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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask if anyone has ever been the Other Woman...and had it work out?

236 replies

Birdtablegreen · 16/08/2019 07:31

Just that really - have you ever been the OW (or know anyone who has) and you have ended up in a serious, long lasting relationship with him? And did you worry that he would do the same and did he/has he? Name change for this one but would rather not give details as could be outing even so...

OP posts:
Bookworm4 · 16/08/2019 16:19

@Colourmylife1
a woman who set out to destroy their family.
This is very misguided, their father set out to cheat on his family, he made that decision.

Blutopia · 16/08/2019 16:21

My father is a serial cheat - for him the grass always seems to be greener. So far the only OW to come out unscathed is wife #4, who he "fell in love with" at the age of 72 after 36 years with the last OW. I can't speak for wife #1 (before my time) but wives 2, 3 and 4 have all been OW. There will always be an OW, not even 36 years of marriage was enough for him.

The only hope I can give his current wife is that he'll probably die before he manages to have another affair. All he has taught me about life is that nothing, nothing, is ever permanent.

sofato5miles · 16/08/2019 16:33

@colourmylife1

But is it that different in regards to the children? Really? When you scrape it back? My marriage ending has been very hard, that is all I am trying to say. Even amicable divorces after 18 years are not without stress and recriminations but the children have no-one to blame.

However, neither have SOs as yet, we have that bridge to cross, I definitely acknowledge that.

Catalicious · 16/08/2019 16:40

My parents! Apparently they had an affair. Now married over 50 years, 3 children etc.

Jurassicmuma · 16/08/2019 16:40

It worked out for a friend of mine. Her husband had been in a relationship for years, she was lovely but had a few mental health issues, it was known that they hadn't had sex in a really long time. My friend started sneaking round there and after a while dumped the girlfriend for my friend. They're now 6 years married and two kids. Shes never admitted being the ow but I used to see her car there when his girlfriend was working and her husband once drunkenly told my husband a story about how they once nearly for caught. They're very happy now and the girlfriend has been in a new relationship for some time

Colourmylife1 · 16/08/2019 16:42

Bookworm4 Yes, she did set out to destroy the family. I didn’t use that term lightly. There were very specific circumstances which I don’t want to go into. But yes, my ExH had free will and made the decision to cheat.
I only came on here to say that, yes, sometimes it works out.

Colourmylife1 · 16/08/2019 16:46

sofato5miles My kids had always seen their father as a very honourable man who was incapable of lying, as did the whole extended family. They were forced to see him in a very different light. Because of the circumstances they saw me almost destroyed emotionally and financially.

Dontforgetyourbrolly · 16/08/2019 16:46

Someone in my family , they married young, what they used to call shot gun wedding. They had nothing in common , he had an affair and now he's been married to ow longer than first marriage.
However just because it was a success for them does not minimise the pain of the children and ex wife

SarahH12 · 16/08/2019 16:51

Haven't RTFT. I'm not sure if it counts but DP was with somebody for 2 years. We were great friends for the whole of their relationship and I guess for part of it bordered on an emotional affair. Then after 2 years we slept together. He immediately ended it with his now ex and we started dating a week later. At first I worried he'd do the same but this was 5 years ago now and it no longer worries me. We're so happy together, we have an amazing relationship and we're getting married later this year.

I think it can work out but most of the time it doesn't. I have to admit it's not a great start to a trusting relationship but sometimes it happens and it does work out. Good luck to you and I really do hope it works out for the best.

mama1980 · 16/08/2019 16:54

My closest friend was the OW 20 years ago now, her now husband had a wife and a young daughter. They had an affair for about 4 months before he left his wife. He was divorced within the year and they married, they've now been together very happily for 18 years and have 3 sons.
I didn't approve obviously but life is never black and white. He always has had a very close relationship with his dd and when she got married my friend was at the wedding, all very amicable. His ex wife also remarried happily and has had other children.

lyralalala · 16/08/2019 16:56

My grandparents. When my grandad was 17 his girlfriend got pregnant so they got married. She lost the baby and they really struggled as they didn’t really want to be together, but it was expected they would. At 19 he met my Nana at work. They both said even though nothing physical happened between them they got a lot of stick as people could tell they had feelings for each other. My Nana even got sacked over it. After 6 months my Grandad decided if they were going to get the grief for it they might as well be together.

They were together 75 years before he died. Even when we used to go back to their village donkeys years later they were still the ones that ran away together.

