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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Should OW expect to be welcomed into family?

476 replies

Nattyjackie · 29/09/2019 11:53

Scenario: woman has long term affair with man with kids. Wider family (mother, siblings) find out. Marriage breaks down and man moves on with OW. Long term should the OW expect to be welcomed and accepted by family?

Please put aside Man's role in this for the moment which is of course the instigator of all this. I'm really interested in what the OWs expectations should be towards wider family.

OP posts:
Welltroddenpath · 30/09/2019 18:04

Depends on so many things surely? BIL has a affair but his new wife was lied to about the state of his marriage and seems a bit ditsy and innocent so I welcome her fully. Him, I judge silently 😅

If it was my dh ow ( god forbid!) I would be civil for my kids but welcoming and warm? Nah, sod that!

Livelovebehappy · 30/09/2019 18:04

I’ve recently dropped a friend for being the OW and breaking up a marriage of someone I don’t know, but having been through having a cheating DH, and knowing the devastation it brings, I just can’t accept having a friend who does not share the same morals as me. I just can’t understand how any woman could live with her conscience knowing she has contributed towards destroying a wife and DCs lives. Their moral compass must be set at zero. Likewise I would cut off any member of my family for the same reasons.

MarshaBradyo · 30/09/2019 18:05

Re Camilla plus the press found the newest RF member to have a go at

The second newest gets let off after that

MarshaBradyo · 30/09/2019 18:06

Anyway generally I think you should because your sibling etc will probably want to bring them to family events

lovemenorca · 30/09/2019 18:07

**
I think I would struggle to accept OM/OW for the simple fact as I wouldn't trust them, they will have deceived and lied to others order to be in a relationship.**

But they could be single

ToftyAC · 30/09/2019 18:07

Yes, I believe they should be welcomed.

Livelovebehappy · 30/09/2019 18:09

But has Camilla been accepted? There’s still a lot of people who don’t like Charles on the back of what he did, and I think the public are not accepting of Camilla, but just indifferent to her. She’s just ‘there’ really and there’s nothing anyone can do about it - she was just forced onto us.

Aria2015 · 30/09/2019 18:12

I think that any relationship with family members should be at least civil. If the guy who had the affair has not been cast out, I don't see why the other person should. My DF has an affair, I have a civil relationship with his wife. We'll never be close but I'm always polite and so is she.

MereDintofPandiculation · 30/09/2019 18:12

I think I would struggle to accept OM/OW for the simple fact as I wouldn't trust them, they will have deceived and lied to others order to be in a relationship. I would imagine that if anyone was lying and deceiving it would be the husband.

edgen2019 · 30/09/2019 18:17

You cannot change the course of history, but if you are the other woman, you always will be the other woman with little or no moral compass.

Jane1727 · 30/09/2019 18:34

I haven’t read the whole thread but I think if you love someone you have to accept their choices. Yes it isn’t right to have an affair but we are all human and I would never stand in judgement.
I may find it difficult at first especially if I was close to the ex but I think families should accept that the man has a new partner.
My Dad had an affair when I was young and my parents separated when I was 12. I live my step-mum as a parent. Both my parents are very happily married now and yes my Mum was hurt at the time and I was angry with my Dad. However, I am lucky that I have 4 parents I love. My dad did wrong but I don’t believe the breakdown of any marriage is purely down to one person. If my parents were right for each other the affair wouldn’t have happened. I look at them now and can’t see them together at all they are such different people. They do both however still like and respect each other and are on good terms.

flirtygirl · 30/09/2019 18:36

A lot of people has said you don't know what goes on behind closed doors or what led to it.

No excuses for an affair, sorry if you are not happy then you leave. You don't go and have sex with another person.

All this excusing makes me sick.

Also you don't have to be bitter and resentful to have nothing to do with those who have hurt you. I'm not bitter or resentful, I accept that people are not always who I want or need them to be. I move on with acceptance but I live my life on my terms and if this means not appeasing people to appear nice then so be it. This is is hard won battle when you have had an abusive childhood and then an abusive marriage.

My own daughters learnt about how manipulative their dad is and what a liar. I would have done anything to shield them but I could not. It all came out on separation because of his behaviour.

I didn't have to tell them about the abuse as he made it plainly clear. And yes he does have another woman whom he has just married. This is my life and recently too.

On telling my 9 year old this summer she has decided to have nothing to do with him. This was coupled with him shouting at her for hours on end on two occasions when he had not seen her as we have moved away. Us moving naturally made contact harder, that was the point as he is very abusive to me but he should have not taken it out on a 9 year old. Am I happy that she wants nothing to do with him? No I would give anything for her to be daddy's little girl again, like she once was. And to take that heartbreak away from her.

However time does heal some wounds. So it's up to her if she forgives his behaviour, doubtful as he is a strict, controlling, manipulative person. But she could still have a relationship with him, albeit from a diatance.

So if when she is older and she has them at her wedding, I will not be there.

I do not mend bridges or offer conciliation on these types of things.

I can have a life and not be bitter or resentful but I need to do so on my terms. If I was to do as many on here have said/ do and carry on, then I would grow bitter deep down and become brittle as it would all just be a pretense for me.

