Ruzan Badalyan has denied her husband’s claims that she was ashamed of her newborn baby, who has Down’s Syndrome, or that she forced her husband to choose between his wife and his son.
Samuel Forrest
As a mother who has faced this severe situation, being in the hospital under stress and depression, experiencing enormous pressure from every side, not finding any support from my husband's part on any possibilities of giving a child decent life in Armenia, I faced two options: to take care of the child on my own in Armenia, or to abandon my maternal instincts and extend the baby an opportunity to enjoy a decent life with his father in New Zealand. I went for the second option.
It is not clear based on their contrasting stories whether Forrest offered, or if it were even possible, for Badalyan to join him in New Zealand – nor how exactly the pair came to the decision to divorce.