I hate my daughter’s mother-in-law after her latest cruelty. I pray my precious girl’s relationship ends… so I can tell her THIS, writes LINDA WEBB

By the time my daughter told me about her future mother-in-law’s latest cruel stunt, she had at least stopped crying.

Although I could have cried myself as I listened to the story of what Jackie had done to my sweet girl.

Kim and her fiancé, Luke, had attended a family birthday party at Jackie’s house. After Kim politely declined a piece of cake, Jackie first asked her, “Do you think you might have an eating disorder?”

If only that had been the worst. An hour later, Luke’s uncle, who arrived late, walked straight up to Kim and shouted loudly, “It’s quite a change to see you with some clothes on!”

It turned out that Jackie had taken bikini photos of Kim from her private Instagram account. Jackie then forwarded them to family members with the caption, “Look what Kim didn’t wear today.”

Kim, 27, learned all this from Luke’s younger brother’s girlfriend – someone else who gives Jackie a rough ride – after taking her into the garden to explain it.

Kim was devastated. She gets along well with Luke’s other female relatives, so she was shocked that they were involved in her humiliation.

Hurt and ashamed, she ran upstairs crying and locked herself in the bathroom, where she texted Luke saying, “Take me home NOW.”

Jackie is your archetypal difficult mother-in-law; a walking cliché who has made a hobby of belittling my daughter since she had a son four years ago, writes Linda (file image)

To his credit, he got her out of there right away. But did he challenge his mother and force her to apologize? No!

Kim talked about how frightening it was to hear Jackie holding court in the dining room as they left, acting as if nothing had happened.

I wanted to go straight and knock that woman’s block off. But Kim ordered me and her father not to get involved. That would only make things worse, she says, and we should respect her wishes.

Jackie is your archetypal difficult mother-in-law; a walking cliché that has made a hobby of belittling and embarrassing my daughter since she started dating her son four years ago.

What started as coldness has turned into open acts of war, even though Kim, a vet nurse, has always been polite and kind to her.

When Kim and Luke told her they were engaged, she couldn’t hide her shock.

“She looked like she was chewing on a wasp when she faked a smile,” Kim told me.

Jackie often walks into the home Kim and Luke share and looks pointedly at the carpet. “Is your vacuum cleaner broken, Kim?” she’ll ask – notice how she leaves Luke out of it – as she brushes imaginary dirt off her chair before sitting down.

The woman turns 60 this week. Yet she often acts more like a mean girl on the playground than the soon-to-be-retired office manager that she is.

“That’s an interesting haircut,” she exclaimed after Kim got bangs. Then he added, “Don’t worry, it will grow out.”

Family gatherings are always nerve-wracking. When Kim wears something form-fitting, Jackie looks her up and down disapprovingly.

When Kim takes a more casual tone, she says, “Are you having a bad day?”

It’s a strange dynamic when another woman is thrown into your orbit just because your daughter fell in love with her son. Fortunately, my husband and I only have to endure her company once a year during Christmas drinks.

What’s most frustrating is that Kim – who is beautiful, kind-hearted and sharp-witted – could do so much better than Luke. Don’t get me wrong, he is sweet, kind and good company. He is doing well as a section manager at the supermarket chain where he works.

Although it wouldn’t win any beauty pageants, it does make my daughter laugh. He would also be a good father if they had children. And Kim loves him, so it’s important to her that I make him feel welcome.

Where he lets himself down – and, more importantly, Kim – is in the way he lets Jackie get away with such abhorrent behavior. Luke is a wimp, a 29-year-old mama’s boy, who would rather step on hot coals than upset his mother.

So he claims he hasn’t heard any comments like her about Kim’s appetite. Or says his mother has always been irritable, so it’s nothing personal to Kim, and her insults just don’t register with him anymore.

But Kim has described scenes where Jackie criticized a meal she had just cooked while sitting next to Luke, and he said nothing.

Honestly, I don’t understand why Jackie’s twisted psychology makes her behavior towards Kim think her behavior is okay. Perhaps she is jealous that this beautiful young woman now has her son’s heart, especially since she is a widow.

Recently she even tried to involve me in her twisted power games. “What would your mother say if she saw the state of this kitchen?” she asked Kim once, after she dropped by unannounced and found dirty pans in their sink.

Even before the outrage over those bikini photos, Jackie had suggested that I should definitely object to posting similar photos from other vacations.

I hope she brings that up at Christmas when I tell her that if my bikini photos looked half as good as Kim’s, I’d show them on a billboard.

When I ask Kim why she doesn’t stand up to her, she shrugs and says she doesn’t want to argue. But in the end, it may be Luke who pays the price. They haven’t set a wedding date yet, and Kim may still decide that his mother is too much trouble.

If that day ever comes, no matter how upsetting a broken engagement would be and how much I would miss Luke, I will happily tell Jackie exactly what I think of her.

Linda Webb is a pseudonym. All names have been changed.