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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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DH has hidden some heavy stuff...AIBU to want to separate?

829 replies

mummymalta · 29/05/2016 22:53

3 weeks ago DH revealed some very personal things which I feel I should have known before we got married. To be honest, we are all entitled to secrets and personal experiences I suppose, but where do you draw the line?

DH and I have been together for 10 years and married for 7. He's my best friend, I feel like I knew and loved him so much. Affirming these things is very strange to me. We were solid.

A "friend" of DH from the country he used to live in came to a party of a mutual friend of ours. Lets call him Bob. I don't know Bob, DH has only mentioned him briefly and my friend knows him but not well. He came with my friends brother who he is sort of close to. DH didn't want to come to the party (long day) and didn't know Bob would be there. I kissed the kids and ran out the house desperate for freedom on a friday night went to the party.

Get to the party and was enjoying child free time when my friends brother came over to say hi with Bob. "Bob you haven't met DH's wife have you? it's been about 12 years right? "
Bob: "Holy shit - you know I barely remember those days"
He then made a slick comment about him and DH being on coke half the time. I really cant remember what he said verbatim but I sort of nervously laughed (was shocked and he was drunk) and excused myself.

Naturally went home and curiously prodded DH the next morning in bed who waffled about trying it a couple of times and said Bob was a royal prick with a big bouth. I was uneasy that he didn't tell me but nothing divorce worthy. I ask why he didn't tell me and prodded as you do (smelled a rat, wife spidey sense) and then he told me:

He had a coke habit when he went to live abroad in his early twenties right before I met him. He said it was just a bit of fun and just when it started getting a bit out of control he met a girl who he really loved. They had a real relationship and spent a year getting high. Only god knows how he kept his job, but of course drug addiction doesn't necessarily have a face. Anyway she had previously had a heroin addiction and they started doing heavier stuff. He freaked out and ended it. She stopped picking up her mobile and he went to check on her she's dead in flat. Huge drama with her family/ police / drug debt I wont get into it but its fucking insane. He comes home tells no one traumatised. We meet about a year and a half later.

I didnt sense one thing - he spoke of his couple of years abroad quite normally but rarely looking back. I thought nothing of it why would I?

I'm still in shock, not just from the incident, but of the fact that he didn't tell me. I was so shocked that I just said he needs to give me time to digest it. We haven't spoken about it since because I've just shut down. I don't know what's wrong with me - I feel nothing. It's like he's a stranger now. We had a very happy and passionate marriage. Such a great banter affection. Even the kids sense something is off. He keeps trying to talk about it but i don't even hear a word he's saying. I just keep on thinking who are you?

AIBU to want to separate for a bit? I have had no time to digest this?! He said lets send the kids to their nans for half term and deal with this so off they go tomorrow.

OP posts:
mummymalta · 30/05/2016 09:25

NoMudNoLotus
Look, I'm sorry but I imagined that poor girl being held down and injected too. Very strange you mentioned that too. He would buy her drugs.

OP posts:
IWILLgiveupsugar · 30/05/2016 09:25

I think yanbu too. He has lied. His experience has had a massive part in forming who he is and he has deliberately witheld that information from you. I would be worried about being married to someone who can compartmentalise so effectively. 18 months is not a great deal of time to get over a drug habit and bereavement before jumping into a relationship with you - I'd be wondering if I knew him at all as well.

I disagree with posters who say that you don't owe your partner the details of your past. Sometimes you do - not all the little stuff or details about your previous sex life but big things like drug habits and debts and dead girlfriends, yes you should share that information.

This would have been so much better for the OP if at some point during the last 10 years he had told her rather than letting her find out from ome bloke at a party. It has left her with the feeling that total strangers know her dh better than she does which I know I would find disconcerting.

Duchess I think your comment was quite mean.

Hodooooooooor · 30/05/2016 09:26

You probably should seperate, but for his sake, not yours. A spouse who unearths something painful in your past that you chose not to share, and then makes it all about them, and uses it as a stick to beat you with...nobody needs that.

He doesn't owe you his past, or his secrets. He was a person before he met you, and if he wants to keep a part of his life, that does not affect you, to himself...thats entirely up to him.

NoMudNoLotus · 30/05/2016 09:27

You don't need to make any immediate decisions OP.

The children are going to GPs- just let your mind process it - never mind his "trauma" this is a trauma for you.

mummymalta · 30/05/2016 09:27

WriteforFun1 Parents loaded but didn't give him a penny. Got him a lease and thats it. He had a really good graduate job they would have suspected something was up since they already payed for the flat. They sent him money once - he says he doesn't even remember what excuse he gave. He never came home to visit and didn't allow them to come over aswell.

