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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Husband meeting up with ex

46 replies

greengagesunshine · 18/10/2018 17:16

My DH has been married before (ended years before I met him), they met when he was 20 and married a year later. However, she was over ten years older, and acted much older than her actual age. The marriage ended after only a few years, he moved to the other side of the country and I met him.

He has always felt guilty about not succeeding in his first marriage and his ex has had difficulties letting go. She has never met anyone else, hasn't any friends (DH says she falls out with people easily) and her elderly parents have both died. She regularly calls and texts DH , has added him as next of kin in her will and a few years after DH and I met, asked for her wedding ring back. She had given it back to him when they separated, it is quite valuable so we assumed she wanted it as an asset. However, she is wearing it again.

She regularly asks to meet up with DH, I have met her once and DH has met her a few times. I, obviously, would be more comfortable with him not meeting her but I do feel sorry for her so just put it down in my mind to the equivalent of meeting up with a maiden auntie.

DH and I both have extremely hectic jobs, children that keep us busier than busy things and very little time (or money) to spend quality time together. He asked a week ago if he could meet up with his ex this weekend. I was a bit  as it has been well over a month since we have spent a full weekend together due to work commitments, children needing to be different places etc. I said it was ok as she has been badgering him for a while and thought I can take advantage of him not being there and have a duvet day with the kids. All fine, not ideal but only a small bit of a larger picture and not worth worrying about. However, I asked this morning, as I was heading out the door, where they were meeting and they are meeting in a lovely tourist town and spending the whole day together! I was a bit taken aback and just said, "you're taking her on a date?!" but couldn't stay any longer to have a conversation.

AIBU to feel really, really jealous? It has been a very long time since we have had a day out, just the two of us and I have never been to this place with DH. I do trust him, and know he is just trying to be nice but feel he has really overlooked my feelings in all this. I know his sisters and his mother would think he is being unreasonable, but we get on really well and they didn't like his ex. My green eyed monster is wanting to have an argument but the rest of me is saying to just be the bigger person. I do feel a little jealous when DH has contact with his ex, would be strange if I didn't, and I do feel a little envious when he goes somewhere nice without me but this has given me that awful knot in the stomach feeling.

OP posts:
JessieLemon · 18/10/2018 18:14

Isn’t this likely to come up again in the future?

What do you make of my previous comment?

Solenti · 18/10/2018 18:19

I don't think it's a jealous thing actually. This isn't coffee with a mate, it's a bloody date with his ex wife who has put her wedding ring back on. I think the vast majority of people would have a big issue with it! Glad to hear he's come to his senses.

Athena51 · 18/10/2018 18:21

OP I don't think you should be characterising your feelings as jealousy (or allowing anyone else to do so), you aren't being jealous, you are being reasonably annoyed at unreasonable behaviour.

I'm glad your DH isn't going but I still think you should have a talk about how you feel and about what is acceptable.

Mulberry72 · 18/10/2018 18:23

I’m glad he’s seen sense and isn’t going OP, however it might be time to tell him how you feel about him meeting up with her and just how inappropriate it is. Good luck xx

Womanlikeme · 18/10/2018 18:23

She is not going to ever move on if he agrees to keep seeing her. He needs to cut ties completely now. Her wearing her wedding ring is ridiculous but she is obviously hanging on to him by a thread and tbh his actions aren’t fair to her and might be giving her false hope.

(Seen your update, hope he sticks to it.)

SinisterBumFacedCat · 18/10/2018 18:31

The wedding ring thing is freaky Confused

timeisnotaline · 18/10/2018 18:32

That’s a good update op. It’s not even jealousy, it’s expecting your husband to prioritise spending time with you. Not every day, but enough.

niccyb · 18/10/2018 18:36

YANBU. He is having a day out with his ex wife whilst his family are at home. It sounds like she’s trying to claw him back. i would tell him that it needs to stop

John4703 · 18/10/2018 18:40

Can you suggest that if he has to meet her again that you and the children go as well. You could all meet up in a coffee shop or similar place and then you could go off with the children for a set time, perhaps half an hour. That way he is giving the clear message to his ex that you are his priority.
(There is no way I'd meet my ex without my DW)

Darkstar4855 · 18/10/2018 18:41

YANBU. I think he’s just trying to be a good person (rather than up to anything dodgy!) but I don’t think he’s doing his ex any favours by allowing her to continue being dependent on him. The fact that she’s still wearing a wedding ring is a major red flag to me.

