The ex-mistress of former American Idol contestant Caleb Flynn said in court Wednesday she now loathes him because she believes he’s a murderer.

“I hate him,” Alleigha Botner, 24, testified Wednesday, according to CNN.  “When we were in our relationship, and I thought I was in love.”

Alleigha Botner, the ex-mistress of former American Idol contestant Caleb Flynn, said in court Wednesday she now loathes him because she believes he’s a murderer.Caleb Flynn, a former “American Idol” contestant and pastor, appears emotional and crying during his trial on Sept. 21, 2026. WBFFCaleb Flynn is accused of killing his wife, Ashley Flynn. Facebook / Ashley Flynn

Asked why her feelings have changed, she replied, “Because I believe that he murdered his wife.”

Flynn, 40,  has been accused of fatally shooting his wife, Ashley Flynn, in her Ohio home in February then staging the crime scene.

Prosecutors have cited his affair with Botner as a motive for the killing.

Botner said she first met Flynn  when she was 21 and working as an intern at a local church. 

She was worship leader at Christian Life Center in Dayton, the church where Flynn had been a music pastor. 

She resigned shortly after his arrest, according to churchleaders.com

During the testimony, Botner said her cellphone and laptop disappeared weeks before Ashley Flynn was killed — but insisted there was an innocent explanation.

Botner said she dropped the cellphone  while kayaking on a trip to Florida and that she accidentally left her laptop on a plane. 

“Anyone who knows me knows I lose things,” she said.

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Follow the latest on the murder trial of former “American Idol” contestant Caleb Flynn:

• Verdict reached in case of ‘American Idol’ star accused of killing wife to start new life with young mistress
• ‘American Idol’ alum Caleb Flynn ‘made a choice’ to kill wife, prosecutors argue in close of murder trial
• ‘American Idol’ alum’s pleading interview with cops played for jury as testimony wraps in murder case
• ‘American Idol’ alum’s cringey love songs for mistress played at his murder trial — as victim’s relatives hold back laughter

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She said things first got romantic in March 2024 and that they called it quits in December 2025.

“It started with small things. He would ask to come over to just hug me,” she testified, according to The Dayton Daily News.

Eventually, he told her his wife had cheated on him two years earlier and they were living as roommates, she said.

“He told me he hates her. He told me he only was with her because of the girls,” she said of his daughters.

“He would say that he hated her, that he wanted her dead. He would say so many awful things along the lines about hating her,” Botner testified. 

“He said she wasn’t worthy of being called by her name so we were going to refer to her as douchebag,” she said.

Flynn also called his wife “bitch, whore, slutt and spawn of Satan,” she said.

The night before the murder, Botner sent a message to Flynn about how divorce proceedings work when there is proof of an affair, according to her testimony.

“He was worried about custody of the kids. I was sending him those screenshots about custody,” she said.

He later texted her “actions will come tomorrow,” which Botner said she thought meant divorce.

“I choose you. I will be free,” he texted, according to prosecutors. 

Botner said she first learned of Ashley Flynn’s death from a message she got from a fellow church member, who sent her a news article about it.

“My heart started pounding. In my mind it just seemed like too much of a coincidence that the day he’s divorcing her, she’s dead,” Botner said.

Flynn has pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges and claimed an unnamed intruder was responsible.