OP posts:
NoMudNoLotus · 30/05/2016 09:28

Hod you obviously have issues of your own your trying to justify. Biscuit

mummymalta · 30/05/2016 09:28

Hodooooooooor It's hold the door.
And I get what you are saying.

OP posts:
Hodooooooooor · 30/05/2016 09:29

Ok this thread was stuck on page one,and didn't show me any of the further posts before I posted. So I withdraw previous comment!

IWILLgiveupsugar · 30/05/2016 09:29

Just seen the update. So sorry OP. I dont know what to say. Id be reeling too and considering separation. What he has done to you is like fraud.

WriteforFun1 · 30/05/2016 09:30

OP
"Look, I'm sorry but I imagined that poor girl being held down and injected too."

Bloody hell! If this is what you think happened I'd run a mile and get legal advice asap.

How can you DH be blasé about this?

mummymalta · 30/05/2016 09:31

WriteforFun1 nor by my DH but by other men

OP posts:
NoMudNoLotus · 30/05/2016 09:32

Sorry OP if I hit a raw nerve about the being held and injected - sadly Iv just come into contact with too many women who have been pimped out so I can imagine what she may have enduredSad

My heart goes out to you.

NoMudNoLotus · 30/05/2016 09:33

Slightly off track but hodoooor - that scene was so painful Sad.

PansOnFire · 30/05/2016 09:34

original I'm not sure how you work through someone beating and possibly raping an ex, together. It's not as if he's made a silly mistake whilst they were married, he had a whole different life before they met that would suggest that underneath he's not the person she thought he was.

mummymalta · 30/05/2016 09:34

WriteforFun1 Not by DH no way. I just feel sorry for the girl she is haunting me. I don't like men telling stories about abusing women and the woman can't set the record straight. We are aways silenced. Always. Now she's dead. Allegedly. I'm sick of stupid girlfriends and wives believing the lies of former abusers and rapists who they are now in relationships with. (some people on the estate have grown up but their partners don't believe the stories about them...) I don't want to be that woman

OP posts:
Baconyum · 30/05/2016 09:35

Sorry that post wasn't intended to hurt you further mummymalta simply to sum up for people not checking updates.

Personally

Drugs is a deal breaker for me, never even tried them myself never dated anyone who has been an addict, I could of course be wrong but I don't think I've dated anyone who's even experimented (mainly military and law enforcement).

But lying is a big no for me too. How many lies/half truths must he, his family and friends have told you for it to get to ten years later till you hear anything about this?

mummymalta · 30/05/2016 09:36

NoMudNoLotus Hold The Door!
I cried it was a hard watch......Never would have thought Hodor had a story though....brilliant writing.

OP posts:
Clareoo223 · 30/05/2016 09:36

It's his past, he's been clean for ten yeas. I think your bonkers!

Lots of people choose to gloss over their past or minimise stuff.. How many people have not told their partners every detail of their life, lots I'd guess.

Your throwing everything away over this?

mummymalta · 30/05/2016 09:39

Baconyum I found out by accident and had to prod for detail and answers. That girl is scratching at me. WTF happened? And why don't I believe my husband of 7 years who up until last month I adored. I won't be cringey but I seriously seriously seriously thought the sun shone out of his backside. my dream man. So happy and blessed. Beautiful kids, beautiful home, beautiful happy life. FFS. I really admired him. He's so loving and kind and caring. But as soon as this came up he transformed.

OP posts:
NoMudNoLotus · 30/05/2016 09:39

The thing is that yes he will have been under the influence of drugs when he did some of things , made some of these decisions.

But there will have been other times when he was not under the influence of drugs - had full capacity , knew what he was doing and chose to make reckless decisions that involved the exploitation of others.

That's something I would struggle with.

mummymalta · 30/05/2016 09:40

Clareoo223 rape accusations, beating her, lying, setting up friends for money, etc

OP posts:
NoMudNoLotus · 30/05/2016 09:40

Clare would you gloss over this if that girl were your sister or daughter ?

NoMudNoLotus · 30/05/2016 09:41

And actually I would be really looking for some emotion from your DH over this - where is the empathy or remorse ?

mummymalta · 30/05/2016 09:42

Baconyum I'm shocked that I don't believe him. Why don't I?

OP posts:
NoMudNoLotus · 30/05/2016 09:42

And actually I would be really looking for some emotion from your DH over this - where is the empathy or remorse ?