Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Was my friend out of line?

242 replies

littleonesleepy · 22/08/2026 11:03

I saw a friend yesterday who had been having an affair for about two months with a married man and he has now left his wife to be with her.
When he left his wife he moved straight in with her and they started to have the children every Sunday or she might have said Saturdays but one weekend day a week but this has been the arrangement for about 3 months now and the first the kids knew about her was visiting dad in her house when they split.
She doesn’t know the wife but has seen her when they pick the kids up although only from the car but she doesn’t have a good word to say about their mum.

She told me she went to the kids school sports day because their dad was working and the kids who are in year 4 and 6 had asked her to.
She then said that the kids mum was there as she expected but was unaware she was going too and she started saying how the mum seemed really sniffy about her being there.
I know she has a right to be there if she wanted but I couldn’t help thinking this poor woman’s just had her world blown apart and the OW brazenly just turns up out the blue at her children sports day and puts her down for what she describes as seemed sniffy about it and then scorned her more by saying she didn’t look happy about her being chatty with the other mum’s who I presume she would have felt uncomfortable standing with if she was, she is not a mum herself so wouldn’t have known any of these mums.

I am really surprised at the lack of empathy she has for the ex 3 months after an almost 20 year marriage.
Did she go too far going to sports day on her own?

I know it’s none of my business but the way she worded it as if I was meant to agree that the ex was pathetic for feeling uncomfortable she turned up and I just couldn’t see my friends point in berating her because how did she expect her to be? after all she knew she was going so was prepared to see her where it would have been a complete surprise for the mum to see her come along.
I didn’t recognise my friend, she seems to utterly hate the woman and almost resentful that she feels hurt.

OP posts:
watchingthishtread · 22/08/2026 15:47

Your friend is a horrible person. Her new boyfriend is a horrible person.

Ask yourself, are these really the type of people you want to associate with?

MCF86 · 22/08/2026 15:41

I was not a fan of your friend when you said married man... But wow she managed to get even worse!

Blades2 · 22/08/2026 15:41

No child who of that age, who’s father has shacked up with another whore, would ask her to go to their sports day.
rethink your friends, because this one, is vile,

5128gap · 22/08/2026 15:36

Your friend is making a terrible fool of herself over this man. Two months in and she's providing a home and parenting duties for a cheat who probably only showed up on her doorstep because his wife kicked him out. If that's not enough self humiliation she's publicly trying to mark territory which will be highly transparent to everyone who's sees her.
If you care about this woman you should probably be concerned about what is wrong with her to bring herself so low.

Surgz · 22/08/2026 15:29

I agree with your thoughts on this. Your friend seems selfish, immature and nasty. I wouldnt be holding back - but then me and my bestie call each other out on shite like that!

getthroughonemoreday · 22/08/2026 15:27

She'd be an ex-friend. She's awful.

0Thatsplenty0 · 22/08/2026 15:25

CruCru · 22/08/2026 15:21

Honestly? I think it is up to the husband - he chose to have an affair and leave his wife.

BUT choosing to go to sports day to see children who aren’t yours is an extremely weird thing to do. I have a friend whose husband left her for a younger woman - and they make a point of both turning up to all his children’s events (this really upsets my friend). We (her friends) are quite bemused by this - I can’t imagine going to an 8 year old’s school play if they weren’t my child. Presumably they (the husband and his new girlfriend) think it makes them look like more of a couple.

Or the new girlfriend is so insecure she can't stand the thought of her 'boyfriend' being anywhere near his children's mother.

CruCru · 22/08/2026 15:21

Honestly? I think it is up to the husband - he chose to have an affair and leave his wife.

BUT choosing to go to sports day to see children who aren’t yours is an extremely weird thing to do. I have a friend whose husband left her for a younger woman - and they make a point of both turning up to all his children’s events (this really upsets my friend). We (her friends) are quite bemused by this - I can’t imagine going to an 8 year old’s school play if they weren’t my child. Presumably they (the husband and his new girlfriend) think it makes them look like more of a couple.

