Bigamist bride Emily Horne has just sent back her wedding rings... all five of them.
There was the £10 gold-coloured band from her first and only legal marriage to former soldier Paul Rigby and the £40 amethyst and cubic zirconia ring from bank worker Sean Cunningham.
Next came the silver £15 Debenhams band from web designer Chris Barrett, the £50 number in opal and gold from train guard James Matthews and a £15 silver and aquamarine ring from salesman Ashley Baker.
Former topless model Emily, 30, says returning them to her "husbands" is her way of apologising for the hurt she caused.
"It's common courtesy to return them. It's traditional, isn't it?" she says without a trace of irony.
Speaking for the first time since pleading guilty to bigamy at Manchester Crown Court on Monday, Emily confessed she married three of her five husbands just to make one man jealous.
And she is still so besotted with that man - history graduate Simon Thorpe - that she still can't bear to part with the emerald engagement ring he gave her. "He's the only man I wanted to marry, but never did," she says.
But, being Emily, she has since moved in with yet another lover, window-fitter Wayne Harper, 29 - who says he wants to spend the rest of his life with her.
"The only way I can explain my actions is that, as a child, I was always eager to please. I like making people happy," she says.
"The thing I'm guilty of most is falling in love. Sadly, it led to chaos and a lot of people suffered. It was easier to bury my head in the sand as the situation got more complicated. I realise that was wrong."
Emily admits she didn't tell some of her duped "husbands" about her past until after they married - and she is only now in the process of divorcing first husband Paul.
There is little doubt she's a troubled young woman. She gave up a degree course at Leeds University to work as a barmaid and says she's being treated for bipolar disorder.
Explaining why just so many men have fallen for her charms she says: "Quite simply, I can talk to them on subjects they understand.
"I don't bore them. My life doesn't revolve around fashion. I hate shopping. I'd rather watch football and I know what the offside rule is. And I'm packaged reasonably attractively.
"There's never been someone I wanted that I've not had. I don't set out to seduce anyone. I've never dragged anyone into my bed.
"I might look at someone and think I'll go over and talk to them and see if there's any chance. Men are led by their anatomy - one only has to look at the infidelity rate."
But yesterday she claimed to be considering a vow of chastity and becoming a nun.
"I've already spoken to one order unofficially. I'm playing around with several." In the meantime though, she is living with new man Wayne in Kingswinford, West Midlands. "He's more than my boyfriend. He's my best friend and rock," she says.
They met at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital while she was having a minor operation and he was being treated after a cycling accident. She moved into his family's home five days later.
"One could hardly have called me a seductress, considering the state we were both in," she says.
"About four weeks after I met him, when it became apparent there was a possibility I could become part of his life, I told him, 'I've got a past that is going to make you run'.
"But Wayne accepts everybody has a past."
Of course, not everyone has quite as many skeletons in their closet as Emily. EMILY, who is due to be sentenced on July 27, has not received payment for this interview.
Husband No 1 Paul Rigby, Dec 1996
Emily's first marriage, to soldier Paul, came after a whirlwind romance while he was on leave from the Army. They married on December 20, 1996 in York Register Office, soon after her 18th birthday.
"He was eager to please. He reminded me of a large puppy," she says. "Sadly, I can't even remember what I wore for the wedding.
"It was classic teenage rebellion taken to the extreme. It was done purely to annoy my father.
"We went to Northern Ireland for two weeks afterwards - I wouldn't exactly call Omagh a honeymoon destination. Paul was heading there anyway on leave and I tagged along. I realised it was a mistake within two weeks. Within three to four weeks I went home."
Despite claiming she lost her virginity at 14, Emily insists they never had full sex. Paul, now 30, has claimed he later wanted to divorce Emily but could not find her. Emily insists she tried to find Paul.
"Just after a year passed I contacted the Army," she said. "Eventually, he got in touch, but then disappeared and I never saw him again."
Husband No 2 Sean Cunningham, Feb 1999
Emily didn't mention she was still married when she proposed to ten-pin bowling fan Sean in a pub in 1998.
She was pregnant when they wed, in February 1999, at Leeds Register Office. Three days later, she spilled the beans. "I was tearful and he was shocked, but there was no anger."
Emily had a miscarriage and they split a month after the wedding. By then Emily had started a five-month romance with Norwegian Leif-Arne Dalspass. He claims she suggested marriage, but when he said he wasn't ready the romance faded.
