August 11, 2026 • 10 mins
Karoline Borega's unforgettable story from Betrayal Season 4 is now a docu-series on Hulu, Betrayal: Dirty Secrets. In this special bonus episode, Andrea Gunning revisits some of the season's most memorable moments, shares behind-the-scenes stories, and offers a preview of what you’ll see in the new show.
You can now stream Karoline's story on Hulu and Disney+.
If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal team by emailing us at betrayalpod@gmail.com. You can also find us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts.
To access our newsletter and additional content and to connect with the Betrayal community, join our Substack at betrayal.substack.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey everyone, it's Andrea. I have some big news. Betrayal
Season four with Caroline Barega is now a docuseries on Hulu.
It's called Betrayal, Dirty Secrets, and this is a Betrayal
bonus episode to share more about what you'll see in
the new show. Caroline was living an idyllic life in
Colorado with her police officer husband of more than twenty years.
(00:25):
If you've heard the podcast, you know their two kids
revered their father, especially for serving the community, until one
day a text from him changed everything.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I fucked up the worst I've ever fucked up in
my life. I've ruined our lives. You're going to want
to divorce me.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
We met Caroline after she discovered her husband was living
a secret life. That life included multiple affairs that took
place while he was on duty to Colorado Springs. To
meet Caroline, we toured her beautiful home. It was filled
with reminders of her family, but something caught my eye.
(01:09):
Many of the picture frames no longer held family photos. Instead,
they displayed the stock images that come with the frames.
Caroline had done her best to remove pictures of her
ex husband from her home. When it came time to
start production of the TV docu series. It was something
director John Hirsch was thinking about.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
We put such a premium on family archival on these
shows because if we think it's one of the key
elements to really connecting the audience to the story and
to the characters and really understanding how their lives were impacted.
The day before the shoot was going to begin, I
was sitting in her living room and was chatting with Nicole,
(01:51):
her daughter, and Caroline excused herself and walked upstairs, and
when she came back down the stairs, I saw that
she was holding a large kind of like legal box.
She drops the box down on like the automen, in
front of the sofa that I was sitting on, and
I see photo albums. She had photo albums that she
had buried in a closet that she had I think,
(02:14):
to some extent forgotten she had or wanted to forget
that she had. And it included her wedding photo album,
photos of the kids when they were born, a lot
more than I ever expected to see.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
It was a treasure trove of photos and memories, and
it really helps you understand the love story that started
when Caroline and Joel first met.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I had a real reaction when I saw the contents
of this box, especially seeing the wedding photos, because what
I saw was, you know, a young couple that was
so obviously in love with each other, and seeing the
smiles on their faces that day, it really did look
like something out of a modern day fairy tale, and
it drove things home for me because seeing those photos
(02:58):
juxtaposed to the emotion that we hear from Caroline and
her family in the podcast, you really kind of can
see and feel to some extent the impact that this
experience has had on her and her family.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
One of the most shocking moments in our season with
Caroline was hearing Joel Kern's meetings with internal affairs. There
were multiple instances when he lied about having sex during
work hours in his police vehicle.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
So we're serious allegation.
Speaker 5 (03:28):
This person's identified that they had sex with you, Joel Kern,
in your department car. So we're asking again real quick
understanding the detectives are out there to talk to her
right now, have.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
You been physically intimate with this individual?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yees?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Did that occur inside an apartment vehicle?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
No?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Those recordings were some of the most unforgettable moments in
the podcast. In the new series, you get another layer
of the story, seeing Joel's body language on video and
how he didn't eyes to flex and ships whenever he's
confronted with the truth. One heartbreaking moment you may recall
in Caroline's story is when she received a message that
(04:11):
Joel was having sex with a tenant in the rental
property Caroline owned. Joel accompanied Caroline to the rental to
confront the woman accused of sleeping with Joel. Not only
did he deny it, he doubled down at the meeting.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
This psychopath is got me on the road to the divorce.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
My kids want me out of the house.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Eventually, the real story came to light. After putting on
a show for Caroline and silencing the tenant, he later
admitted it was true and betrayal dirty secrets. Caroline took
me there for the first time. Revisiting the house and
sitting next to Caroline, you can see the grief is
still there, right beneath the surface. In the new Hulu series,
(04:56):
you'll meet the people you've heard on the podcast, like
the therapists who can household Caroline, former CSPD officers who
worked with Joel, and even one of the women from CSPD.
