I have never once said he had no choice. I've made no excuses for either of us. He had a choice to make and he made it. He chose to pursue a relationship with me and having done that, he chose to tell her about it very quickly. That hurt her. I allowed him to pursue a relationship with me and that hurt her. It wasn't cynical, frivolous, recreational sex that could have been with anyone on a drunken night out, it was a strong connection that started long before we had sex and once we had sex just the whole thing escalated extremely quickly. Not that I expect that makes a difference to many people, but it's the truth.
We were all young and there were no children involved. Do I think it would have been any different had I still been married and had children, or if he'd had children by then? I don't know. I certainly hope so, but given the amount of people who do have affairs when they have children, I am not going to state categorically that it would never have happened.
In a Sliding Doors scenario where we'd met much later and children were involved, he'd still have been him, I'd still have been me, we'd still have developed the same strong connection. As someone who grew up with divorced parents due to infidelity, I've always known I have no desire for my children to go through that. I like to think I'd have removed myself from temptation, left my job and stoically put him to the back of my mind. Obviously as he's the father of my children, I like to imagine he'd have done the same. But can I swear to it? Of course not. I'm not in the habit of insisting either of us are perfect and infallible, not even hypothetically.
But then it's easy to imagine that I could do that, and hopefully that he could too, because I know we have been genuinely happy in our marriage. And I know how devoted he has been to his children and how doing anything that would seriously damage their opinions of him as their hero and protector would be untenable for him. But then most men who cheat and leave probably thought that at one point. Like I said earlier, this is when people have to apply some cognitive dissonance so they can look themselves in the eye each day.
Any person, however happily married, might at any time experience the challenge of randomly connecting with someone they develop a strong attraction to, recognising all the signs that it's mutual and potentially dangerous, and knowing that they need to remove themselves from that danger zone if they care about their marriage and their family. But how easy they find it to actually do that will probably depend largely on how fulfilled and how seen and heard they feel in their marriage to start with.
I make absolutely no excuses for his behaviour or mine, but I am not ashamed, I don't regret it and I wouldn't change it. I regret that in order for us to be together someone else had to be hurt, but that was unavoidable because we wanted the outcome we wanted. Selfish and self indulgent? Probably. Honest and pragmatic? Absolutely.
The other option is that we could both have been these noble, selfless martyrs of the kind that rarely exist among people in their twenties with no kids, facing up to the fact they have that one chance to make a massive change before children trap them forever. We could have forced ourselves to go completely no contact before any nascent emotional affair could become physical,. All so that one poor, unsuspecting 28 year old could keep her marriage, oblivious to the fact that her husband went to bed at night dreaming of being next to someone else. Oblivious to the fact that he was never fully emotionally present in their marriage, for a long, long time afterwards. Possibly never again.
Would he have got over me in time? Had a family with her and been a decent husband who never strayed? Possibly. But it's also possible that his feelings for her would have been forever changed and he'd have left eventually anyway.
Where would be the kindness in staying with someone, having kids with her, knowing you had, for a long time, really wished you were somewhere else and big part of you still did? Knowing that had the choice to leave been simpler and less complicated (ie, you were not already married) then you would have left her to be with that other person. How do you think she'd feel knowing she was your charity case and you were only still there because of how noble and principled you are?