YorksMa · 22/08/2026 15:17

VeraPetrovnaGorky · 22/08/2026 12:33

strictly speaking why are we blaming the other woman ? the man was the married one ?

what happened to women being sisters so to speak

Edited

If the OP's friend believed in the sisterhood she wouldn't have been shagging another woman's husband in the first place.

YorksMa · 22/08/2026 15:11

Your friend is a psychopath.

0Thatsplenty0 · 22/08/2026 15:07

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Lifeomars · 22/08/2026 15:06

I wouldn' t want to be friends with someone so deviod of empathy and with no sense of what is appropriate behaviour. It must be a shock to see your friend in this new and unpleasant light.

Swiftie1878 · 22/08/2026 14:59

BoredZelda · 22/08/2026 14:43

Bitch, cow etc, highly misogynistic language.

They aren’t HER children, the father should have stepped in.

Bitch, cow etc are standard detrimental nouns for deeply unpleasant women. Men have their equivalent.

This isn’t about the kids. It’s about her actions, behaviour and attitude to her partner’s ex. The mother of his children.

CelestialCandyfloss · 22/08/2026 14:56

The married man is vile for doing this to his 'ex' wife and children. The friend is vile for bad mouthing the mum, meeting the children so early, and especially going to the sports day (clearly wanting to rub the wife's nose in it). Both sound horrendous and I definitely wouldn't want to be mates with that.

viques · 22/08/2026 14:53

Your friend might find out that now she has moved up in the pecking order she has created a vacancy beneath her for a new girlfriend. Karma and all.

thestudio · 22/08/2026 14:51

You should have said something OP.

This isn't someone you want in your life anyway.

Girlwithavibe · 22/08/2026 14:46

😳😲 wowsers!
She's sounds like a nasty lady !
I would steer clear of someone like this !
She is deluded ! And deffo can't see what she has done is wrong and the husband !!
That poor woman !!
If it was me and ow turned up at my kids sports day I think I'd wud have lumped her one lol 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 !!!!

BoredZelda · 22/08/2026 14:43

Swiftie1878 · 22/08/2026 11:30

It’s not misogynistic to call out a bitch. SHE should have told the kids it was inappropriate. And she shouldn’t have gone.

The fact she DID go, and then has the cheek to slag off the mum’s reaction is disgusting.

Friendship would be over, for me.

Bitch, cow etc, highly misogynistic language.

They aren’t HER children, the father should have stepped in.

Chilihealer · 22/08/2026 14:43

Your friends a cunt and I don’t think I’d of had the self control to not tell her that.

PS5Gamer · 22/08/2026 14:41

I would not have her in my life anymore. She sounds vile.

MyNeedyLilacBird · 22/08/2026 14:38

The friendship would be over. I'd be telling her just how vile an individual I thought she was and wished her luck for when he inevitably replaces her as well.

I would not be giving my time to people's who do things I just can't accept

Herewegoagainandagainandagain · 22/08/2026 14:34

Divebar2021 · 22/08/2026 11:17

They’re ( husband and friend ) both morons. I think that’s the safest word I can use.

Add to that the OP appearing unbelievably morally clueless and they all sound like people you would want to avoid.

bittertwisted · 22/08/2026 14:32

BMW58 · 22/08/2026 11:44

I'd tell her that she's a poisonous bitch to her face and walk out of her life forever.

How could you possibly remain friends with such an utterly dreadful person??

Sums it up
i’m not hardcore about punishing affairs forever, and accept nobody other than those directly involved know their specific situation

however there are casualties in all affairs, and anyone with an ounce of decency and dignity would not have attended.
school is their mum’s territory, to brazenly attend is incredibly cruel.
plus the children have been put in a position where they are being taught not to respect their mum, and could have been subjected to seeing their mum very distressed.

i could not be near your ‘friend’, she’s a wrongun

HardyFox · 22/08/2026 14:30

Shabby, very shabby.
You'd be well advised to cool your friendship (is it a friendship when your values don't align?) with her or you'll be expected to pick up the pieces when he does the same thing to her one day.

Ribenaberry12 · 22/08/2026 14:30

She’s clearly living in a bubble. Personally, I wouldn’t be there for her when it bursts.