Joel had an affair with.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Everybody seems to know Caroline and know what she'd like.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Everybody says that she's kind of a problem.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
From what I understand to say, she was very controlling
and not nice.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
She'd been a voice on the other end of the phone.
On Betrayal Dirty Secrets, she offers more details on just
how far Joel's deception went. For a moment, I want
to go back to where Joel's double life first began
to unravel. It's something we heard early on in the podcast.
A man Joel didn't know knocked on his door when
(05:46):
Caroline wasn't home.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Hey, pretty wife home by? You know who I am?
Here's my wife? O't he the one that you fucking
your cruiser? What are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I'm out here to Rassi.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
What I'm saying, Joel, Yeah, I'm talking about you say
my wife taking my wife?
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Was there? Saith I woman knows if you know, I
have know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Caroline eventually learned that Joel had met this man's wife
on fet Life, a kink and fetish networking site. Joel
had sex with this woman in his police car in
a public park in the middle of the day. The
man and his wife reported it all to the Colorado
Springs Police Department. That's when Joel's lies were exposed.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Did you arrange to meet her at Oyle Park?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
That basically you had sex with her at mont Oyle Park. Yes.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
When we filmed the Hulu series, I visited Memorial Park
with Caroline. It's a breathtaking site with the lake, swimming, ice, skating,
and playgrounds all against the backdrop of Pikes Peak, a
beloved place in Caroline's hometown that will forever be tainted.
(07:08):
During production, we spent more time with therapist Kristen Snowden.
Her work helped Caroline begin healing, and you'll hear her
share more about betrayed partner recovery.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
You're betrayed by the person you've trusted the most, and then, naturally,
being social beings, we go out and seek support and
validation and connection with our loved ones. But they just
cannot wrap their brain around unless they've had someone lie
to their face about just the most basic things.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
We don't know each other, but you know my story already.
Speaker 6 (07:43):
You're going to change people's lives. You're touching upon like
so many things that so many betrayed partners are struggling with.
Thank God, someone like you has the courage to be
sharing these stories.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
John McFarlane showed courage too. He's one of the few
former colleagues of Joel Kern at CSPD that talked on
the record.
Speaker 7 (08:04):
At first, Joel Kern was somebody that I could look
up to and trust, and he was very skilled in
that arena of investigation. And then as time went on,
things really really started to change. He's sacrificing his duty,
He's using his position for personal gain.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I'm excited for you to meet John in the new series.
He does a great job at explaining the severity of
Joel's behavior from a law enforcement perspective. And finally, there
was a special night at the end of recording the
podcast we were invited to doin Caroline and her closest
friends for their Sunday night supper club. Caroline made a
(08:43):
delicious Mexican feast and we shared a few bottles of wine.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So you know, I ate every night with him, and
then on Sundays we would get together for dinner. But
then it was this has been so fun, we should
do this every Sunday. Oh, well, just do it at
like one house every Sunday, like every Sunday, will rotate houses.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
My first time at supper Club, I was a guest.
I was warmly welcomed, but I felt a little like
a fly on the wall observing everyone. For the new docuseries,
I returned to supper Club, and this time I felt
like I was a member and I know.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
And then I sat next to Caroline and I was like, Oh,
how have we been married?
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Oh, we're not married.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
That's my best friend's husband.
Speaker 6 (09:27):
Was good. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
So then the next day I was like, oh, we're
going to this day. I don't care if it's weird,
We're going. We're going.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
I asked our director John Hirsch why Betrayal fans should
watch the new docuseries.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
They are hard stories to tell, but it's all the
more motivation to tell the story the right way and
make sure that, like, you know, we see the good
that comes out of this. And I think the podcast
and our show do a really great job of seeing
the perseverance within the family and seeing where Caroline is
now in the headspace that she's in moving forward. It's
pretty awesome.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
You've heard the voices. Now see the faces, the places
and the moments that stayed with us long after the
recording stopped. Watch Betrayal, Dirty Secrets, streaming now on Hulu
Hey everyone, it's Andrea. I have some big news. Betrayal
Season four with Caroline Barega is now a docuseries on Hulu.
