A woman who was married five years ago to a man who has been living abroad for the last 30 years found out last year that he was not divorced before he married her.

According to the woman, she met him at a funeral in January 2007 and he told her he had never been married and was looking for a wife.

"He said I looked like the ideal person for his wife and he took my telephone number," she disclosed.

"When he returned to England, he telephoned me everyday and sometimes he sent money for me. He told me during one of our telephone conversations that he wanted to marry me and take me to England to live with him.

"I was very excited about his idea and so, six months after we met, he returned to Jamaica and we got married. My so-called husband is a pensioner and we spent three months together before he returned home. He told me before he left that I should look about my passport because he was going to file for me.

"He has been back several times between our marriage in June 2007 and 2011, and each time I ask him about the filing process he said he had put in the papers. He gave me numerous excuses as to the reason the processing had not been completed. On one occasion, he told me that the lawyer who, he had paid to process the papers was sick for almost six months.

"I believed all that he was telling me, because he is a very nice and kind person. I have three children whose father does not support them and, every month since we were married, he would send money to support us.

"In early 2012, I started hearing certain rumours that he was corresponding with another woman in a nearby district. I asked the woman about it and she said it was true and the man did not belong to me. The woman then blurted out that people were laughing at me because the man was living with his wife in England.

"I was so shocked that I called him immediately and he admitted it was true. He has begged me not to end the relationship because he loves me and my children. He telephones me all the time and still sends money for me and the children. I appreciate what he is doing, because I am not working now. The only problem I have is that he has not been back to Jamaica since I found out that he is married to someone in England.

"What I really want to know is whether my marriage is genuine since his first marriage did not take place in Jamaica?"

The law in England and Jamaica does not make provision for a person to have two wives or two husbands at the same time, therefore your marriage is not valid or genuine.

Section 71 (1) of the Offences Against the Person Act states in part that "whosoever, being married, shall marry any other person during the life of the former husband or wife, whether the second marriage has taken place in the island or elsewhere, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof, shall be liable to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding four years with or without hard labour."