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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To end friendship over friends affair with Married Man

57 replies

Chimcha · 17/04/2018 10:08

To cut a long story short very close friend of over 20 years recently (6mths ago) came out of a messy divorce, and almost immediately starting seeing a married man she works with. I don't know man or his wife. I hear A LOT about exciting etc this relationship is, the great sex, the gifts, the getaways, no strings etc. I've tried talking to her many times about this being a rebound, likely to blow up in her face (esp given they work together), the dreadful impact on his wife and children, etc. I suppose I saw this initially as a sort of breakdown on her part, she is a needy individual and this seemed like the (very wrong) aftershock of her marriage breakdown. I have never once condoned the affair or encouraged it, but did want to support her to make the right decision and walk away from it. However I feel like it is now just too much, the conversation last night ended with me in an absolute rage, not at her just ranting to DH. She is basically now blaming the wife for her husband's affair. It started with 'they weren't happy, only stayed together for kids', but now it has turned into her seeing pictures of the wife (laughing at them quite openly) who apparently has let herself go since having kids, doesn't care about her appearance enough, always tired, works long hours etc. I'm at the end of my tether with friend. I know my anger comes from both my increasing outrage at her behaviour and partly from projecting and really feeling for the wife and children in this, as I, probably like a lot of other women, am just like the wife, tired from long days at work, work hard with DH, to provide for my family and children, and don't spend hours at the gym and salon each week keep myself perfect for DH (nor would he want me to tbh!). I try not to be a judgmental person but I know I am well and truly judging now and feel her moral values have slipped so far away from the person I have always loved as a friend that the friendship can't continue.

OP posts:
Trinity66 · 17/04/2018 11:27

Ugh laughing at the wife is really vile. Yeah i'd really struggle to like her anymore after that, I'd probably pull well back from the friendship if I were you

WhingyNinja · 17/04/2018 11:29

Even if I told said friend to not talk about her sordid affair when in my company I wouldn't be able to curb my judgement.

I think the fact she's is now cruelly mocking the appearance of the woman who's marriage she is helping to destroy would be the nail in the coffin for me, as it seems to be for you.

Trinity66 · 17/04/2018 11:36

Wow judgemental much?

She judging her friend for judging the cheated on wife, seems fair to me

StopHammerTime · 17/04/2018 11:39

I fell out with a good friend for this exact reason, the only difference being the husband was secretly gay and seeing my (gay male) friend. My friend made the most vile comments about this man's wife's appearance, blaming her for 'letting herself go', getting 'fat' (she had three kids and was a size 12) and being nasty about her hair when the only reason he was playing away was none of those thin; it was because she didn't have a cock. She could have been the most beautiful woman in the world and he still would have played away with men. It made me completely change my view of my friend, so nasty about a poor woman in a lie of a marriage. Spiteful. I miss the nice aspects of my friends character I believed were there but I do not regret ending the friendship once he revealed his true colours. Free yourself from someone who has revealed themselves to be ugly inside.

StopHammerTime · 17/04/2018 11:40

typo none of those things not thins!

Pleasegodgotosleep · 17/04/2018 11:45

I ended a friendship for this very reasin. No way I could condone that behaviour.

The80sweregreat · 17/04/2018 11:45

I think i would have to drop her actually - it would be different ( maybe) if she wasnt mocking his wife and keeping things private, but she isn't.
She sounds awful and i couldnt be friends with someone like this and keep my distance. I am not judging people that have affairs by the way , i know it happens and two to tango and all that, but she just sounds nasty and horrible and not at all someone who is a real friend by being so mean. I bet it doesnt last. He will discover her needy side and run a mile.

TipTopTat · 17/04/2018 11:50

She's being nasty about the other woman because she's jealous, and insecure. She knows he will never leave his wife and it's her way of coping with that.

His wife might be an absolute twat by the way. So anyone saying she's innocent is a bit naïve and needs to live in the real world. Unless he's a serial cheater then something has broken down somewhere and they're both responsible for fixing it. Chances are she's aware of the affair and may even be relieved if he's a pain in the arse. Which I gather he might be if he is attracted to arseholes like the OPs mate.

Dancingmonkey87 · 17/04/2018 11:51

Leaving a bad marriage is no excuse to be party in destroying another.. Your friend sounds like an arsehole, what she doesn’t realise is she’s just a hole to him, someone to keep him company when he’s away and stick his cock in but in reality his home is with his and wife and children. If she wasn’t on the scene it would be someone else. She ain’t special. I would ditch her karma will soon catch up with her

Aworldofmyown · 17/04/2018 11:54

I would be brutally honest. You cannot continue to be her friend in the current situation.

If it were me and a long term friend I would want to let her know she is welcome to get back in contact if she wishes when the affair has run its course.

DearMrDilkington · 17/04/2018 11:58

Laughing at the wife would be the end of the friendship for me. What a vile woman.

BB70 · 17/04/2018 12:02

Does your friend laugh at her plaything partner's wife in his presence or just with you in private?

Chimcha · 17/04/2018 12:11

BB70 I'm not sure but the way she indicated it was that he showed her photos and they laughed together or at least he pointed out all the things he didn't like.

OP posts:
BlackWatchBelle · 17/04/2018 12:12

My friend did this and I made my feelings clear but carried on being her friend. It dragged on for a year or two and as much as I didn't want to be involved you invariably do by association. They ended when it all came out and no matter how we they think they hid it their work colleagues knew and made for very unpleasant times. My friend lost about 4 friends through her actions, she showed an ugly side. The cheating man begged his wife to keep him so my friend looked very foolish. Then she did it again, another married man. I waljed away then. No good things come from affairs.