Just weeks after her marriage split, Emily became involved with retail credit officer Simon Thorpe, 39 - who had given her away at her wedding to Sean, now 43. They were later engaged for two years but never married.
"I swear I never touched him until there was absolutely no chance of a reconciliation with Sean," she says.
"Simon is the love of my life. It was a relationship bordering on obsession. I will love Simon to the day I die. He is the only man I should have ever married."
Husband No 3 Chris Barrett, Dec 2000
Despite her declaration of love for Simon, and while still wearing his engagement ring, Emily fell for website designer Chris Barrett, now 30, in October 2000.
"I saw him on a bus reading a book on computer programming and I joked, 'Can't you find anything else to read at 7.30 in the morning?' We exchanged emails and later went for a drink."
They married in December 2000 at Leeds Register Office, less than three months after they first met.
Incredibly, she took Chris, 30, back to live in the home she had shared with husband number two, Sean. Emily, who at the time had found work as a £200-a-night strippergram, says: "Chris is the one I feel the worst about. I married him purely to get back at Simon. On the day of the ceremony I was full of hate, anger, spite and betrayal towards Simon. God, I'm ashamed to say that. I told him I was still married fairly quickly.
"He was an innocent victim - a pawn in a battle between Simon and me. He got nothing out of me but heartache. He was very good to me and that's what makes it even worse."
They split six weeks after their wedding and Chris went to the police. Emily was cautioned for two offences of bigamy. "Simon and I were reunited briefly after that and I fell pregnant," recalls Emily. "But when the relationship fell I had a termination. It broke me. There's not a day goes by I don't think about it."
Husband No 4 James Matthews, March 2002
Desperate to start a new life, Emily moved to Ipswich, and chatted up railway guard James Matthews.
"He rescued me from a rowdy yob on a train and I offered to take him to lunch at a platform café as a thank you." Just four weeks later, in March 2002, after Emily proposed, they had a £1,500 church wedding.
"I texted him as a joke, 'Marry me lol' - and he said yes. James wanted a church wedding and it was themed around the film Pulp Fiction - even the vicar wore shades for the photos.
"On the day, I wanted to back out. I thought, 'Oh my God, what the hell am I doing?' But I was in too deep. James was adamant living together was not an option. Basically, unless I went ahead I wouldn't have anywhere to live.
"When I told him afterwards about still being married, his attitude was, 'We got married in the eyes of God.' He said it didn't
matter." But they fell out when Emily had a drunken snogging session with a woman in front of him. She says: "He gave me a four-hour lecture, saying I was going to hell."
The final straw came when she moved in with one of his friends, computer engineer Ross Beech, 25. James went to the police and Emily was given a six-month sentence for bigamy at Ipswich Crown Court in January 2004, under her modelling name of Amileannya Carmichael.
The judge branded her a "very predatory female". She served six weeks - and then picked up her relationship with lover Ross.
She said: "I was with him for two years before we broke up."
Husband No 5 Ashley Baker, Sept 2007
Emily and Ashley wed wearing jeans and T-shirts in Chadderton, near Oldham, in September 2007.
They had met four months before in a bar. Salesman Ashley, 25, claims Emily confessed their wedding was not legal on their honeymoon, although she says she told him before they wed.
"My judgement was very seriously impaired," she insists now. "I was between a rock and a hard place.
"I was worried I would be sectioned because of being bipolar and wanted somebody who I trusted to make decisions for me."
Their tempestuous relationship came to an end 10 months later, when she made a false allegation of assault against him.
She said: "It was then that I decided to come clean. Every time I married, I was always scared of being found out, but the ball had already started rolling down the hill and it was too big to stop.
"Whatever price I have to pay now, even if it's going to prison, I will accept the punishment."
No 6? Wayne Harper
Emily met Wayne 10 months ago when she chatted him up while they were both in hospital.
"I am completely in love with her," says Wayne, 29.
"She told me about being a bigamist a couple of weeks after we met. I was a bit shocked when she told me she was married to five men.
"She also told me she's done some adult movies and I was a bit stunned about that. But I can understand why she didn't want to tell me the whole gory details. I'm standing by her."
He says he has no plans to marry, but he does intend to build a life with Emily. He says: "She is goodlooking, slim, sexy and intelligent - what more could a man ask for? "When we met, my face was swollen because I'd had a cycling accident and she asked me what I had done. We just got talking - and it went from there. She told me she had nowhere to stay when she got out of hospital so she moved in with me and my family.
"Everybody deserves a chance to turn their life around. I believe she will stay with me and I will support her if she goes to prison."
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