Former Oxford University worker, 66, leaves her husband after 46 years and sets up home with a lute-playing busker she met in their street
- Kevin Smithson, 68, caught Lynda, 66, kissing lute player Edward Fitzgibbon
- Soon after a holiday in Wales, his wife of 46 years said she was leaving him
- He said she would be with Mr Fitzgibbon because he was teaching her the lute
Lute player Edward Fitzgibbon (pictured) is now in a relationship with Lynda Smithson
A husband whose wife left him for a busker has revealed how he became suspicious when her lute lessons with the musician began running over.
Kevin Smithson, 68, caught Lynda, 66, his wife of 46 years, kissing lute player Edward Fitzgibbon outside their house in Wantage, Oxfordshire, in May.
Soon after his wife, who worked at Oxford University’s archaeology institute for 39 years – said she was leaving him.
Mr Smithson told MailOnline today: ‘It started when she would go out on shopping trips. She would be out for a few hours but she wouldn’t bring back any shopping. She also started taking up lute lessons and bought a lute.
‘She would then be with Edward because he was teaching her. She said ‘I’ve met this guy who busks so I’m going to be having lessons on a Friday afternoon’.
‘When the lessons ran over and went on for too long my suspicions went up a notch because she said he was teaching her at his house.’
Mr Smithson said he had gone on holiday with his wife to a cottage in Wales for his 68th birthday from May 4 to 11, and claimed she denied having an affair when he confronted her about it.
He added: ‘On the day after we got back she went out for a few hours and I rang her to say ‘I’m done with the lies, you are having an affair, aren’t you?’ She said she would come back in a minute and we will talk about it – she arrived three hours later.

Mrs Smith was a secretary at Oxford University’s department of archaeology for 39 years. Pictured is All Souls College
‘He was with her and I saw her kiss him from the landing window Then he held back and she came to the door. She said she didn’t want to come in.’
Mr Smithson continued: ‘I was great to her over the years – how can I trust anyone again if someone I was married to for 40-plus years is disloyal to me like this?’
He admitted police have interviewed him because Mrs Smithson and Mr Fitzgibbon claim he has threatened them, but insisted he had not been cautioned or arrested.
The former vintage car salesman, who is also an amateur photographer, said he and his wife had stopped having a sex in recent years because of his health issues.
He told MailOnline: ‘Our sexual relationship died a few years ago because of my spinal injuries and the kidney removal. At 18 years old I was in a car accident and I broke my spine which forced me into early retirement in 1994.
‘I’ve got titanium rods and screws in spine. I had kidney cancer three years ago and had my right kidney removed.’
Mr Smithson also told how his ‘very talented’ wife, whom he met at Oxford Rowing Club in 1971, helped publish the Oxford Journal of Archaeology for 33 years.
He said: ‘She has £90,000 in the bank that was going to help us in our retirement – now they will be sharing it I bet. I’ve not got much money left in the bank.’
Mr Fitzgibbon and Mrs Smithson have so far refused to comment, and nobody was at their home when MailOnline visited today.
Thames Valley Police have also been contacted for comment.