User Reviews

Documentaries about abuse and deception are commonplace because the acts themselves are omnipresent. So it should come as no surprise that those who are desensitized to such horrific and criminal behavior label this a waste of time and boring. If you watch this to be entertained, you will disappointed. If you want to relish how brilliant you are because you could see this disaster coming long before the protagonists could and then criticize them for being so stupid, pull up a chair- that is, unless you only have 60 to 90 minutes. If you find it narcissistic that a woman would use a podcast and a documentary to heal and process her grief, as well as help others who have experienced something similar, then you should definitely skip this one.

However, if you want to learn about the women Spencer abused emotionally, psychologically, and sexually, including those with whom he had affairs, and what they are doing to overcome their trauma, this is well worth your time.

This documentary surprised me in a good way on two fronts. It shared Jenifer's conversations with several women who had affairs with her husband. It also revealed Rachel, the student raped by Spencer, not as a name and with some blurred-out images but as a survivor with a face and a voice who is advocating for policies to protect children and teenagers from predators.

At the same time, it did fall short in a few areas. Spencer Herron is painted as a monster but his sex addiction is a symptom that has its causes. So far, he has been unwilling to explore what might have happened earlier in his life that has lead him to be this way but an interview with a psychologist or therapist to discuss the origins of sex addiction would have been good to include. Furthermore, while we know Spencer was married before he and Jenifer reconnected, it doesn't appear that the producers made any effort to get his first wife's perspective of their relationship.

You ever know someone who was extremely self-important and acted like everything they did needed to be met with applause and attention? Unfortunately, that's what we have here. I went into to this looking for an interesting true crime story and instead spent several hours watching two fairly unlikable people talking to each other. There's no denying that the man at the heart of this story was a scumbag... but his wife comes across as a spoiled and whiny person who makes everything more dramatic. "These were people IN MY OWN TOWN," she complains. She complains about him telling her he still loved her. She complains that some of his friends wrote letters vouching for his character, all the while acting incredulous. The podcast host just comes across as an entitled person who thinks everything they say is important. It's hard to take her seriously when she's sitting there telling her friend how brave and strong she is with a contrived look of concern on her face.

Another great part was his wife acting disgusted that one woman sent Spence naked pictures and let him record her giving him oral sex. "What kind of woman would do something like that? She asks.

Well, I guess we can tell what kind of sex he was getting at home.

And then there's some of the women he cheated on her with. One in particular made me fight back a chuckle as she told her story of meeting Spence and sensing that he was interested in her. "I don't even remember how I ended up giving him my number," she says. Well ma'am, you gave it to him. He didn't force it out of you. You were sober. Then she relates how she was a victim because she met him in a parking lot the very next day and had sex with him. Again, ma'am, you gave a man you were attracted to your phone number and met him the next day for sex entirely of your own volition. You are not a victim.

Spence had an affair with one of his wife's friends and apparently she was somehow a victim too. It just gets to be a bunch of people taking no responsibility for their own actions.

The last episode that focuses on his teenage victim is a little better. It's not a fun story, but at least in this one we really see the criminal side of his actions.

I agree with others that this whole thing could have been cut down to about an hour. There was just too much useless information, too much repetitive talking about his affairs and way too much of the podcasters. I've seen serial killer documentaries that were shorter.

The most telling scene in "Betrayal: The Perfect Husband" is when friends of the betrayed spouse reveal that she felt her ex-husband had received "too soft a landing" upon his release from prison.

Too soft a landing? He served three years of a five-year prison sentence and was facing 15 years of strict probation. Plus, lifelong sex-offender status. Barred forever from resuming his teaching or Air National Guard careers. Broke. A social pariah within his community with relationships shattered. His reputation and good name forever lost. Yet that was "too soft of a landing" for his ex.

So, she produced this three-hour long diatribe against him in the guise of a true crime documentary to ensure his disgrace would be known to as large of an audience as possible.

"Betrayal: The Perfect Husband" is an exercise of self-aggrandizing ax-grinding by one narcissist against another. It's a "true crime" story that Dateline/48 Hours wouldn't have touched because cheating spouses unless there are dead bodies involved and lecherous teachers unless they're hot female ones are of little interest outside of the people involved and/or the local news.

Yet that didn't stop TV producer and betrayed spouse Jen Faison from relating this mundane tale in order to exact her pound of flesh from ex-husband, Spencer Herron. Obviously, Faison cannot let it go and wants everyone to know her "pain." Why?

It appears she had deluded herself into believing that she could "have it all" - spend her 20's/30's building her career and then in her early 40's land the "perfect husband." Handsome, charming, and incredibly fit. She could flaunt him in front of all the frumpy middle-aged moms with their balding, dad-bod husbands. She showed them all that she could wait, have a career, and still get the prized spouse. And then Spencer blew it all up. And narcissistic Jen can neither forgive nor forget.

As this diatribe reveals, upon witnessing Spencer being arrested for having sexual relations with one of his teenage students, Jen then learned that he had cheated on her throughout their relationship with scores of women including friends of hers and paid escorts. The combination of sex addiction and a mid-life crisis had the narcissistic Spencer pursuing any and all women (and eventually his own students) that he came across. (Reading between the lines, it appears Jen was not around much which gave Spencer opportunity to indulge his addiction.) Also, it must have been a bitter pill for body/beauty conscious Jen to learn that some of Spencer's trysts were those frumpy, middle-aged moms.

