Outrage as mistress reads chilling texts to court from American Idol singer who allegedly asked her to abandon her kids before killing his wife

Caleb Flynn’s mistress read out a series of chilling messages in court that reveals how the former American Idol contestant faced an agonizing choice before his wife was killed – his lover or his own daughters.

Alleigha Botner, 24, told jurors about the ultimatums she issued the married father during their affair, warning him that leaving his wife could mean seeing his daughters less.

‘The only way is having your girls half the time,’ Botner wrote in one message.

In another, she told him: ‘If you want your girls full freakin’ time, you can never have me ever again and you have chosen that so I have to release you and let you go.’

Prosecutors allege Flynn ultimately made his choice: Botner over the family life he had built with his wife Ashley and their two pre-teen daughters.

Months later, Ashley Flynn was dead.

Caleb Flynn, 40, is on trial for allegedly shooting his 37-year-old wife twice in the back of the head while she slept inside their Tipp City, Ohio, home on February 16.

Prosecutors claim the former reality-show contestant and music pastor then staged the house to resemble a break-in and blamed Ashley’s murder on a mystery intruder.

Flynn has pleaded not guilty and insists he was sleeping in another room with the couple’s daughters when an intruder killed his wife.

His defense maintains investigators rushed to judgment and that lurid publicity surrounding his affair has distorted the evidence against him.

But prosecutors have repeatedly returned to Flynn’s relationship with Botner as they seek to establish a motive for the killing.

Jurors heard that the lovers exchanged more than 100,000 messages during an affair lasting roughly 18 months.

In one September 2025 message, Flynn himself listed what he was prepared to sacrifice to be with his mistress – and put his daughters first.

He said he was willing to risk his ‘daughters, a quarter-million-dollar salary job, a place to live, possibly a church I serve at, public shame and humiliation, and way more.’

Botner, meanwhile, repeatedly demanded that he leave Ashley.

‘Until she’s gone, I’m gone,’ she wrote in one ultimatum.

But under questioning from Flynn’s defense, Botner insisted the ominous language was about ending the marriage.

‘I always meant divorce,’ she testified.

Such distinction has become critical after jurors were shown a string of far darker conversations between the lovers about Ashley.

Botner broke down in tears as she was forced to read one exchange aloud.

‘Do you know how badly I want to say, “F it” to any rules and any barriers and just love you with my entire heart for the rest of my life,’ she wrote to Flynn in July 2025.

Then came the chilling admission: ‘I want to kill her, Caleb. It’s so bad.’

Flynn replied: ‘That makes two of us.’

‘I just wish I didn’t say this,’ Botner told the courtroom through tears. ‘I didn’t mean it.’

Another exchange showed Flynn allegedly telling Botner: ‘Please hire someone to take douche out. I need you,’ using a derogatory nickname they had given Ashley.

‘So tempting,’ Botner responded.

Flynn allegedly told his mistress in August that he had spent much of the night contemplating how Ashley could be killed without him ending up behind bars.

‘I was up until 4am last night crying, literally thinking of ways to kill her and not go to jail,’ he wrote.

Botner responded by explicitly telling him not to kill Ashley.

‘I’m not asking that you take her life, obviously, because that’s not what you should do, and I know you actually wouldn’t,’ she wrote.

‘But to make the divorce happen, it would change everything.’

Flynn responded: ‘I’ll work on getting rid of her. Until then, I love you.’

Botner testified she was just 20 when she met Flynn at Christian Life Center in Dayton in 2022, where she was an intern and he was in his mid-30s.

Their relationship became romantic in early 2024, she said.

By the night before Ashley’s death, prosecutors say the secret relationship was reaching a decisive moment.

Botner sent Flynn information she had researched about divorce proceedings, custody, deleting messages and how Ashley could potentially prove her husband’s infidelity.

Shortly before midnight, Flynn sent his mistress one final message.

‘Good night, tomorrow’s a big day. I’ve got to get to bed,’ he wrote. ‘I choose you, I’m about to be free.’

Hours later, Ashley was dead.

Botner testified that the timing immediately alarmed her.

‘Caleb, what’s going on? Were you involved? Is this real?’ she messaged Flynn on the morning of the killing.

She later deleted the message because she feared investigators would examine his phone and discover their affair, she admitted.

When she learned Ashley had supposedly been killed by an intruder, Botner said her ‘heart started pounding.’

‘In my mind, it just seemed like too much of a coincidence that, the day he’s divorcing her, she’s just dead all of a sudden,’ she testified.

On Thursday, the courtroom also heard the love songs Flynn allegedly wrote for his mistress, which were turned into fully produced tracks using artificial intelligence and played for jurors.

Flynn’s ears appeared to turn bright red and he repeatedly wiped his brow as the songs played, while members of Ashley’s family struggled to contain their reactions.

One included the lyrics: ‘So here’s to the third, and the us that we lost.’

Another declared: ‘Know that you still own every piece of my soul.’

Botner testified that the last time she saw Flynn before the trial was at Ashley’s parents’ home just hours after the killing.

She claimed the first thing he said to her was: ‘It didn’t happen the way we thought it would, did it?’

Botner initially told the FBI she did not believe Flynn had murdered his wife, but later changed her view, describing Ashley’s death as ‘way too much of a coincidence.’

Asked in court how she feels about her former lover now, her answer was far simpler. ‘I hate him.’

Flynn is also charged with tampering with evidence and intimidating a witness and has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The murder weapon has not been recovered.

The trial is set to resume on Friday at 9am ET.