He is known as the ‘Warrior Monk’ who has lived a spartan life which he has devoted to the military.

But Secretary of Defense James Mattis once nearly quit the Armed Forces and got married – to a woman who jilted him at the altar.

Mattis’s former fiancée Alice Clark told DailyMail.com that she left him three days before the ceremony in Hawaii in 1981 because she could not stand the prospect of being apart from him for months while he was on deployments.

Mattis was all set to quit the military and settle down with the only woman who would truly win his heart.