It's called Betrayal, Dirty Secrets, and this is a Betrayal
bonus episode to share more about what you'll see in
the new show. Caroline was living an idyllic life in
Colorado with her police officer husband of more than twenty years.
(00:25):
If you've heard the podcast, you know their two kids
revered their father, especially for serving the community, until one
day a text from him changed everything.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I fucked up the worst I've ever fucked up in
my life. I've ruined our lives. You're going to want
to divorce me.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
We met Caroline after she discovered her husband was living
a secret life. That life included multiple affairs that took
place while he was on duty to Colorado Springs. To
meet Caroline, we toured her beautiful home. It was filled
with reminders of her family, but something caught my eye.
(01:09):
Many of the picture frames no longer held family photos. Instead,
they displayed the stock images that come with the frames.
Caroline had done her best to remove pictures of her
ex husband from her home. When it came time to
start production of the TV docu series. It was something
director John Hirsch was thinking about.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
We put such a premium on family archival on these
shows because if we think it's one of the key
elements to really connecting the audience to the story and
to the characters and really understanding how their lives were impacted.
The day before the shoot was going to begin, I
was sitting in her living room and was chatting with Nicole,
(01:51):
her daughter, and Caroline excused herself and walked upstairs, and
when she came back down the stairs, I saw that
she was holding a large kind of like legal box.
She drops the box down on like the automen, in
front of the sofa that I was sitting on, and
I see photo albums. She had photo albums that she
had buried in a closet that she had I think,
(02:14):
to some extent forgotten she had or wanted to forget
that she had. And it included her wedding photo album,
photos of the kids when they were born, a lot
more than I ever expected to see.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
It was a treasure trove of photos and memories, and
it really helps you understand the love story that started
when Caroline and Joel first met.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I had a real reaction when I saw the contents
of this box, especially seeing the wedding photos, because what
I saw was, you know, a young couple that was
so obviously in love with each other, and seeing the
smiles on their faces that day, it really did look
like something out of a modern day fairy tale, and
it drove things home for me because seeing those photos
(02:58):
juxtaposed to the emotion that we hear from Caroline and
her family in the podcast, you really kind of can
see and feel to some extent the impact that this
experience has had on her and her family.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
One of the most shocking moments in our season with
Caroline was hearing Joel Kern's meetings with internal affairs. There
were multiple instances when he lied about having sex during
work hours in his police vehicle.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
So we're serious allegation.
Speaker 5 (03:28):
This person's identified that they had sex with you, Joel Kern,
in your department car. So we're asking again real quick
understanding the detectives are out there to talk to her
right now, have.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
You been physically intimate with this individual?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yees?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Did that occur inside an apartment vehicle?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
No?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Those recordings were some of the most unforgettable moments in
the podcast. In the new series, you get another layer
of the story, seeing Joel's body language on video and
how he didn't eyes to flex and ships whenever he's
confronted with the truth. One heartbreaking moment you may recall
in Caroline's story is when she received a message that
(04:11):
Joel was having sex with a tenant in the rental
property Caroline owned. Joel accompanied Caroline to the rental to
confront the woman accused of sleeping with Joel. Not only
did he deny it, he doubled down at the meeting.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
This psychopath is got me on the road to the divorce.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
My kids want me out of the house.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Eventually, the real story came to light. After putting on
a show for Caroline and silencing the tenant, he later
admitted it was true and betrayal dirty secrets. Caroline took
me there for the first time. Revisiting the house and
sitting next to Caroline, you can see the grief is
still there, right beneath the surface. In the new Hulu series,
(04:56):
you'll meet the people you've heard on the podcast, like
the therapists who can household Caroline, former CSPD officers who
worked with Joel, and even one of the women from CSPD.