Years later they actually became friends with his first wife and her new husband. She said that she hated him at first, but in the end was actually glad because they both got to be happy.

SarahH12 · 16/08/2019 16:56

Sorry OP I just saw you're not the OW. I should really read more than just the OP...

I think it was different for us. There was never any emotional support in his relationship, they barely saw each other. Had this have been his ex wife I'd never have got involved. I knew him after he separated from his ex wife. I made it clear to him I'd be no more than friends until his divorce was completely finalised as I wasnt getting involved with a married man. Divorce is messy enough anyway regardless of whose fault or choice it is, I wasn't going to do that to another woman.

I do feel sad as even though he was going to end things with his ex girlfriend and they barely had a relationship, it's bound to have been emotional for her and I do regret being part of that. I wish we could go back and change things but we can't and we just have to look forward. 5 years on he hasn't cheated on me and I haven't cheated on him (emotionally or otherwise).

Frankola · 16/08/2019 16:57

I have to say I really don't like the way OW are flamed and perceived/spoken of on here. I feel the same with stepmums.

It always implies that the OW or SM is some evil figure that has preyed on a happy marriage and home life when very clearly this isn't the case.

Relationships are not black and white.

I'm not OW but I am a SM just for openness!

SarahH12 · 16/08/2019 16:59

surely at the back of every OWs mind is the fact her partner cheated on someone he (at least once) loved for her, so what is stopping him doing it again (the answer- nothing). You can't trust a cheater.

@Nabana I disagree. During the emotional part of the affair I was with somebody else. So we both cheated on our respective partners at the time. I'd broken up with ex by the time DP and I had sex. However I did physically cheat on an ex boyfriend multiple times when I was a lot younger. I'm not proud of it but there were serious issues and I didn't know how to deal with it. Same as DP with his ex girlfriend. We work hard at our relationship and make sure we talk things through a lot. I know neither of us would cheat. It's not always the case you cant trust a cheater

Itsjustmee · 16/08/2019 17:01

I’ve NC as this is possibly outing

My ex left me when I was pregnant and pretty young early twenties

He and his ow woman married and had two kids they were together maybe 7 years
They were vile to me deliberately ensuring that I got no CS by adopting her daughtee and reducing my CS and making me do a paternity test.
He never had anything to with my son despite going to court to get PR

He then cheated on her while they lived abroad and then divorced kicked her out of the family house and remarried and had another child with his next ow new wife within 2 years

Ex wife / ow had to come and she had to come home with no money and no home and two teenage kids and apply for council housing - right back where she started from years previously complete full circle

Ex partner - none of his kids speak to him including his ex wife’s daughter that he adopted aged 4 and on Facebook
( I stalk sometimes 😂) his kids have all been airbrushed out and it’s all him and new wife and baby and very lovey dovey

Myself I married my lovely DH, still married 20 years later and very happy wealthy and I have a lovely young man as my son

Do I feel smug yep very very smug OW married my ex because he had a very wealthy family and thought she was going to get a slice of it .Sadly it’s all in family trust and stuff
I had the last laugh over ow as she is stoney broke & very unhappy

I feel extremely satisfied when I heard about this and I know there is no such thing as Karma but it defiantly feels like it to me

BarbedBloom · 16/08/2019 17:06

I know a few actually. Someone in my family married the other woman and it is now 20 years on, they have three children and still seem besotted with one another from what I can tell.

Someone in the family was the other woman and is also happily married. Though she often says she bitterly regrets how she behaved back then now she is older and has her own children.

Another couple I know broke up a few years later as he cheated on her as well.

The fourth is the the one that caused the most upset though. Marriage genuinely on its last legs and man started an affair with work colleague and ended things with his girlfriend. Girlfriend understandably devastated, but years on had never got with anyone else and hadn't moved on at all. She kept going to the woman's work and screaming at her. She found out mutual friends were still seeing the man and OW a year or so later and phoned them up swearing and ranting. Three years later she tried to go into the hotel when they were getting married and attacked the person who kept her out, police came that time. It is now about 10 years on and the poor woman still hasn't moved on. She found out they had a baby and phoned me to ask me to send her photos of the little one as her ex and wife had blocked her and so had all their mutual friends. It is very sad. I didn't send her the photos and now she has blocked me.

I have been cheated on and I don't like cheats much, but it is difficult when they are family, especially when the relationship lasts. I am sure plenty of these relationships fail, or the person cheats again but sometimes they work out.

