In Hulu’s “Betrayal: Dirty Secrets,” Karoline Borega details her ex-husband’s sexual misconduct in his squad car and other secret affairs.
Hulu’s ‘Betrayal: Dirty Secrets’ exposes cop’s double life
“Betrayal: Dirty Secrets” follows a marriage riddled with deceit and infidelity
Karoline Borega had two stipulations before marrying her husband: He could never cheat nor lay a hand on her. After more than 20 years of marriage to Joel Kern, a Colorado Springs police officer, she received a startling text from him: “You’re going to want to divorce me.”
In 2022, a Colorado Springs Police Department internal affairs investigation discovered Kern had received oral sex from a woman in his cop car and lied about it. The pattern of infidelity carried on for years, according to Hulu’s “Betrayal: Dirty Secrets,” with Kern engaging with 50 people and having sexual encounters with at least seven. Some of the people included a work colleague, a renter and a school parent, according to the true crime docuseries.
“I’d been living with this shame and this humiliation and suffering in silence,” Borega, 50, said.
The three-part docuseries, streaming now, breaks down Kern’s double life, his sexual kinks like domination, and the chain of lies he told to cover up his affairs. Following the fourth season of the “Betrayal” series, adapted from the Andrea Gunning-helmed true crime podcast, Borega talks to USA TODAY about her first impression of her ex-husband, her decision to confront the women behind the affairs, and her changed perspective on Colorado Springs police. (Borega’s son declined to participate and Kern did not respond to requests to comment in the documentary.)
The honeymoon phase of Joel Kern and Karoline Borega’s relationship
Borega and Kern met in 1998, and married three years later in a Catholic church, with 150 guests in attendance. Kern, a Colorado Springs police officer, had no red flags, Borega says, receiving several accolades from the police chief.
“One of the things that isn’t told in the docuseries or even in the podcast is that Joel was already a very decorated and admired police officer at such a young age,” she says. “He had already achieved an award for saving someone’s life.”
The disgraced police officer engaged in multiple sexual encounters
The department promoted Kern from interim public information officer to lieutenant in 2018. When Kern didn’t get the permanent PIO position in 2019, Borega learned that a reporter had filed a sexual harassment complaint, alleging Kern made suggestive comments such as the reporter was “too pretty to be single,” according to the documentary.
The investigation “was dismissed and wiped under the rug,” Borega said. “His commander said he made a mistake. He is still an incredibly valuable member of the department. We’ll allow him to proceed in his career.”
A new investigation began in February 2022. In 2020, Kern commanded the George Floyd protest control teams, according to a police chief in “Betrayal.” At the same time, Kern began having an affair with Dana, who uses a pseudonym in the docuseries, another Colorado Springs police department employee.
“We bought into it hook, line and sinker,” Borega said. “He would say, ‘Look at this, look at this. I have this bruise here. I have this mark here. This is what happened last night from frozen water bottles.’ He would later admit that all of those marks were a result of his trysts with Dana.”
Over the course of several years, Kern’s behavior worsened, and he confessed to seven to 10 affairs, according to the docuseries. An April 2022 internal affairs investigation determined that Kern lied about having two sexual encounters in his squad car. He had an affair with a tenant living in Borega’s mother’s home, the series reports. He had an affair with the mother of his daughter’s bully. After Kern checked into rehab that same year, Borega said she “lost count.”
Karoline Borega confronts the women he had affairs with
After calling dozens of the women Borega believed were involved with him, she says some of them apologized, while others hung up.
“The consistent theme was that he had told every single one of them that we were in the process of divorcing or that we were separated and that this was something that was agreed upon and we were both dating,” Borega said. “That was the furthest thing from the truth.”
Since his release from a rehabilitation center in Southern California, his daughter, Nicole Kern, says she last spoke to him in October 2023.
“The only time he really contacts us is when something big is about to drop,” Nicole Kern says. “And in that instance, we found out that he was having an affair with my mom’s friend of 20-plus years.”
Borega’s changed perspective on the Colorado Springs police department
Nicole Kern says a coworker boxed up his books, office supplies, work files and family photos and left them on their front porch, as the investigation ensued. She says that the police institution had “no regard for us.”
“We had all these cop families around us and friends,” she says. “When everything happened, they disappeared.”
Borega anticipated he would face criminal charges and legally separated from Kern in October 2022. Ultimately, no charges were filed. He retired from the Colorado Springs Police Department, picking up his pension and later moving to Puerto Rico, where he lives with a woman and her kids, the documentary reports.
It’s not uncommon for police officers under investigation to evade criminal proceedings.
In 2024, Rocky Mountain PBS, a Colorado-based station, reported on a resignation loophole in Colorado that allows investigated officers to evade accountability. From January 2022 to April 2024, 158 officers “resigned/retired in lieu of termination” or “resigned/retired while under investigation.” During that time, 119 officers were fired.
“I’m really disappointed in the authorities of his department,” Borega said. “At least since 2019, they knew that my health, well-being and potential safety could be in jeopardy by his actions.”
Before tossing Kern’s work files in the trash, Borega parsed through the pile to salvage any family photos. Despite rumors of an unhappy marriage, she says she visited his office frequently, bringing their kids and dropping off dinners.
For more than 25 years, “he had a picture, like a large picture of me in a frame and my wedding dress, on his desk,” Borega says. “So, it begs the question of: You didn’t think that he was still married? Why did he still have all these pictures up?”