I refuse to be friends or have a relationship with people whose morals, I don't agree with. I have said goodbye to friends who were intent on destroying themselves with one night stands and married men. I've said goodbye to two over the years. One was a friendship lasting 17 years but she did not see anything wrong with her behaviour and this coupled with the treatment of her son made it easy for me. To say this friendship is not working for me.

LargeHadronColander · 30/09/2019 18:41

OP. Could have been my thread title!
DF had 14 year affair with OW. DM found out and it stopped (allegedly). DM died from cancer last year and 4 months later DF starts seeing OW again.
So personally I will never welcome her into our family..

flirtygirl · 30/09/2019 18:46

Also if they were right for each other then affair wouldn't have happened is bullshit.

Yet another excuse.

PopGoesTheProsecco · 30/09/2019 18:56

My husband left me for the OW when our children were 6, 2 and 16 weeks old. My in-laws were so angry at their son when he left. MIL wanted to march into their office and tell her what a ‘home wrecking ***’ she was. I advised her against this and half jokingly said to her that she would probably end up spending Christmas with this woman so be nice. Sure enough, he left in September and they spent Christmas at the in-laws.

Ricoetbello · 30/09/2019 18:56

Did he tell her he was married/ did she know?
Some couples live together but dont live as a married couple.
People just stay together for the kids nowadays, theres no love there. If it's that, then she should be accepted, some people are just not meant to be unfortunately

LanternLighter · 30/09/2019 18:57

Ex cheated on my after 20 years and 2 children together. Within a few weeks of affair coming out OW was staying at in-laws house and having days out and weekends away together. No offer of support from them either, very very hurtful.

mimosaadorna · 30/09/2019 18:57

Of course, being a Scorpio, I’d say no way should OW have any part in anything EVER !!!. But it’s rarely that simple, and I think yup, accept, perhaps not welcomed until a while down the line. If she is confident with her own scenario, then she will be fine. If she is less confident with her past actions she will make her own choices whether to “join” in or not......

SunshineCake · 30/09/2019 18:59

I don't think shagging a married man is a mistake, is it?Hmm. Even if you shagged him before knowing he was married there is no excuse for carrying on once you know he has a wife.

In DH family someone had affair and brought the OW to a family party where the wife was also invited. I would have been very pissed off if the OW was asked and the wife wasn't. Kudos to them as wife seems polite and okay with the woman now bringing up her exes new baby. The parents of the cheater seem to have accepted her too.

flamingo40 · 30/09/2019 19:00

I think it all depends on the individual scenario.
My dad had an affair. We didn't meet her and their children until we were adults.
Damage was already done, I have tried so hard to welcome and be involved.
Let's just say now I accept it. I deal with it and respect them but I wouldn't say we are close.

Winterlife · 30/09/2019 19:03

But they could be single

A single OW/OM screwing around with a married person. Still unacceptable, IMHO.

contrary13 · 30/09/2019 19:04

I think it depends. My ex and I grew up together, had raised children together, and then... he announced his girlfriend had just had his baby. I went, within the space of maybe a year/18 months, from being an accepted part of his wider family (whom I'd known/grown up with from the age of 11 to 32, for crying out loud) to being persona non grata.

All because they wanted to "save face".

My 4 year old son was terrified when ex married the OW that would mean I would no longer be his mummy, and my oldest's MH took a nose dive from around that time (she's not biologically the ex's, but he'd raised her from a few months old as his own!). I actually like my ex's new wife, and am very fond of/involved in their two children's lives - they're my son's younger siblings at the end of the day. But it still hurts, nearly 11 years on, that I and my children were considered disposable by people I considered to be family.

Kanga83 · 30/09/2019 19:05

Accepted begrudgingly but not welcomed is what I did with my aunt and uncle who were both the OW and OM ruining their marriages and kids families. I keep my mouth shut but never gone out of my way to engage in conversation, ask how they are, etc. I never, ever accepted or welcomed my dads tart. I have no contact with him now.

PrettyPurse · 30/09/2019 19:05

I'm the ex wife in this situation.

At first l would and did expect complete loyalty from my inlaws and friends.

One mutual friend started socialising with them 4mths after we split. I felt completely betrayed as we'd been friends 20yrs. I broke contact for awhile whilst l dealt with that hurt.

I posted on here about it too at the time.

PIL were disgusted and didn't want to meet her....however were forced to as he turned up with her 4 weeks after he left me...and she met the children that day too...

His brother and wife welcomed her straight away and told my inlaws to forget about me. That REALLY hurt.

2 years on... I'm over the hurt mainly now. I won't ever forgive my friend but we are in contact now again. I don't see his brother and family. His parents l am in contact with but that is reducing as time passes.

As for me... l actually really quite like the OW! She has welcomed my children and does her best by them....and she took XH off my hands Wink

I would of course prefer everyone to continue hating her, but where does that get you...just bitter.

I have told my MIL she needs to move on and be more friendly to her son and OW

Nimello · 30/09/2019 19:07

Flirtygirl, have you really ended friendships because your friends have had one-night stands? (Or am I misunderstanding your post?)

I've never had a ONS, and never would have one - but many of my friends have. It has never crossed my mind to judge them.
But perhaps you didn't mean that...