SPYING on your multi-millionaire husband for a dangerous criminal organisation isn't usually the foundation of a strong relationship. But that's how the wife of anti-virus software tycoon John McAfee – who was found dead in his Spanish prison cell this week – claims to have spent the early years of their romance. He is survived by his wife Janice, nearly 40 years his junior, who met John while working as a prostitute in Flordia. This is the wild story of their relationship – including cartels, pimps and even poison plots.

Playboy McAfee had several eyebrow-raising sexual relationships before settling down with Janice in 2013. He was kicked off a mathematics PhD begun in 1968 when it was discovered he was sleeping with one of his undergraduate students, who would become his first wife. McAfee later married Judy, who helped him build his company founded in 1987, but they too split in 2002. Six years later, the multi-millionaire sold all his belongings and moved to the Central American jungle where he bought a villa in picturesque Belize. There, he had a harem of seven young women. Some people think it is horrendous that I lived with seven women aged between 18 and 25," McAfee told The Sun. “People can think what they want.” He added: “I have been married twice and living with seven women was a lot less stressful than having a wife.” In 2012, McAfee was arrested in Guatemala after attempting to flee Belize when he became a "person of interest" in the fatal shooting of his American neighbour, Gregory Faull. To prevent being sent back to Belize, McAfee faked a heart attack – his plan worked, and he was instead deported to the US that December. The night after landing on US soil, he was solicited by sex worker Janice Dyson in South Beach, Florida. She didn't know John was a notorious millionaire, but her pimp did. Janice and John spent the night together and soon began a relationship – but their romance wasn't exactly what it seemed. Poison kidnapping plot For the first two years they were together, Janice was spying on John for cartel bosses introduced to her by her pimp. Even after they married in 2013, Janice was passing on information about his movements to the gangsters who plotted to kidnap him. She loved her husband, but was too afraid to disobey the cartels' ordered. Eventually, their orders became more sinister than simply demanding to know his whereabouts. "They wanted me to do things like hide poison in his food and let them in the house where he was staying," Janice told The Sun in 2019. Janice described her position as a "scary situation" and added: "Because I didn't tell [him] it had a strain on our relationship". Incredibly, John decided to stay with the mum-of-three even after he discovered her involvement in the plots against him – because he had clocked what was happening and knew his wife was in a perilous position. For me I did not mind," John said. "She was in a hard place but when she finally came clean it was a beautiful moment." The cyber-security pioneer didn't elaborate on how he discovered his spouse was spying on him, but added: "The cartel was the problem, [not] the pimp." On the run In 2018, while the couple lived in a heavily fortified compound in Tennessee, John claimed to have been targeted in a poisoning "assassination attempt". A year later, they took to the seas in a yacht – heading from the US to the Bahamas, then Cuba – after McAfee suspected US law enforcement were trying to extradite him. They were both arrested along with their crew in the Dominican Republic later in 2019 after entering the country with firearms on the boat. "Every yacht has weapons on board, there are still real pirates out there that kidnap people and steal things from yachts," John fumed after his arrest. "Before we even showed up, we radioed we were coming. "When we showed up at the dock we were surrounded by weapons." He bizarrely claimed the arrests were a plot on behalf of the US Government. It was America's attempt to get me back to America without filing [for] formal extradition," he said. Instead, he and Janice were able to travel to London before crossing Europe to an ultra-secure tin-foil-covered hideout in Lithuania. "The facility we're at is very comfortable and there are many people here who we interface with," John told The Sun at the time. Survived by 47 children But Janice spoke about missing her three teenage kids, who weren't John's, while travelling the world with her husband. "[The past few years have] been a little stressful because you're having to pack up and leave at a moment's notice and with me having children it's been difficult trying to see them," she said. John said that his "people" were watching Janice's children and that they were being taken care of. But he made an even more startling revelation about his own brood: he claimed to have fathered 47 kids, whose ages ranged from late teens to approaching 50. "It's very difficult to keep track of [them]," he said. "Almost all of them were illegitimate. "[But] I keep in touch with every one... I take care of all of them financially." After being indicted on tax evasion charges in the US, John was arrested in Barcelona last October. He also faced charges in America for allegedly being part of a team which ran a $13million cryptocurrency scheme. Last week, on Father's Day, Janice posted an explosive note about John's legal situation on Twitter. "John's honesty has often gotten him in trouble with corrupt governments and corrupt government officials because of his outspoken nature and his refusal to be extorted, intimidated or silenced," it read. "Now the US authorities are determined to have John die in prison to make an example of him for speaking out against the corruption within their government agencies."

Within 30 minutes of English-language news outlets reporting McAfee's death, his Instagram account posted a picture of a Q, The Independent reported. The letter appeared to be a reference to the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, which is based on the false notion that former President Donald Trump was attempting to take down a "deep state" cabal of human traffickers and pedophiles. McAfee's Instagram account has since been removed. Instagram did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Shortly after the "Q" post went up, the company told Insider it was "looking into" the post. It was not immediately clear who had control of McAfee's Instagram account. Insider contacted McAfee's wife, Janice, and his lawyer for comment. In 2019, when McAfee was jailed on different charges, a post on his Instagram account implied that someone on his team was running it, The Daily Beast reported. We are under good information our dear friend John McAfee is being unlawfully detained by authorities. We thank everyone for the outpouring of support," that post said, according to The Daily Beast. McAfee had been jailed in Barcelona since October while awaiting a decision on the extradition request. An image that said "Free McAfee" was published on his Instagram after his arrest. McAfee appeared to remain active on Twitter; a tweet on June 16 pushed back on the accusation that he had hidden cryptocurrency earnings. According to The Independent, the Spanish Council of Ministers had yet to approve the extradition, and McAfee still had the opportunity to appeal the National Court's decision. McAfee had long been a focus of conspiracy theorists. He'd posted tweets implying he knew the identity of the person behind the QAnon movement. The hashtag #JohnMcAfeeDidntKillHimself spread on social media after news of McAfee's death on Wednesday. QAnon followers spread a similar theory when the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019.