Joel had an affair with.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Everybody seems to know Caroline and know what she'd like.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Everybody says that she's kind of a problem.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
From what I understand to say, she was very controlling
and not nice.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
She'd been a voice on the other end of the phone.
On Betrayal Dirty Secrets, she offers more details on just
how far Joel's deception went. For a moment, I want
to go back to where Joel's double life first began
to unravel. It's something we heard early on in the podcast.
A man Joel didn't know knocked on his door when
(05:46):
Caroline wasn't home.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Hey, pretty wife home by? You know who I am?
Here's my wife? O't he the one that you fucking
your cruiser? What are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I'm out here to Rassi.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
What I'm saying, Joel, Yeah, I'm talking about you say
my wife taking my wife?
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Was there? Saith I woman knows if you know, I
have know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Caroline eventually learned that Joel had met this man's wife
on fet Life, a kink and fetish networking site. Joel
had sex with this woman in his police car in
a public park in the middle of the day. The
man and his wife reported it all to the Colorado
Springs Police Department. That's when Joel's lies were exposed.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Did you arrange to meet her at Oyle Park?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
That basically you had sex with her at mont Oyle Park. Yes.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
When we filmed the Hulu series, I visited Memorial Park
with Caroline. It's a breathtaking site with the lake, swimming, ice, skating,
and playgrounds all against the backdrop of Pikes Peak, a
beloved place in Caroline's hometown that will forever be tainted.
(07:08):
During production, we spent more time with therapist Kristen Snowden.
Her work helped Caroline begin healing, and you'll hear her
share more about betrayed partner recovery.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
You're betrayed by the person you've trusted the most, and then, naturally,
being social beings, we go out and seek support and
validation and connection with our loved ones. But they just
cannot wrap their brain around unless they've had someone lie
to their face about just the most basic things.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
We don't know each other, but you know my story already.
Speaker 6 (07:43):
You're going to change people's lives. You're touching upon like
so many things that so many betrayed partners are struggling with.
Thank God, someone like you has the courage to be
sharing these stories.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
John McFarlane showed courage too. He's one of the few
former colleagues of Joel Kern at CSPD that talked on
the record.
Speaker 7 (08:04):
At first, Joel Kern was somebody that I could look
up to and trust, and he was very skilled in
that arena of investigation. And then as time went on,
things really really started to change. He's sacrificing his duty,
He's using his position for personal gain.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I'm excited for you to meet John in the new series.
He does a great job at explaining the severity of
Joel's behavior from a law enforcement perspective. And finally, there
was a special night at the end of recording the
podcast we were invited to doin Caroline and her closest
friends for their Sunday night supper club. Caroline made a
(08:43):
delicious Mexican feast and we shared a few bottles of wine.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
So you know, I ate every night with him, and
then on Sundays we would get together for dinner. But
then it was this has been so fun, we should
do this every Sunday. Oh, well, just do it at
like one house every Sunday, like every Sunday, will rotate houses.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
My first time at supper Club, I was a guest.
I was warmly welcomed, but I felt a little like
a fly on the wall observing everyone. For the new docuseries,
I returned to supper Club, and this time I felt
like I was a member and I know.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
And then I sat next to Caroline and I was like, Oh,
how have we been married?
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Oh, we're not married.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
That's my best friend's husband.
Speaker 6 (09:27):
Was good. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
So then the next day I was like, oh, we're
going to this day. I don't care if it's weird,
We're going. We're going.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
I asked our director John Hirsch why Betrayal fans should
watch the new docuseries.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
They are hard stories to tell, but it's all the
more motivation to tell the story the right way and
make sure that, like, you know, we see the good
that comes out of this. And I think the podcast
and our show do a really great job of seeing
the perseverance within the family and seeing where Caroline is
now in the headspace that she's in moving forward. It's
pretty awesome.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
You've heard the voices. Now see the faces, the places
and the moments that stayed with us long after the
recording stopped. Watch Betrayal, Dirty Secrets, streaming now on Hulu
Host
Andrea Gunning
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