After selling their 10-acre estate, the couple moved into a rented house opposite a council estate in Morpeth, Northumberland in 2010.
Mr Burnie, who has owned petro-chemical and recruitment businesses, traded in his luxury car for a Ford Fiesta, and revelled in the idyllic notion of a simple life.
At the time his wife fondly described his 'madness', but his unrelenting devotion to the charity began to drive a wedge between them.
But when Mrs Burnie learned he had bought a house without telling her, she assumed her 70-year-old husband was preparing for divorce.
However when she learned the property had in fact been bought for Mr Burnie's charity - Daft As A Brush - she was pushed to confront the issue.