Spencer's actual criminal offense gets little attention until the last hour. The first two hours are about poor, pitiful Jen, various female "trauma experts," and even the "other women" backing her up as to what a rat Spencer was. Although his student victim was over Georgia's age-of-consent, he had clearly started grooming her when she was underage. Plus, he knew very well that a sexual relationship as a teacher with a student was a criminal offense which caused him to exert pressure on her to be silent. That pressure eventually broke her and led her to reveal the relationship causing Spencer's downfall and the end of Jen's fantasy world.

There is no question that Spencer is a lecherous creep, but his crime and peccadillos are neither important nor interesting enough for a three-hour long documentary. Yet here it is. It appears one of Spencer's bigger mistakes was betraying a narcissistic TV producer who had the means, time, and ax-grinding desire to turn his post-prison life into an even bigger nightmare. "Hell, hath no fury......"

Finally, Jenn's career as a TV producer has "enriched" our culture with such mind-numbing trash as Jersey Shore, Judge Judy, and Celebrity Wife Swap. And that's what she put-off having a husband and family for? Did it really make her happy? It certainly doesn't seem so.

The way in which this story is told really irritates me. The ex wife has a podcast and is the main character in this documentary detailing his multiple scandalous affairs. About half way through you find out he has been grooming and sexually assault teenage girls. One of his victims gets the opportunity to share her story but in no way is she made to be the main character, she rather contributed to the assaulter as being painted as a bad husband who had a double life.

This documentary had the opportunity to share Rachel Heller's story, alongside his other victims and how adults and the school board failed them. However, this documentary doesn't hold anyone accountability. It only appears to promise the ex wife's podcast and how she was sadly betrayed through his immoral acts (and a minority of his illegal assaults).

This really is a poor documentary and I would not recommend anyone to watch this.

The trailers for this show made it look incredible. Not feeling the same way after having seen the whole thing. If anything I was equally as upset that I watched it, as I was about what happened the teenage victim. Coach Herron is a predator, a sex addict, and a lot of the bad things they say he is. By comparison Jen is a fame chaser, a drama addict, and out to get paid by any means necessary. Let's be honest, her husband is a terrible person, had issues and cheated on her. He also groomed and abused a child. Jen though is not a "survivor." She seems to have given herself the mission of "speaking out about things that are hard to talk about," but again, let's be honest, she was not abused physically or sexually. She wasn't made to do anything she didn't want to do. Nothing. She was simply in a marriage with an unfaithful spouse. That is where her story starts and ends, but she has milked the drama to pad her own pockets. 1/10 cause coach is awful. 1/10 cause Jen is awful.

So youre husband cheated on you and he was good at it and if he wouldn't have spread his std every where he wouldn't have got caught and you would still be taking selfies with him. Smiling and showing how oblivious to the facts you are. Its terrible that he preyed upon a student and tried to seduce even more but other than that where do you see a podcast and a three part docu series? I wonder how many women just in Ga this has happened to? There is no here here. Just look up a county in Ga or any other state and search for sex offenders. New flash, there more than you care to count. So find another man . Vet better the next time and get on with your life and stop trying to make a buck off of it. This proves that netflix will put anything on just to make it look like they have a ton of stuff to chose from. BTW if you haven't watched this don't.

This is the second true crime documentary I have watched that is connected to a podcast. It will probably be the last, too. I have the feeling podcasts exist to drag crime stories out forever. There is no ending. It just goes on and on and on . . . .

This doc is particuarly bad because it fails to shed real light on the marriage, or on the reasons the husband ended up as a serial cheater and child rapist. There is nothing on his childhood or family. It's like he didn't exist before college. (Wanting to know some background is not looking for excuses for his despicable and criminal behavior, but trying to find needed pieces to a puzzle.)

Moreover, are we really to believe that Jen, a 40ish woman who worked in televison and lived in LA for years, knew nothing about her husband's affairs with like 60 women during their 6-7-year marriage? She never suspected a thing?

She didn't marry him right out of college. She broke up with him to live a more adventurous life, when he graduated a year before her. Did he cheat on her at college? The documentary never asks that question. It simply portrays the two of them as the most happy and perfect college sweethearts who ever existed.

In addition, the viewer is constantly fed the fantasy that EVERYONE thought the guy was a wonderful human being, and that NO ONE could believe what he was really like. NO WAY! There were probably countless people who knew he was not a great guy, and that he was living a double life, besides the women he cheated with.

But the makers of this doc obviously didn't want to interview those individuals. Why? Possibly because then it would seem like intelligent, well-educated, savvy Jen should have known there was something off about her husband? There were lies being told. Is it possible this marriage was a sham from the very beginning?

Jen expresses sympathy for the adult women her husband cheated with. Why? In order to make him like a demon, the only one guilty of something? Does she possibly not like men? (Men like her husband often hate women, and play Casanova to cover up that fact.) Of course, Jen has even greater sympathy for the teenaged girl her husband sexually abused, as she certainly should have.

The viewer meets that courageous young woman in the beginning of the third episode, when she is addressing a law enforcement group. Thus, do watch the final episode, even if you have sworn off this documentary after mucking through the first two muddy episodes.

I tried to sympathize with Jennifer, I really really tried. Through out the entire first episode of this series are several people basically talking up the predator. Praising him for literally EVERYTHING. I found it disgusting. Not to mention several of their friends/family and locals in their community have resorted to shaming the initial victim who is a CHILD mind you. Overall this made me sick to my stomach. Sucks you're ex is a predator but the way to gas him up for the entirety of the first episode is embarrassing. Overall this I definitely a must avoid, very sorry to all of his victims..