking the burden of abuse and handing it back to Fremlin.”
On February 25, 2005, authorities charged him with ‘indecently assaulting’ Andrea based on Gerald’s old letters and proven ‘guilty on arraignment, without a trial, and was sentenced to two years’ probation.’
Well, Gerald was quite an accomplished person on his own. He was a philosopher, poet, and painter.
He had a BA in English and Philosophy and an MA in Geography from the University of Western Ontario.
But sad to say, the University couldn’t teach him moral values, and as a result, he ended up in prison, and eight years after the incident happened, Gerald left the living world.
Alice Munro was previously married to James Munro, with whom she had four daughters, including Andrea
In 1951, Alice Munro and her first husband, James Munro, married and settled in Vancouver.
The couple then welcomed their eldest child, Sheila, in 1953. Two years later, they gave birth to Catherine, who passed away the day she was born due to a dysfunctional kidney.
Two years after such a tragic incident, Alice and James again enjoyed parenthood, welcoming their third daughter, Jenny, in 1957.
After that, the pair, along with their two daughters, shifted to Victoria and started a bookstore business, launching Munro’s book.
In 1966, they had their youngest daughter, Andrea. Everything in the family seems absolutely peaceful. James was pretty much supportive of Alice’s writing career, and so was Alice to her husband.
But despite that, their marriage didn’t last. Alice and her first spouse, James, separated in 1972. Then, James married an artist, Carole Sabiston, and Alice moved on with Gerald.
Additional Information
- Alice Munro was born Alice Ann Laidlaw on July 10, 1931, in Wingham, Ontario. She passed away on May 13, 2024, at 92.
- Alice’s first husband, James Armstrong Munro, is also no longer alive. He took his last breath on November 21, 2016, at 87 years old. He was famous as the owner of a bookstore, Munro’s Book, and was also the founder of Pacific Opera Victoria.
- Her second husband, Gerald, was a geographer who edited the 1974 edition of The National Atlas of Canada and co-wrote Maps as Mediated Seeing—Fundamentals of Cartography.
