OK, I've been driven to westeros.org now. Here's what they have to say - this is all about the books, of course. I rest my case!
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During the tourney at Lannisport celebrating the victory over the Greyjoy rebels, he met the woman who would be his second wife: Lynesse Hightower. He was immediately smitten with her beauty, asking and receiving her permission to wear her favor in the tournament. Jorah fought remarkably well, winning an improbable victory over all challengers to name Lynesse his queen of love and beauty. That night he asked Lynesse's father, Lord Leyton Hightower, for her hand in marriage, and Leyton surprisingly agreed.
Although both had married for love, the marriage did not remain happy for long. Having spent her life up to that point as part of wealthy House Hightower in the mild, prosperous and densely populated Reach, Lynesse was unprepared for life on the harsh and isolated Bear Island and quickly grew miserable. Jorah attempted to reproduce the lifestyle his wife was accustomed to by lavishing her with expensive gifts, but only succeeded in driving himself into financial ruin.
Desperate to pay off his debts, Jorah resorted to breaking one of the Seven Kingdoms' oldest taboos: participating in the slave trade. When House Mormont's liege, Lord Eddard Stark, learned that Jorah had sold poachers to a Tyroshi slaver, he condemned him to the traditional penalty: death. However, when Eddard arrived on Bear Island to execute him, Jorah had already fled.
Rather than join his father in taking the black, Jorah took Lynesse along to Lys, where he attempted to make his living as a sellsword. With the relationship already strained by their exile and Jorah still unable to afford the lifestyle his wife desired, Lynesse took a lover while Jorah was fighting the Braavosi on the Rhoyne. When he returned to Lys, his wife's lover told him that he would be enslaved for his debts, if he would not give her up and leave the city. Heartbroken and exiled from his homeland, Jorah went to Volantis, where he spent the better part of a year. He remained in the Free Cities and continued to work as an unaffiliated mercenary, selling his sword to the highest bidder.