Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Should I speak to the wife 6 years later?

283 replies

Anon31483 · 18/05/2024 13:45

I 37F was with someone 39M for 3 months when I found out he was married with a kid on the way. I found out it wasn't the first time he cheated during their relationship either. He cheated also before they got married. The guy is a compulsive liar. The reason I didn't speak then was that his wife was pregnant with their kid and I didn't want to cause any harm. Now I found out they had a second kid who is one. I myself moved on of course and my own kid.

However my conscience has been eating me up all these years. Should I speak up anonymously?

OP posts:
Anon31483 · 18/05/2024 15:55

Because I have moved from where he knew I was living and I have changed numbers. So he has no way to trace me. Something another poster above said about a mum that committed suicide. I didn't think about it for sure. I don't know this woman. But I certainly don't think it's fair for someone to be living a lie (I had found out he was cheating even before they got married) or me to be deceived in such a way. The lies he said to keep seeing me were horrendous. Obviously I have now my own family to think about and my partner who knows about the story and he thought it was horrible and potentially dangerous.

OP posts:
GreyCarpet · 18/05/2024 15:54

Anon31483 · 18/05/2024 15:27

Because everyone wants convenience obviously but the reality is noone should let people get away with this type of deception. If someone came to me randomly and said that my partner cheated on me then I have an obligation to myself first at least to investigate such a thing. Not sure still what I'm gonna do yet and how if I'm going to do anything at all.

The time to say something was then.

If you say something now, she has a far harder decision to make - its comparatively easy to leave someone when you're pregnant.

I agree with the poster who said you've invented an obligation where one doesn't exist.

No one will thank you for saying something 6 years down the line.

Normally, I'm in the tell camp but, in this instance, you're so obviously doing it out of a misplaced sense of righteousness that you absolutely shouldn't.

CorylusAgain · 18/05/2024 15:50

And in what way was it not "safe" to speak out at the time?

BoobyDazzler · 18/05/2024 15:50

Shitty thing to do to ease your conscience.

If you were going to say anything you should have done so 6 years ago. The time has passed.

CorylusAgain · 18/05/2024 15:49

Anon31483 · 18/05/2024 15:48

I said before that the most convenient thing to do is not to speak up but is this necessarily the right thing to do? No in my opinion. I was thinking to speak up obviously earlier but i also wanted to do it safely as well . Now I think it's safe enough if I was to speak up.

In what way is it "safe" to speak up now?

DelythBeautyQueen · 18/05/2024 15:49

Anon31483 · 18/05/2024 15:20

I'm not gonna read what she has to say. I'll just volunteer the info and I'll say do with this info whatever you like, I feel I have the obligation to tell even this late. And she can proceed however she wants with this.

Don't kid yourself that you have any obligation to interfere in this man's marriage.

I was willing to believe that your motives might be good at first, but your subsequent replies have convinced me that my first instinct was right. Knowing the harm you could cause, I don't think your motives can be pure.

I think you want to satisfy your need for revenge and you don't mind what damage you might do to his wife and innocent children in so doing. Also, if you are a decent person, I don't think blowing his (and his family's) world apart will be as satisfying as you think.

You must find some other way of dealing with your feelings. Presumably, this has been eating at you for six years. Stop thinking about him. Don't pry into his family life. Let it go. For your sake as well as theirs.

You have no idea whether he is still cheating on his wife. Six years and two children later suggests to me that the marriage is working on some level. She probably doesn't want or need to know about the brief fling he had with you.

Whether his marriage is good or not, it is none of your business. Stay the fuck out of their lives.

PurpleHiker · 18/05/2024 15:49

Don’t say anything, you just don’t know how she’ll take it. One mum I vaguely knew committed suicide because she found out her husband was cheating. She left behind three kids, one of them just a baby. It was so sad, especially when one of her kids was then bullied for it. Just stay out of it.

Anon31483 · 18/05/2024 15:48

I said before that the most convenient thing to do is not to speak up but is this necessarily the right thing to do? No in my opinion. I was thinking to speak up obviously earlier but i also wanted to do it safely as well . Now I think it's safe enough if I was to speak up.

OP posts:
CorylusAgain · 18/05/2024 15:48

Anon31483 · 18/05/2024 15:45

Excuse me but I didn't know anything whatsoever that he was married etc.

You say in your OP that you found out he was married and had a baby on th way!
No one is accusing you of knowingly sleeping with a married man.

Anon31483 · 18/05/2024 15:45

Excuse me but I didn't know anything whatsoever that he was married etc.

OP posts:
ItsFuckingBoringFeedingEveryoneUntilYouDie · 18/05/2024 15:43

Sounds like you would be doing this for you, not her. If you really gave a shit about her, you would have told her at the time.

This is all about you and wanting revenge on him. Never mind the fallout for her and her children.

Leave them alone.

CorylusAgain · 18/05/2024 15:41

LIZS · 18/05/2024 15:33

Reads like a chatbot.

