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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Have you ever cheated on a partner?

87 replies

morribash · 25/04/2021 08:16

I was talking to my friends yesterday while we all got tipsy in the garden and we started talking about relationships. 2 of my friends outright admitted to cheating on their current partners. I didn't say anything but I've cheated on my ex-partners in the past but not the one I'm currently seeing.
Thinking about people I've worked with and known over the years I think there's a lot who have told me they've cheated on their boyfriends or husbands. Some women I used to work with would do it all the time.
Is it more common now or do we just admit it more now? Have you ever cheated?

OP posts:
LadyFlossieParkingson · 25/04/2021 08:42

Yes my ex boyfriend when we were 18/19
We were together for a year and in the last 4 months of our relationship I
Kissed an ex
Slept with 2 people on a girls holiday

Not proud of it and ended the relationship after the girls holiday but it was a shitty move

Never cheated on now DH

Dontsayfuckorbugger · 25/04/2021 08:43

No, never. I have been cheated on several times and it's horrible

LemonRoses · 25/04/2021 08:44

No. It’s immoral. If you don’t like them enough to stay faithful, leave them.

Stillgoings · 25/04/2021 08:45

Yes in my twenties..Once it went on a while and I was deliberately deceitful and found it really easy to be so. It was ultimately a horrible experience though and I feel sick thinking about it now. There is no way I will ever do it again.

freeandfierce · 25/04/2021 08:51

Yes I did on my husband. After years of being abused in all possible ways. I met him on a course and we spent two years as friends, he helped me to build the courage to leave. It started about six weeks before I left for good. My H and I had been in separate bedrooms for four years at that point and probably said ten words to one another a day. My BF and I are still together a few years on, we don't live together as I can't ever live with a man again. He's my best friend and has made me realise there are some genuinely good men out there. I now know what an equal, respectful and living relationship feels like. I do still have a tinge of guilt that I broke my marriage vows but guess my H broke them in a worse way.

dudsville · 25/04/2021 08:51

When I was young, yes. I used to go out after work, I've never been a flirt. My boyfriend and I lived together, it was a reasonably good relationship but we were young and both had a lot to learn. He was away over the course of a few weekends. I stayed over and slept in someone else's bed. We were clothed and didn't have sex but it was emotionally intimate. I was 19/20. I never told him but it made me think and I realised I was childishly getting back at something that he had done that I realised I couldn't let go of and I left him. Haven't done it since but it taught me an important lesson.

BloodyGoodRep · 25/04/2021 09:12

Never physically cheated (and hand on heart can say I would never, ever cheat on DP) but with my exdp, ds’s dad, things were terrible for a long time. Emotional abuse, financial abuse, gaslighting. The age old story really. I became close to a friend at work, he was also having relationship troubles and we bonded. Started spending lunch together etc. We never spoke outside of work though.

However we had a staff party and the whole night there was just electric between us, it was a horrible but amazing at the same time. I left early as I had a lift and when he hugged me goodbye he said I think I love you. I just walked away. Things carried on with us being so close at work, people would comment on it and make jokes. I didn’t know what to do, even though things were bad I’d never had any thoughts of cheating before.

Anyway, a few months later at the Christmas do I booked a hotel room and KNEW if he came something would happen. By this point he’d told his GF things were over and I was on my knees in my relationship. However he didn’t show up. I was so disappointed and it was at that point I truly realised my relationship with DP was over. I kept my distance from this man at work and he met someone else and me and exdp split up 3 weeks after the Christmas party and I never looked back.

So I would definitely say it was an emotional affair

Itwasloveandlust · 25/04/2021 10:45

Yes. NC obviously, there are still people that would be hurt. I’m not proud.
I moved in with exH young, I was happy but I never understood films & books where the protagonists had all-encompassing love. I met my paramour at work... I swear it was like the world stopped, he was just there and I felt a weird pull to him. I didn’t really get to know him for 8 months & even then it was very polite. Then we sat next to each other at the xmas do & chatted, I thought he was fantastic, great personality and I fancied him. Nothing happened, we didn’t dance together or anything. Over the next year we gradually flirted a little and just before Xmas I asked his marital status, he said he was married with a baby & another on the way. I was devastated, before then I would happily have left my then partner to start something. He flirted a lot and turned up in all the places I was, and I remember wondering what would his wife think, but it was exciting and, I admit I was heavily influenced by working in an environment where people were having affairs and being married with children was no barrier. We finally kissed and it was just unbelievable. If you ever seen The Bridges of Madison County, that’s what it was like, we both felt like we’d found ‘the one’. After that we both backed off, it was scary, and neither of us were willing to go further. Months on & I got engaged & married. It seemed the right thing to do, I did love my exH, but he didn’t love me passionately. ExH then got a job abroad, so I was off. Paramour was also moving away but within U.K. & it felt like the unspoken world we inhabited that only we knew existed, was about to be lost for good. We began an affair. This was before mobiles, I can’t even remember how we managed illicit meetings, but we did and it was wonderful. We were absolutely in love and lust. Then I left and that was that. Except it wasn’t. I returned home after 6 months of misery. We resumed the affair. I found out ExH was having an affair so we started to divorce. I realised that my paramour, despite having an affair with me, was too good a man and would never leave his wife, so I ended it. I moved on, but hated myself & had a very damaging toxic relationship with an abusive man. I did have a beautiful child though, and soon after left his father. When my DS was 4, my paramour got in touch through SM... would I meet him for a coffee? I said no many times. The very cheek I thought (but I still loved him). Then I asked about his marriage. It had ended 6 months earlier. We met. Nothing had really changed, except we were nearly 15 years older! We re-fell in love and we’ve been together now for 12 years. He’s a brilliant SF to my DS, I love his now adult kids. We’re incredibly happy, but like I said at the beginning, I’m not proud and I especially wouldn’t want his kids to know because, they have him on a pedestal and, it would serve no purpose for them to know their father treated their mother badly. Neither of us have had other affairs, nor would we. We just found each other at the wrong time.

