- OK.
See these five women?
They are all from the Houston, Texas area.
And they are all about the same age.
And each one thought that she had
found the man of her dreams.
Until recently, all of these women
had never met even though they have a lot in common.
You ready for this?
They were all married or engaged to the same man.
[GASPING]
Take a look at this complex love line.
OPRAH WINFREY (VOICEOVER): In just 10 years,
Eric Cooper was married to or engaged
to nine different women.
He said his first I do with Melissa Pope in 1994.
They had a daughter, Tracy.
They split in 1996.
In July of 1998, he married Kimberly Pitman.
The following year, their marriage ended.
But before he was divorced from Kimberly,
he married April James.
He and April divorced in January of 2000.
By March, he was married again to Paula Herren.
They divorced in January of 2002.
According to Texas marriage records,
he married another April, April Singleton,
before divorcing Paula.
A shocked April filed bigamy charges against Eric.
Turns out while married to both Paula and April,
Eric got engaged to Brandy, who gave birth to another daughter,
Breonna.
He married Jennifer Smith in 2004.
In September that same year, he married
Krystal Weber in Las Vegas.
Krystal soon discovered that he was a fraud and threw him out.
That same day, he landed on Tonya Causey's doorstep
and proposed to her a few weeks later.
Whoa.
Five of Eric Cooper's former wives and fiancées are here.
So I say welcome to Krystal and to Tonya and April
and Brandy and Melissa.
You found out not only has the man you love been lying to you,
but that the lies involve eight other women.
What was your first reaction?
You say that it was this fantasy relationship.
And then, it started to unravel the day you got married.
How so?
He kind of has what I describe as like a split personality.
For example, the night we got married,
he just for no reason just switched and said, that's it.
We're getting a divorce.
And I was like-- of course, I was all upset.
It was the night we got married. And so I was like, what?
Why, you know?
I think it's his way to control the situation and control you.
So he was engaged to you, Tonya.
He was engaged to you while he was married to you, Krystal.
Right.
What happened was the day that I kicked Eric out
of my apartment, the next day, he
was over at Tonya's apartment.
It was that same night.
Oh, the same night. OK.
[LAUGHTER]
Sorry.
That same night, then.
But you had already known him, right?
I had already met him maybe three weeks before.
But we live on opposite sides of town.
She live on one side of Houston.
I live on the other.
And he told me that he was in Florida,
I think helping with hurricane cleanup
after they had had hurricanes there.
That's how he explained him being gone.
And, of course, I found out later when he was gone,
he was at her house.
He was actually living with me because we had gotten married,
and he was living with me.
But he had told her that he was in Florida
helping out with the hurricanes, that he
was being a good Samaritan.
He had told you he was rich, right?
He told me he inherited money from his mother, who had
died when he was two years old.
He had invested it.
And now, he had all this money.
He even like-- he went house shopping with me.
He took my parents house shopping.
And we went ring shopping.
He pretend like he had money, but he never--
I never actually saw it, of course.
So I never actually saw the money.
Isn't that funny?
Who said he was always dressed in his Navy whites?
- Me. - You did.
Was he really in the Navy?
No.
He wasn't even in the Navy.
I think he--
I don't even think he made it out of boot camp.
OPRAH WINFREY: Really?
OK, so he dressed in his military uniform
when he visited you?
Yeah.
The first time I met him, he was wearing his uniform.
OPRAH WINFREY: And visited your son's second grade class?
Yes. OPRAH WINFREY: Did all that.
How long did you date him?
About two months.
OPRAH WINFREY: About two months.
So you were just engaged.
TONYA CAUSEY: Right.
And then, how did you discover?
He was checking his email on my computer.
And when I walked in, he cleared the screen out.
So that, of course, turned into an argument.
And that's how I found Brandy.
And that-- after we broke up, I got an email back from her.
And she explained everything to me, you know, who he was
and what happened.
Brandy, you say it was Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde personality, the same thing Krystal said.
So where were you in this chain?
After her.
Three people after her.
[LAUGHTER]
Well, when I was married to Eric,
he was also married to Paula.
OPRAH WINFREY: How long were you married to him?
And she was pregnant with his baby.
OK.
How long-- OK.
So he was married to two women and had her.
- And had her pregnant. - OK.
How long were you married to him?
About a month.
You were married a month.
How long had you dated?
We had dated about a month.
I found out about Melissa and that they
had had a child together.
OPRAH WINFREY: Had you had a child together?
Yes.
And how long were you with him?
Three months. OPRAH WINFREY: Three months.
And then, we were married for about eight months.
OPRAH WINFREY: And you were married for-- that's long.
[LAUGHTER]
Well, she was number one.
- You were the first? - Yes.
OK, so you were the first.
And what was your first clue?
One day, he would just be so sweet and loving.
And then, like the next day, like all of a sudden,
I mean, he would blow up.
I mean, throwing stuff around and push you around.
And just-- you know, just--
And this is my question to all of you.
You never saw any sign of this Jekyll and Hyde personality
prior to marrying?
No. no.
He waits until--
I did a little bit.
He would blame it on the military.
He's like-- because he said he was an officer in the military
and a pilot, as well, for me.
I don't know what he told y'all.
I think he was a pilot for her, as well.
Yeah, he was a pilot.
BRANDY BOWDEN: He was a Navy SEAL for me.
OPRAH WINFREY: He was a Navy SEAL.
[LAUGHTER]
Was he physically abusive with all of you?
How so?
When I was four months pregnant with our daughter,
Breonna, he had grabbed me by my neck and put me on the ground.
When she was born, he broke our family portrait over our head.
And that same night, he pulled a gun on me telling me, you know,
me and my daughter were worthless.
And then, he proceeded to turn the gun on himself.
And I asked him to go outside because I
didn't want to see it.
Well, then, I went to go to bed after.
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
I'm sure it was said with more passion than that.
Yeah. Yeah.
Excuse me.
Could you go outside if you're going to shoot yourself?
Yes.
And then, I got our daughter calmed down, put her to sleep.
And he came in there with a taser
and shocked me while I was trying to sleep.
I couldn't believe it.
I was terrified.
And this is how--
so you've been with him a while, long enough to have a daughter.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, I left him when I was still pregnant
when I found out about not her, but another lady
that had a child with him.
OPRAH WINFREY: How many children does he have now?
Three living.
Three living daughters.
I think he has one on the way with a 17-year-old, I believe.
And one on the way.