Former Flydubai pilot William Gonzales Bodden Jr. has been convicted of bigamy after it was discovered that he maintained marriages with two women in different countries at the same time. Bodden is now flying for Breeze Airways.
Bodden married Judy Jeon in Florida in March 2024 while still legally tied to Laura Powell-Bodden, his first wife from the Cayman Islands since 2012, with whom he has a ten-year-old daughter. The two families were discovered when Powell-Bodden sought U.S. residency sponsorship to join her husband in Florida. She reported the second marriage to Cayman authorities.
The Flydubai captain since 2018, Bodden initially planned to bring his family along to Dubai, but they decided not to move their daughter. While in Dubai, he started a relationship with a fellow employee whom he married in Deerfield Beach, Florida, shortly after leaving the carrier in March 2024.
The two already had a child together. Dubai has rules about childbirth outside of marriage, so Bodden arranged for his cousin to marry Jeon. They actually have two children together.
Deemed a flight risk, he was initially prohibited from coming within 100 yards of any airport, but was given permission to travel internationally after he posted a $250,000 bond in order to continue flying for Breeze, founded by Mormon David Neeleman. Ultimately, the pilot pled guilty to one count of bigamy and he was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge and $5,000 fine.
Boeing Boeing, the French play-turned-1965 film starring Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis portrayed a cad who liked flight attendants so much he was dating… three of them, for Air France, Lufthansa, and British United Airways. Their international routes never have them in town at the same time.
They all live with him whenever they’re in Paris, with photos and personal touches swapped out to match each one of them. But then the jet age meant faster planes, screwing up their schedules, and bringing them back to him all at the same time. Hijinks ensue.
Oh, the irony of a pilot being a ‘flight’ risk. Probably for the best he is currently based in the ‘free’ state of Florida–They’ll likely legalize bigamy there, soon enough.
What does the founder of Breeze being a Mormon have anything to do with this story?
Just curious . . . if the guy had two wives in Dubai, where it is legal, and if foreign legal marriages are recognized by other countries, how would it work if he were to move to the US where they are not permitted?
@Jay Gee
I’ll bite. It is well-know that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) used to practice polygamy, even though it is now officially prohibited by that faith. While polygamy does not always result in bigamy, it sometimes did.
Yes, the founder of Breeze happens to be a Mormon. Recall that Gary’s post was about a Breeze pilot who committed bigamy. So, this is what we call ‘irony’ and sometimes it is funny. I doubt Gary did this to personally offend you in-particular, but who knows, maybe he did.
I see the irony in that he was convicted of bigamy and changed jobs to an airline owned by the Mormon David Neeleman. They are vaguely connected in that Mormon’s once believed in bigamy. Some sects still do. Bigamy must not be a felony in Florida. Can a commercial pilot fly after being charged and convicted for doing something so dishonest as this? The wives were in two different countries. It was more like he tried to legalize his affair and of course was eventually caught for being so foolish.
This actually shows the idiocy of bigamy laws. If bigamy is fully informed, then it can help solve the declining birth rate problem, increase happiness (of both partners) and increase economic growth.
So why would it be illegal? The deadweight grip of religion telling people how to run their material lives.
Gary –
I’m glad you mentioned Boeing Boeing in this post. I loved seeing the play in a Broadway revival a few years ago, as well as a follow-up play. This pilot’s life reminds me of an old Alec Guiness movie, the Captain’s Paradise. In this movie, the captain of a Gibraltar-Morocco ferry had a wife in each port. His downfall was finding out that each of his wives wanted the type of life lived by the other wife. Yet, it has a sort of happy ending….
Chris
@1990
Not offended at all, I just thought it was quite a stretch to tie those two threads together.
Kinda like “No matter how high a bird flies, you can break a window with a hammer”.
It just doesn’t follow for me
@CRS-
Bigmay is a 3rd degree felony in FL, but it is rare that a state attorney wastes limited resources on a bigamy case alone; I suspect this pilot must have committed some other crime(s) in addition to bigamy, or that the prosecutor was simply overzealous.
@1990: It appears that the pilot was prosecuted in the Cayman Islands, not in Florida.
So the guy is a convicted bigamist who gets hired on by a Mormon led company? I can’t decide whether this is coincidental as hell or just creepy. Many Mormons genuinely disavow polygamy but there are quite a number who feel differently like the FLDS who traffic young girls to each other for marriage.
@Joshua K
Noted. As I said earlier, it’s rare in the US for bigamy to actually be prosecuted, so perhaps this is why he can still fly (albeit with a felony conviction in a foreign jurisdiction).
Just saying, I wouldn’t want to put my life in the hands of someone so conflicted in life that you have to worry about whether they even want to ‘stick around.’ Breeze should let him go.
@Christian
Ah, we meet again, dear foe. Yes, this was the subtle irony that Gary included in his post, which @Jay Gee did not find relevant (and was not offended by), but you found more relevant than necessary. At least you did not go full-bigot on this post. Feel free to come back and unleash a full frontal attack on me and decency, if it pleases you.
@1990 – As I’ve said before I actually agree with most of your comments. I’m a touch less vehement but that’s a matter of degree. It’s both odd and interesting that you view me as a foe.
I have Mormon friends and neighbors. That doesn’t give their religion a free pass any more than any other religion.
I despise bigots. We all have some sort of prejudices that hopefully we work to overcome but in my book a bigot is someone who’s proud of being prejudiced. If you’re accusing me of that then we will have words.
To the best of my knowledge I’ve never attacked you in any way. Sometimes I may disagree but no two people will ever agree on everything. I’ve seen your back-and-forths with some – shall we say less than enlightened people – but making an impersonal disagreement personal has never been my thing. I’ve only really sparred with DCS and that’s because he feels himself incapable of being wrong in any fashion.
The decency thing I don’t understand. Maybe you’re just used to combative interactions and there’s plenty of jerks out there but outside of the occasional lapse that’s not me.
In short while I genuinely appreciate that you’re willing to stand up for what you think, not everybody is the enemy.