SuperPixie247 · 25/04/2021 10:50

Yes, on all my previous partners. I was hugely promiscuous and used sex to feel like I was actually worth something.

I have since worked through my issues and would never cheat on DH.

FireflyRainbow · 25/04/2021 10:51

I cheated on 1 ex but I was a teenager. I've not cheated on any others.

morribash · 25/04/2021 12:07

Also, why did you stay quiet if your friends had admitted similar?!

Because I've never really told anyone that. I've always been very ashamed of it and I was a bit shocked my friends admitted it so nonchalantly. Then as l thought back I realised it's just a lot more common than I've ever figured it to be because I can think of lots of people I've known who admitted to cheating all the time.

OP posts:
morribash · 25/04/2021 12:08

@BloodyGoodRep

I'm so glad you were able to get out of that relationship. Hope you're doing well now.

OP posts:
Magicpaintbrush · 25/04/2021 12:11

No, never. Hell would freeze over before I would cheat. It's one of the worst things you can do to someone who loves you. I don't want to be that person.

Everyday21 · 25/04/2021 12:12

I havent. I've been with dh 11 years and it's never crossed my mind

When I was with my ex, I was only 18 and got a lot of attention. I didnt cheat but wish I had. He was a dick and cheated on me. I think I missed out on some good sex

morribash · 25/04/2021 12:12

2 of your friends admitted to cheating on their current partners? Wow. And no sense of guilt I presume otherwise they wouldn’t have said it

One of my friends said she felt awful at first but she's learned to live with it and it doesn't bother her now because it meant nothing and it would just hurt her partner if he found out. The other friend has done it several times and her partner has found out about some of them and forgave her.

OP posts:
HowWeAre · 25/04/2021 12:39

Yes when I was in my very early twenties (in a relationship that started in my teens). It was a very abusive relationship and the affair was like an exit affair that prompted me to leave him, I wouldn’t have for a very long time otherwise. Obviously it’s not a valid justification but I don’t regret it at all, my life was horrible.

I haven’t cheated since and wouldn’t on my current DP who is lovely.

Ninkanink · 25/04/2021 12:42

No.

Babyroobs · 25/04/2021 12:46

No never and I none of my current close group of friends have as they've all been married 25 years plus. To be honest I wouldn't be staying friends with people who openly admitted to cheating on their partners as we are all a close group of friends and their partners are too. I have one single friend in the group who is sleeping with a few different ( usually married) men but they are not long term relationships.

amusedbush · 25/04/2021 13:04

Yes, when I was 18 (he was five years older). It was my first proper relationship and we'd been together for a year at that point. He found out, stayed with me and we limped along for another two years.

He never really forgave me though; he brought it up a lot and he used it as an excuse to treat me like shit. He spent all his time partying, getting drunk, going to strip clubs and talking to other girls but I was never allowed an opinion because whatever he did, it wasn't as bad as what I'd done.

I'm now 30 and I've never cheated on anyone since. I've been with DH for 9 years and I'd never ever hurt him like that.

Jamestheleast · 25/04/2021 13:04

@morribash.You used the word nonchalant to describe how they spoke.
I remember getting in with a set of women (work related). Not sure how come they took me into their circle.
But three of them had extra friends, mostly days out, they had a fund to support their life style. Independence not "sugar daddy".

One did get all-nighters when she travelled on business.
It was the casual way it was treated within the group that was more of a surprise. Not a big deal at all.

BloodyGoodRep · 25/04/2021 13:16

@morribash I am doing 100% better now thank you, better then I ever imagined to be honest. Exdp still tries to control me or put me down when he has a chance but I couldn’t care less now, he is pathetic and bitter. Thank you Flowers

DoingItMyself · 25/04/2021 13:17

Yes. We were married but we didn't like each other.

RosesAndHellebores · 25/04/2021 13:18

No. Never. I have been married for 30 years. And didn't with boyfriends before that.

Pyewackect · 25/04/2021 13:21

No and I'm not aware anybody has ever cheated on me. Any relationship that ended before I met my husband did so because it had run it's course.

NEVERQUIT3331 · 25/04/2021 13:25

Nope it is cowardly. If you wanna do that do not be in the relationship in the first place or leave. I hear excuses all the time oh I was a teenager. Does not matter. You still know right from wrong. Our actions have lasting effects on people. Some people never recover from being cheated on and that is a very tragic thing to see.