It does.
Isn't it frustrating we not only have watch out for the under bridge dwellers, we also have to consider AI.

Pettyman · 18/05/2024 15:38

Let Karma deal with him.

TribeofFfive · 18/05/2024 15:37

You say you’ve moved on yet here you are, 6 years later making threads about him online.

Leave his wife be.

CorylusAgain · 18/05/2024 15:37

Because everyone wants convenience obviously
What are you talking about?
the reality is noone should let people get away with this type of deception eh?
Your moral crusade is 6 years too late. You are motivated by a desire to see him suffer consequences. It's clearly been festering for 6 years.

Lovefromjuliaxo · 18/05/2024 15:35

If he’s cheated once with you, he’s probably cheated since, with other women since. So she likely knows he’s a cheat or will find out soon. I wouldn’t bother. You didn’t do anything wrong technically, you weren’t the married one. Yeah ok, you were trashy going after a married bloke but obvs regret it now.

LIZS · 18/05/2024 15:33

Reads like a chatbot.

SquashPenguin · 18/05/2024 15:32

Anon31483 · 18/05/2024 15:27

Because everyone wants convenience obviously but the reality is noone should let people get away with this type of deception. If someone came to me randomly and said that my partner cheated on me then I have an obligation to myself first at least to investigate such a thing. Not sure still what I'm gonna do yet and how if I'm going to do anything at all.

If no one should get away with this sort of thing then you should’ve spoken up at the time. Bringing this up six years later sounds slightly deranged.

Anon31483 · 18/05/2024 15:27

Because everyone wants convenience obviously but the reality is noone should let people get away with this type of deception. If someone came to me randomly and said that my partner cheated on me then I have an obligation to myself first at least to investigate such a thing. Not sure still what I'm gonna do yet and how if I'm going to do anything at all.

OP posts:
CorylusAgain · 18/05/2024 15:26

Anon31483 · 18/05/2024 14:33

Because I let someone walk away without consequences and also lead on a pregnant woman and me and who knows who else. The guy is a pathological liar and even lied about his health to gain my sympathy. I have been wondering from time to time if I did really the right thing

This post is very telling.
You start with the fact he had no "consequences ". And your question about doing the "right" thing is the last item.
You are still thinking about it 6 years on and your prime feeling is that he " got away with it".
I don't think you are struggling with your conscience. I think you are still angry that he deceived you and didn't suffer as a result.

I can't speak for what his wife would want but I can tell you my experience. I was cheated on whilst pregnant and I found out from the OW after she found out he wasn't single like he'd told her.
I was glad I found out at the time because I was able to decide what I wanted to do. The choice for me was straightforward. I ended it there and then.
I know that the OW's motivation in contacting me wasn't altruistic. Nor was she being vindictive. She just reacted to his deception by wanting to find out what was true and what wasn't. I spoke a few times with her and I have no animosity towards her.
However, if I'd stayed in that relationship without knowing about that affair and had 2 children with him and 6 years after the affair she had popped out of the woodwork to destroy my children's world, I'd be furious with her.
You don't know what's happened in the intervening 6 years. You can't give her true clarity about her marriage because you don't have that knowledge! That moment has passed - 6 years ago. Maybe he's continued being a lying , cheating arse. Maybe he hasn't. You don't know.
You don't get to stir up shit to ensure this man gets "consequences " without considering the lives of his wife and children.
You could have allowed her the dignity of being able to decide at the time.

BasiliskStare · 18/05/2024 15:24

I really wouldn't @Anon31483

Sunshineclouds11 · 18/05/2024 15:23

Literally what are you going to gain from this?

She will most likely know what he's like and what he's been up to.

It was 6 year ago, you were with him only 3 months.
You have your own child why are you still thinking about this?

qwertyqwertyqwertyqwerty · 18/05/2024 15:23

Anon31483 · 18/05/2024 14:55

I dont need counselling. My question is more from the moral point of view. I dont know if they had counselling . What I know is that back then she was blissfully ignorant and likely it has stayed that way.

So ye I do think about this from time to time as it was a bad situation and not to be taken lightly.

Morally, telling her would be the wrong thing to do.

qwertyqwertyqwertyqwerty · 18/05/2024 15:22

Anon31483 · 18/05/2024 15:20

I'm not gonna read what she has to say. I'll just volunteer the info and I'll say do with this info whatever you like, I feel I have the obligation to tell even this late. And she can proceed however she wants with this.

Seriously, why do you want to throw a bomb into another woman's life?

It would be very wrong of you to do this. You have invented an obligation where one does not exist.

I genuinely think you need help with this.

Anon31483 · 18/05/2024 15:20

I'm not gonna read what she has to say. I'll just volunteer the info and I'll say do with this info whatever you like, I feel I have the obligation to tell even this late. And she can proceed however she wants with this.

OP posts:
Swipe left for the next trending thread