INCREDIBLE: Man fakes being deaf, dumb for 62 years to avoid listening to wife

A man from Waterbury in Connecticut, United States, faces divorce after his wife found out that he was not actually deaf and dumb, and had been faking it for more than 62 years to avoid having to listen to her.

According to the divorce papers, 84-year-old Barry Dawson never spoke a single word in front of his 80-year-old wife, Dorothy, during the decades they lived together.

The woman learnt the sign language to be able to communicate with her husband but says he was still not really communicative.

“It took me two years to learn to communicate with my hands. As soon as I got good at it, he began having problems with his sight. Now that I think of it, he probably faked that too,” she said.

The couple still raised six children and has 13 grandchildren, all of whom were also convinced that their father was deaf.

“When he was at home, he always faked being deaf. It wasn’t until I saw a YouTube video of him singing during a karaoke night in a bar while he was supposed to be at a meeting for a charity, that I understood everything,” she added.

Dawson’s lawyer, Robert Sanchez, claims the elderly man’s stratagem was not meant to offend or cheat his spouse, and that it may, in fact, explain why their marriage worked for 62 years.

“My client is pretty quiet and not very talkative, but his wife is annoyingly chatty. If he hadn’t faked being deaf, they would have divorced 60 years ago. In a way, he did it for her and for his family,” he said.

The elderly woman is demanding financial compensation for her “emotional stress and burden”, as well as half of their belongings and alimony, according to weirdworld.com.