Why didn’t Netflix include Betty Broderick’s secret boyfriend in Dirty John season two?

Netflix’s Dirty John season two tells the story of Betty Broderick, a lady who is driven to a murderous rage through the routine gaslighting and a number of injustices imparted onto her by her ex-husband. On the whole, the series keeps true to a number of key features in the story, such as that tense phone call that Betty has with her 11-year-old son which turned out to be nearly word for word with the real one.

However, one thing that was notably different was the fact that Betty actually had a partner for many years after Dan. But why didn’t Netflix include this part of the story? Who is Bradley T. Wright, Betty Broderick’s secret boyfriend at the time that Dan was murdered?

Who is Bradley T. Wright, Betty Broderick’s ex?

Bradley T. Wright was a businessman and keen sailor who referred to himself as Betty’s boyfriend. They were together for many years, ate dinner together and even slept in the same bed most evenings. Brad was even in bed at Betty’s home when he was awakened by the telephone with the news that Dan and Linda had been shot dead. He then reportedly “contacted a neighbour – a longtime friend of Dan’s – and together they hurried to Marston Hills, rushed into the bedroom and found the blood-covered bodies.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, Betty told them that Dan had restricted her from having a personal life: “Dan divorced me totally, completely, but I was still married to him because I had no (final) settlement. For five years, he had someone to sleep with, party with, have dinner with. I’m standing there going, ‘What about me?’”

Despite holidaying together and sleeping in the same bed, Betty went on to deny his claims that they were ever intimate for the fact that he was six years younger: “I’m not the kind of person to be with someone and not be married. I never brought Brad anywhere as my date because he was too young. I didn’t want to be the other half of the midlife joke.”

Apparently Lee, her daughter, accidentally walked in on the two in the shower and later asked how she could be mad at Dan whilst she was doing this: “How can you equate the two? Brad doesn’t support me!”, was the reply. In the subsequent months, Brad sold her house, put her furniture in storage and even delivered her mail to her whilst she was in jail.

Why wasn’t Bradley T. Wright in Dirty John season two?

If Bradley was such a large party of Betty’s life, regardless of what label she wanted to put on what they had, why wasn’t he included in the series? It might be something to do with the fact that Betty herself didn’t acknowledge him as a legitimate partner despite the fact that they were together for years.

The series showrunner Alexandra Cunningham, who spoke to the Martinis and Murders podcast in 2019, claimed that the decision to not include Wright was due to how Betty spoke of him: “The reason that I chose not to do that had a lot to do with how Betty herself talked about him and regarded him. Betty was and remains completely embarrassed by her lonely liaison, and that Brad would never really count to her.

“It was clear that his presence in her life did not affect any of her interactions with Dan or her thought process or decision-making.”

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