Myimaginarycathasfleas · 17/04/2018 12:14

I see you having two choices.

  1. Tell her this is one part of her life you want to hear nothing about. It is possible, I know someone whose lifelong best friend was in a similar relationship that was never acknowledged or discussed between the two of them, as it would have meant the end of the friendship and they both knew it.
  1. Let her go. If the friendship is strong you may be able to reconnect when this doomed affair is over.

Either way, your time is worth more than having to listen to the rantings of a jealous and insecure OW.

TheTapir · 17/04/2018 12:29

Perhaps if more people did openly judge those who cheat on their spouses, or knowingly enter into relationships with married people, there would be less of it happening. One of my oldest "friends" had an affair with my now ex-husband, most our our "friends" are still friends with her, but not with me!

I think that these people SHOULD be condemned and told that their behaviour is not acceptable.

Having an affair with a married man is one of the worst things you can do to another woman - the pain and devastation it causes has to be felt to be believed.

Even before I found out about my ex, I could never have been friends with someone with such low morals.

BB70 · 17/04/2018 12:38

It's a good thing that your friend had already divorced before this affair became known to you. It would've been very difficult for you otherwise. Presumably you had an acquaintance with her ex-husband while she was still married.

HiggeldyPigsinblankets · 17/04/2018 12:42

a very close friendship of mine ended because of her affair, it was awful we were so close.

She started the affair knowing full well he was married, I knew he had had quite a few affairs before and felt she was vulnerable and he was taking advantage, tried to warn her, advised her to tell her mum hoping her mum would discourage her, unfortunately her mum supported it.

she started talking spitefully about the wife, who I also knew, I pointed out that my ex had probably said similar about me to the woman he had an affair with, she didnt like that, or me saying the wife was a nice person and the victim in all this. After this I stepped back from it all, and it ended the friendship. There were lots of things he did but she just didn't see it, he did finally leave his wife, doesnt live with her though and there are a lot of rumours of more affairs.

I do think you cant help who you fall for, but you can help who you pursue and for me married or in an relationship is out of bounds

Huntinginthedark · 17/04/2018 12:49

I think she must have rock bottom self esteem to end up with someone who thinks it's ok to laugh at his wife with his mistress.
that's about as low as you can go.

PortiaFinis · 17/04/2018 12:55

My friend did similar years ago, except the guy wasn’t married but had a long term girlfriend who he lived with. As the affair progressed my friend became increasingly derogatory about the girlfriend who knew nothing about it. I remember hating it.

I think it was for a few reasons. 1 - deep-down she actually felt really guilty about her behavior and was sub-consciously trying to make it so that the girlfriend shared some responsibility and to make her feel less like a person she should have sympathy for and guilt for hurting. 2 - she felt insecure about the affair and was trying to firm up reasons in her head for why the man would choose her and 3 - she was angry that this woman was (innocently) stopping her from having what she wanted.

I did say to her that I didn’t want to hear it and thought that it was horrible and unfair but we carried on being friends, and still are.

I was thinking about it recently and thinking how much of that must have come from guilt, shame and pain, not that it makes it okay at all but it makes it more understandable - less like my wonderful, kind friend had suddenly become a complete and utter bitch.

Mumto2two · 17/04/2018 12:58

I can completely relate to this OP. A few years ago, one of my oldest friends had a relationship with a married man at work. He was already on his 2nd marriage, who was incidentally the woman he left his 1st wife for. As a result of they, he was largely estranged from his children, and had another young child with his 2nd wife. My friend’s character literally changed overnight. She was high in the clouds with excitement for him, and any attempts to make her see the sadness of the potential fall out, were met with disparaging blame for the women who clearly couldn’t keep him happy! It really affected our friendship. Particularly after one of their ‘business trips’ abroad, whereby she laughed at the fact that his daft wifey, was too busy worrying about packing his ironed work shirts for the trip, to notice how pathetic their marriage really was, and he would take his neatly packed shirts out of the case on arrival, and crumple them to make it look like they’d been worn. That hit a bitterly sad score with me. Having been in that position once myself, I just could not imagine how anyone could be so cruel.
Needless to say my friend’s affair ended...and after a year of broken desolateness...she started seeing another married man...

Mydoghatesthebath · 17/04/2018 13:09

Gosh how cruel to be laughing together about her. No wouldn’t listen to that.

Mydoghatesthebath · 17/04/2018 13:10

Mum2

That actually made me teary so sad

Dangerousmonkey · 17/04/2018 13:17

She's revealed something pretty shallow and sad about herself. She views relationships as being for women who "deserve" them because they keep themselves as sexually available dolls for men. It's pretty pathetic that she doesn't clearly think relationships have anything other than a physical basis. It's sad that she cannot feel/ has never experienced a more mature or loving connection but those who think someone letting yourself go is a justification are unfortunately stunted in this way.
But there's not much room to dig deep and find sympathy when she views other women this way. I would have to cut someone out of my life who thought this way. I don't give a fuck about my appearance but I'd struggle to remain friends with someone who felt I woulddeserve to becheated on and betrayed as a result. Nasty. Sad. Time to call it a day.

Jaxhog · 17/04/2018 13:18

Why do we always seem to blame the OW? It's the man who has the contract with his wife after all. Maybe he's told her that they no longer sleep together or some other bullshit.

I would guess she's still hurting from her messy divorce. She needs your support for when he drops her. As he inevitably will.

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