Kylie Moore-Gilbert on how she discovered her husband’s affair after her Iran prison ordeal

Kylie Moore-Gilbert has revealed how she feared something was wrong with her marriage while in an Iranian prison, and how she finally learned the truth.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert’s first clue that her husband was having an affair came when he stopped telling her he loved her during their limited phone calls while she was imprisoned in Iran.

But it would be another year before she was freed and flown home — where the crushing confirmation of Ruslan Hodorov’s betrayal was delivered by her mother.

Dr Moore-Gilbert spoke for the first time about her marriage breakdown — and her 804-day ordeal behind bars — in a Sky News world exclusive interview on Tuesday night.

“It has been harder for me to process and come to terms with that (the affair), than it has been to come to terms with what happened in Iran,” she told interviewer Melissa Doyle in a series of frank, intimate revelations.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert reveals how she was told about her husband’s infidelity. Picture: Sky News Australia

Jailed on spurious charges of spying after attending a Tehran conference in September 2018, the University of Melbourne academic suffered through solitary confinement, psychological torture and brutal physical conditions. Her few communications home were a beacon of hope — until she realised something was wrong halfway through her imprisonment.

“He stopped telling me he loved me over the phone,” said Dr Moore-Gilbert.

“I was upset and disappointed he was not supporting me to the extent that I hoped he would.”

The Islamic studies expert revealed that when she flew home to Australia in November 2020, Russian-Israeli Mr Hodorov was neither there to meet her nor sent a message. Instead she was joined in hotel quarantine by her mother, who revealed the truth.

“He never told my family, or told me, that he wanted to leave me. He maintained the deception right up until the end,” Dr Moore-Gilbert said.

Dr Kylie Baxter and Kylie Moore-Gilbert’s estranged husband Ruslan Hodorov.

“I did not know about the infidelity, or the person involved,” she said.

Learning that person’s identity adding salt to the wound — it was her PHD supervisor Dr Kylie Baxter, who had taken it upon herself to engage with Dr Moore-Gilbert’s family, offering support.

During her interview Dr Moore-Gilbert revealed she has not spoken to her estranged husband or Dr Baxter since she arrived home.

Dr Kylie Baxter was Dr Moore-Gilbert’s colleague.

Dr Moore-Gilbert told Doyle that her parents only learned of the apparently widely-known-about affair a day before she arrived home. They were alerted by a third party, who felt they ought to tell the family that Mr Hodorov was in a new relationship with Dr Baxter.

“My family called Ruslan and he confirmed it,” she said, adding that dealing with the betrayal has been more challenging than dealing with her ordeal in jail.

But the lecturer, who Doyle described as “strong and thoughtful”, said she does not want to dwell on the breakdown of her marriage and wishes Mr Hodorov all the best.

“I hope they are happy together and we can all move on from this,” she said.

Dr Kylie Baxter and Ruslan Hodorov

News Corp has already reported much of what Dr Moore-Gilbert told Doyle about her time inside, from weeks in solitary that drove her “crazy” to attempts by her jailers to recruit her as a double agent.

In the full interview on Tuesday Dr Moore-Gilbert said she had been nervous for a couple of days before being arrested, just as she prepared to fly home, following a warning from a local that a group of “bad” men were asking questions about her.

She also revealed the person who dobbed her in to Iran’s terrifying Revolutionary Guard was a Bahraini man she had interviewed in Iran, for her academic research.

“For me it is very confusing as to why he did what he did,” said Dr Moore-Gilbert.

“I would like to know why but I probably never will,” she said.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert before her arrest, at a shrine in Iran. Picture supplied from Sky News world exclusive: Escape From Iran.

“It is either because he was working for the Revolutionary Guard from the beginning and flagged me as suspicious. Or he was arrested by them after I had interviewed him.

“Possibly he was arrested, they went through his phone and found messages from me on his phone and obviously asked: Who is this foreign woman you have been meeting up with?

“And then he cut a deal with them to get out of whatever legal trouble he was in by helping to entrap me and working with them to arrest me.”

Iranian women inmates sit at their cell in the infamous Evin jail where Kylie Moore-Gilbert was held. Picture: AFP

When first imprisoned, Dr Moore-Gilbert spoke to Mr Hodorov quite a bit, but due to his behaviour on phone calls with her and his general behaviour after her arrest, he was seen as suspicious by the Guard and contact was discouraged.

“They wanted me to lure him to Iran so they could arrest him and get their hands on an extremely high value hostage. Can you imagine if the Revolutionary Guard got their hands on an Israeli — the price they could demand?

“But he would never have come. They are dreaming to think my husband would be so stupid to come to Iran.”

Sky News’ Escape to Iran: Kylie Moore-Gilbert encore will broadcast Saturday March 13 and is available via Foxtel on Demand

Originally published as Kylie Moore-Gilbert on how she discovered her husband’s affair after her Iran prison ordeal