FIGHTING FOR CUSTODY
On Friday 16 September 1994, the Daily Express ran the sensational news story, “Lesbian Tug of Love”. The feature, embellished with a family photo of a father with his two daughters, reveals the story of John McKendrick’s fight to gain custody of his children after his wife, Jessie, deserted him for another woman.
In the article John claims that he had noticed a change in his wife’s behaviour shortly after they had moved from their native Scotland to Auckland, New Zealand: “She cut her hair short, dieted, started dressing in black and wearing Doc Martens.” Jessie later walked out on her husband to start life with their children in what John described as “a commune […] with man-haters with shaved heads and jack boots”.