Infidelity Support Group
Any relationship in which one partner engages willfully in sexual relations with another outside of the partnership is considered to have experienced infidelity. This breach of trust is often traumatizing for the faithful partner as well as the relationship, and support is often needed to heal emotionally and to decide whether or not the relationship should continue after...
Married 30 years...H cheated in 2018-2019...D-day was October 14, 2020. Still together but hanging on by a thread. Help!
We are childhood sweethearts. Got married, had three kids and we had more love for each other than I ever thought was possible. My H has always been a flirt, but I never once thought it was anything but innocent. I was his Dream Girl!
In 2017, he joined a motorcycle club. Our kids were grown and we decided that it was time. I loved seeing how happy he was on the bike with all the guys. I lived to make him smile.
A year later, the club was going to Arizona for Bike Week. I was sick so I couldn't go but I made my H go because he works so hard and he deserved a break from us and the bills and work. He left on April 12, 2018. I received loving texts and calls every day but one (which was super strange). He came home April 19. That's when things were getting weird...
1. The week he came home, he found an excuse to go out every day/night (never did that in 25 years)
2. Putting hearts on some young girl's FB pics...yet completely ignoring mine (again, not my husband)
3. That Saturday he was at the club until 7am! (NEVER did that before) and the next Sat, out until 5:30am
4. The following Monday, I received a text 3 hours after he was supposed to be home from work. In the text he told me he wasn't happy, he wasn't in love with me, this marriage isn't working, I don't go places with him, I don't show I love him and he wants more out of life before he dies. He told me that he was moving out and staying with his buddy for a while to figure things out and he didn't want me to contact him anymore. I literally thought my heart was going to stop.
5. I texted and called every day and he was so cruel (Now I knew this was a stranger. My H never once hurt me)
6. A few weeks later he came home and asked if he could stay. I said yes. He ended up sleeping on the couch for two months saying he wanted to take things slow.
7. I knew something was going on but denied it because I knew my H would never cheat on me. He was the most loyal, moral, loving and stand-up man I've ever known. I banished that idea from my head (I was so dumb!) He did tell me that he and that 29y old girl were just friends...absolutely nothing more. DUM DUM BELIEVED HIM
8. For the next year and a half I was Inspector Gadget. One day, I found it. The proof that he had been lying to me this whole time. I went on his phones GPS and saw that he was living with that girl the whole time he was gone and when he was leaving the house after returning from his trip, he was at her house every day.
9. No. No. No. I'm dreaming. When my H came down the stairs, I calmly told him that I knew. His response was this..."Yea, I fucked her. So what! Don't go blaming her either. She did nothing wrong. She is a nice girl". WOW! No "I'm sorry" or "I love you" or "please don't leave me". NOTHING. He didn't shed a single tear or show any emotion. Not one drop of sympathy for what he did to me. I was frozen and all I could do was try to keep breathing.
10. THE LIES BEGIN. Every story, answer, explination he told me were all lies. I had to actually contact her to get the truth. Found out that after a week, he told her he loved her, wanted kids with her, asked her to marry him. He said we have been separated for years. He called me fat, ugly, bitch. He showed her my texts and they laughed at me after listening to my voice mails begging him to come home. (He humilliated me and turned me into nothing but a joke). He took her to the club and to the bars acting like a couple...in front of MY FRIENDS! He only came back home because they were having an argument and he left, thinking she would beg him to come back. She didn't. She asked for her key back and now he had no choice but to move back home. But he had to pretend he loved me and that's why he came home. I've asked for details over this past year and all I get is "I don't remember" or some insane lie or story he made up. NEVER THE TRUTH.
11. I find another new detail that he "forgot" to tell me almost every other week. This week I was looking at the GPS from early 2019 and I found 2 hotel stays, 4 overnights at places I didn't recognize, hours on the phone just driving around, etc. Was he back with her (btw, she got married and had a kid since their affair and isn't interested in him) or is there another person or even multiple people? I know he will never tell me the truth and I don't think I have the energy to dig and dig for another 2 years. What should I do?
Well, that's actually the short version. I'm afraid another D-day will kill me...unless it comes from his mouth. He's so selfish and cowardly (again, not the man I married) that I know he won't tell me the truth no matter what I say or do.
Do I just forget that he was in love with someone and I'm not allowed to know any details and now I have to just accept that he was still a POS and what he did is none of my business?
I need advice. Thank you and God bless
And so what if you will never know the complete truth because husband is incapable of telling the truth? What if this liar and cheater is who he is right now? So you get to decide if you want to stay married to a man with poor character and a liar who takes no responsibility for the marriage. You do not have to accept a bad marriage. You can begin to heal yourself, you can divorce him, or you can stay and resent him forever and have something to hold against him in anger? Many people do like being married to someone they can feel superior over, have something to blame them for, stay in anger so as to avoid vulnerability and kind of have a type of power of anger at the spouse. Some people decide they don't want to change themselves so as to improve the marriage or get on with their lives alone. Your choice may be something different or one of these things.
It took me 30 years to finally admit to myself and recognize that I married a self absorbed scumbag. For a long long time, I had a lot of excuses. My best one was we were best friends. But best friends don't do the emotional and physical abuse he did to me. Best friends don't lie and stay out all night drinking and drugging. What I had to learn was that I am the master of my life (plus God) and I need to change myself to create a happier life. I divorced him and it was pretty painful as he tried to screw me over legally and with our kids. But now I am free to create a good life, a happy enough life, wisdom and contentment. No one has a perfect life, no spouse is a perfect spouse. But yes, we do get to decide that this marriage is irretrievably broken and move forward in life, let go of our bitterness and resentments, and become healthy and whole again. I wish you the best.
Don't settle for less than the best life you can have.