Around four days after meeting the woman, Samak said he told Joanne he was having feelings for someone else, which left his wife upset.
He said he enjoyed speaking to the woman because he could share feelings that he could not share with his wife and confided in her about the issues in their marriage.
When asked by defence barrister John Jones KC whether he and Joanne had been happily married, Samak, who became emotional during his evidence, said: “I was fortunate to have Jo and the marriage wasn’t the best but it’s not that I think about leaving or thinking about having a different relationship with someone.
He admitted they had met up on June 15 last year when the woman visited London for work and said he did not tell his wife about the meeting because he did not want to upset her.
The defendant told the court the couple never argued or raised their voices at each other and never had disagreements about money but said in the years before his wife’s death, he was becoming concerned about how much alcohol she was drinking.