It’s good he’s chosen not to go but I think you should sit down sometime soon and have a gentle chat with him about how you’re feeling.

mytieisascarf · 18/10/2018 18:45

Never mind suggesting the kids go if they "have" to meet again. They really don't have to meet again. This friendship is enormously inappropriate - she is wearing her wedding ring so in her mind they are still married. He knows this. You said DH is a very kind hearted man and will always do what he thinks is morally right - but his behaviour says otherwise. It is not morally right to encourage her in this thinking. It is not morally right to put his wife in a position where she is feeling uncomfortable and jealous.

He has decided not to go "this time" - what happens next time...or the time after that. This needs to end NOW.

Bluelady · 18/10/2018 18:51

Good outcome, OP. She sounds like a bunny boiler, time to reduce the contact to Christmas cards.

greengagesunshine · 18/10/2018 18:53

JessieLemon, I'm not changing the goal post, I still have no problem with him meeting her if he feels it is right but I do expect to be his main priority. I think it is normal to do one thing, whilst feeling another emotion. Who hasn't insisted someone else has the last cookie but secretly feel a little miffed when they do!

To be honest, this doesn't come about enough to get my knickers in a twist, I was asking if I was unreasonable feeling jealous. I felt I might be as I had said fine to him going and then not being as he was going somewhere nice.
My DH is the sort that will pass someone with a flat tyre and double back to help them change it.

I do suspect that his ex just wants to be part of a family, she sends cards to the children on their birthdays. I suspect that she wears the ring and still calls herself Mrs. for the same reason a lot of divorced women do, it feels like her name and her identity and she doesn't want to give up the person she became to go back to the person she was before.

I don't go along with DH seeing her because I want to appear 'cool' but because the ex has no one else to turn to. She phones DH if she has a problem and he can help. I am lucky to spend my life with someone who is kind and generous, someone who has been loving and giving to both me, the children and my extended family. I did ask him one day if she still hankered after him but he said the marriage ended as they were totally platonic, he wanted children and she didn't want to sleep in the same bedroom.

Thanks for the responses, I spent a lot of time as a child being jealous of my sister and it feels horrid to be jealous now.

OP posts:
Rebecca36 · 18/10/2018 19:00

Does your husband have children with his ex?

Maelstrop · 18/10/2018 19:00

He is, as a pp said, stringing her along. He needs to cut ties, this is not an appropriate or healthy relationship. I would definitely be putting my foot down on this. I can’t believe he was going to spend time with her rather than his actual family!

Bluelady · 18/10/2018 19:04

You're a better woman than I am, OP. Hats off to you, if only there were more like you.

IAmAllAsttonishnent · 18/10/2018 19:07

😮 OH HELL NAH!

Solenti · 18/10/2018 19:23

He might be kind and he might not be doing it intentionally, but he IS stringing her along. Handing back the wedding ring, days out, phone calls, being generous and helpful...It's not healthy for her. She clearly hasn't moved on or let go. There is friendship and there is this. I genuinely think the wedding ring thing is really weird and wrong. If she had never taken it off because she loved it then maybe, but to ask for it back and wear it again after years is strange and suggests that she feels much more strongly about your husband than you think.

IzzyGrey · 19/10/2018 09:51

This is totally inappropriate. I'd be furious. I don't mean to be rude but there's being laid back and there's acting like a total pushover. You're being totally disrespected and you need to put a stop to this. If you BOTH want to meet up with her together then that's weird but whatever, but him going alone is NOT okay, especially when he's literally dating a woman who is pretty much pretending she's still married to him/probably desperately wants him back.

Aprilislonggone · 19/10/2018 09:54

How far would you allow her playing the part of your dh's dw to go op??
Sounds like a dodgy path imo.

GreenFingersWouldBeHandy · 19/10/2018 09:56

DH is a very kind hearted man and will always do what he thinks is morally right

WTF is 'morally right' about taking your ex-wife out on a date while she's wearing her wedding ring, while your ACTUAL WIFE is at home with the kids?

I would be hitting the roof. Jealousy or not, this is so disrespectful. He needs to stop stringing her along and focus on his family.

Grow a backbone, OP. Stop putting up with this crap.

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