Alleged sex affair and its consequences led to depression

There has been little mention of the alleged sex affair involving Zug cantonal parliamentarians Markus Hürlimann of the SVP party and Jolanda Spiess-Hegglin of the Green Alternative Party since it dominated the news for the first couple of months this year. Now Spiess-Hegglin has told a Sunday newspaper how the incident and its consequences led to her falling into a depression.
 
The 34-year-old explained that among the worst things she had had to endure in the months after the incident in a side room at the Schiff Restaurant on 19 December last year were when rumours started that she and her husband had split up after the event and that she had invented the whole story about her allegedly having been given a rape-date drug. No proof of any such drug being administered has been made public.
 
“Such allegations about my husband and I splitting up or that I made it all up were absurd and malicious,” she told a journalist of the “Schweiz am Sonntag” newspaper. “Having to come to terms with all what had happened along with people not believing me was also very difficult,” she admitted.
 
She went on to say how her family never doubted her, and for this support she remains extremely grateful. “Anyone who knows me knows that I am an honest person. I have always been open with everything and try to be candid in all I do,” she said.
 
She insisted she had always been faithful to her husband throughout their nine years of marriage. “In fact I would say the whole matter has brought us closer together,” she added.
 
She went on to say that this incessant reporting about alleged events had led her to suffer from depression, a so-called posttraumatic stress disorder. She even lost as a many as ten kilogrammes in weight because she just could not eat. “It is true to say I have been taking medicine for this for some time and this helps very much. In fact I feel and can resume my political activities now.” Indeed she has already taken part in two parliamentary sessions since the beginning of July.
 
Despite earlier calls from some quarters for her and 41-year-old Markus Hürlimann to resign, both remain cantonal parliamentarians, though the latter did resign as leader of the Zug SVP party.
 
The photograph shows the pair at the event last December to celebrate Heinz Tännler becoming head of the cantonal government.