Bookworm4 · 16/08/2019 17:06

@frankola
I agree with you. There’s a lot of blinkered and bitter people on here. If the marriage is solid and good probably no cheating would occur, stop vilifying the OW look at the husband.

EmeraldShamrock · 16/08/2019 17:07

My old BF was the other woman. She had dark hair and the wife was blonde, after a few years determined to gave him she'd purposely leave long dark hair in his clothing, she even polished his shoes so the wife would notice.
Eventually friend came into money, he left the wife moved in, was exactly the lazy selfish bastard I knew he really was, he was self employed but happily put work off, eventually she kicked him out, he went back to his wife, BF was the 3rd OW his wife knew of during their marriage. Sad

BarbedBloom · 16/08/2019 17:09

Ended things with his wife that last one should read. I see why people use initials now

EmeraldShamrock · 16/08/2019 17:14

Some times it genuinely is meant to be. I know people can fall in love no one knows, if it is love break up with partners, the sneaking about cheating is seedy.
Dsis met her DH in work, he was in a relationship not married with one DC, they are married 12 years they don't see the DC, that is a whole other thread.

Ladiva1971 · 16/08/2019 17:22

I was the OW and my partner the OM we both left our respective partners and we have been happily together 15 years and married for two, and we trust each other totally.

jeanne16 · 16/08/2019 17:26

Prince Charles and Camilla! Seems to have worked out for them.

NoCauseRebel · 16/08/2019 17:31

TBH I think there is no black and white answer. There are of course situations where both parties treat the ex appallingly both during the affair and once they are together. However I also think that when you read posts like one above where the ex never moved on, screamed at people down the phone for being friends with the ex, gets themselves arrested and generally behaves in an extremely undignified manner it’s not hard to see why the marriage ended in the first place. I know that view won’t be popular on here but often the situation just isn’t as it seems.

I know a few, one was a friend’s dad who had an affair with the same woman throughout her childhood. To the extent that OW even used to ring the house to speak to him, and would identify herself to the DC. Shock the mum though refused to divorce him because she said she’d been married in the eyes of god and her vows were sacred. However, after the kids left school she divorced him and he moved in with the OW straight away. However after six months she threw him out and he went crawling back to his ex who told him to do one. Have no idea why the OW threw him out after such a short time of being an actual couple though, perhaps she’d just been the OW for far too long and moving into an actual relationship just didn’t do it for her, I guess we’ll never know.

I do also know of a couple who got together some 30 years ago and left their respective partners for each other. Moved in together with her DC, and are still together years down the line. I have no idea as to the circs, although I do know his wife was very seriously ill and lived in a home, I find it difficult to judge him if he found love somewhere else as she didn’t recognise him. He never divorced her and continued to visit etc. But their lives had in truth separated years before. It’s perhaps not palatable but it’s true.

Also I know a woman who was the OW for 40 years. She had a child with him and everything, but his wife used to threaten to kill herself and the DC if he dared leave. This was confirmed by the DC, and when she died they remained close to their dad and to the OW. And before anyone says that perhaps she was driven to it by his affair, that’s stil not an excuse to threaten to kill your children.... I felt sorry for the OW though. She never really got to be part of a relationship, and I do think that often once someone has been in a situation for a long time its harder to walk away, as much as we like to judge.

And lastly a friend of DP’s dad left his mum for her sister. They stayed together and the sisters stayed close until the sister died a few years ago. The mum has since remarried someone else and says that she and her ex were never suited in hindsight.

PumpkinPieAlibi · 16/08/2019 17:49

The term 'OW' isn't about blaming women. I swear, everything on MN is construed as some sort of patriarchal, misogynistic attack. It's a simple fact. If you are the affair partner, you are the other man or the other woman...it's just semantics. The term does have negative connotations but that has nothing to do with the genders involved.

As to 'marry the mistress, create a vacancy' line - that isn't misogynistic either. If anything, it's more of a slur on those disgusting men who always seems to want their cake and eat it too as they usually go on to cheat again, as is not unusual with cheaters.

Being an affair partner, male or female, is abhorrent. Nothing to do with blaming women at all. Of course, the partner who strays is even worse as they were the one who have broken the commitment made. And again, that applies regardless of gender. It is not anti-feminist to point out poor behaviour.

tequilasunrises · 16/08/2019 17:50

My ex had an OW who he got pregnant while we were together. I was only 22 at the time so it didn’t ruin my life by any stretch but obviously I wished It would go to shit for them at the time.

It didn’t though and they are now married and everything seems to be going well for them and their DD.

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