ZIONSVILLE, Ind. — Kathleen McLaughlin says the worst day of her life occurred July 7, 2015, when the FBI knocked on her door in this tony Indianapolis suburb with a search warrant for evidence her husband, Subway pitchman Jared Fogle, possessed and distributed child pornography.

“Finding out that your husband and the father of your children is a child predator, and knowing that his job involved him visiting schools on a regular basis, is devastating,” she said.

McLaughlin told of her shock at a Monday news conference announcing she’s filed a civil lawsuit in Indiana state court against Subway for personal damages, accusing the company of being informed at least three times of Fogle’s sexual interest in children and doing nothing about it.

She said the international sandwich chain ignored the complaints — one as early as 2004 — and instead promoted Fogle as a family man and sent him to speak with children on behalf of the company’s educational activities.

McLaughlin married Fogle in 2010 and they had two children before he pleaded guilty a year ago to charges of possession and distributing child porn and engaging in paid sex acts with minors. He was sentenced to 15 years and eight months in federal prison. McLaughlin divorced him since then.

Fogle became a pitchman for Subway as a college student when he bragged about slimming down from weighing 425 pounds by eating the company’s sandwiches. He traveled around the country with a pair of old pants to demonstrate his weight loss success.

But, his ex-wife’s lawsuit states, that promotional gig became stale and Subway saw his marriage to McLauhglin and their family as a new marketing opportunity. Subway aired a commercial depicting animated versions of his wife and children, the suit said.

“Despite knowing of Jared’s sexual interest in children and the then-alleged sexual acts he committed with them, Subway continued to promote their star spokesman,” the suit added.

The lawsuit said a Subway senior vice president of marketing received a complaint in 2004 from a Las Vegas Subway franchise that Fogle had approached a young girl at a promotional event for a sex act.

McLaughlin’s suit said the company did not “thoroughly investigate the report and did not alert authorities as they were legally required to do.” Instead, the suit said, they asked Fogle about it but did not contact the girl.

In 2008, the suit added, a Subway franchise in Florida notified the company that Fogle had made disturbing comments about children, but again, nothing was done about it after talking with Fogle about the complaint.

In 2011, the suit said, a Florida journalist informed Subway through its website that Fogle had expressed an abnormal interest in children. The suit said a Subway public relations executive talked to Fogle about the matter but nothing more happened.

McLaughlin told the news conference had she known of Fogle’s child sex predilections she would never have married him. She said her children, now 3 and 5 years old, often ask about their father and prison, and that she will explain the situation to them when they get older.

“To the victims of my ex-husband, you are never far from my thoughts and prayers,” she said. “I can only imagine what you have been going through. A mother’s most basic instinct is to protect her children, and this is one of the most horrific of crimes.”

Details for this story were provided by the Lebanon, Indiana Reporter.