Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To not want to have sex with my husband anymore...

34 replies

DeepRubySwan · 06/07/2025 07:46

My husband and I have not had sex in 1 year. There is a long back story as to why. He always had a low libido and frequently did not want sex. I was always the only one working on it, reading the books, buying the lingerie etc. We have been together 26 years. This is a longstanding problem of over 20 years duration. In the last year things shifted and now I'm the one who doesn't want it:

He found counselling notes (and therefore found out I had been seeing a counsellor) saying that I felt sad/sick at the thought of having sex with him, because we had been completely sexless for four years prior (his choice). I felt disconnected from him emotionally due to this and now did not want sex even though he again did.

He then admitted during a chat about it that he had not wanted to have sex with me during those four years because I weighed 154 pounds at 5'6 (a UK size 10-12) after having our second child. I eventually lost it to my normal weight of 128 pounds (a UK 6-8) and he then found me attractive again. MUCH HARDER second time around.

It was devastating to learn that after having his second son, and during those four years nursing my mother to her death, also losing my father, and working to support our family after he was made redundant, that my primary worth in terms of my attractiveness was measured by around 25 pounds. He did not acknowledge our wedding anniversary or take me to work functions or awards nights or anything during this time. Zero romance and essentially I was part of the furniture.

As soon as I lost the weight, the attention came back full throttle, with almost all the overtures referencing my weight loss.

The kicker is that he was very overweight himself, he has now lost about 15kg but is still more overweight than I was (by BMI) when I was apparently too disgusting to have intimacy with. And yes, we are still married and I feel it has destroyed my sexual and physical self-esteem. Basically I just can't bring myself to find him at all sexually attractive anymore and he feels like a stranger in this regard. Nothing I do works. The one time a year ago we did have sex I dissociated the entire time and was shaking afterwards. I don't want to leave the marriage because of my children.

TLDR: My husband sexually rejected me for four years over 2 stone in weight, now that I have lost the weight, I don't want him. AIBU?

OP posts:
Minglingpringle · 06/07/2025 15:44

You can’t force attraction on either side - it’s either there or it’s not.

It is what it is.

Shelly1973ish · 06/07/2025 15:53

How sad that you both are in such a unhappy, negative and toxic marriage.

How old are your children?

BMW6 · 06/07/2025 15:54

Of course YANBU - he's destroyed your confidence and I'm not surprised you're angry with him - what a colossal hypocrite!

You can stay married with ever having sex with him again, but does he know the score and is content with it? If he gets sex elsewhere would that bother you?

JenniferBooth · 06/07/2025 16:14

DonnaBanana · 06/07/2025 11:57

YANBU as I don’t want to have sex with your husband either. Only joking, but he sounds so petty. Twenty pounds makes almost no difference overall and the fact his entire libido would be destroyed by that says a lot about his psychology. Can you imagine this man caring for you if you fell ill? He run away from any sense of negativity, he’s not the one.

And imagine having to care for him if he ever got ill @DeepRubySwan cos he would have no qualms about using you for this. what a shitbag

localnotail · 06/07/2025 16:32

It is absolutely devastating. I was with my exH for 13 years; I went from skinny size 8 20 year old to size 12-14 grown up woman (I was never obese, I dressed well and I was sporty). We had no sex for a while, he rejected me, and eventually he cheated on me an left me. While we were getting divorced/ splitting up I was so stressed I lost a lot of weight and was pretty much skeletal. My ex told me - "if only you lost all this weight before the divorce, we would still be together". He himself was not sporty, overweight, with fat belly.

DeepRubySwan · 06/07/2025 22:32

localnotail · 06/07/2025 16:32

It is absolutely devastating. I was with my exH for 13 years; I went from skinny size 8 20 year old to size 12-14 grown up woman (I was never obese, I dressed well and I was sporty). We had no sex for a while, he rejected me, and eventually he cheated on me an left me. While we were getting divorced/ splitting up I was so stressed I lost a lot of weight and was pretty much skeletal. My ex told me - "if only you lost all this weight before the divorce, we would still be together". He himself was not sporty, overweight, with fat belly.

I was 20 when I met him too and weighed 53 kg. I think our situations are very similar tbh. I am sorry this happened to you. I think for me it almost gave me an eating disorder

OP posts:
DeepRubySwan · 06/07/2025 22:34

Shelly1973ish · 06/07/2025 15:53

How sad that you both are in such a unhappy, negative and toxic marriage.

How old are your children?

10 and 16. Youngest has autism though and I don't want to disturb his life. He is doing very well.

OP posts:
MNpenisadvisor · 06/07/2025 22:36

Tell him you're not interested cos he's fat.

3luckystars · 06/07/2025 22:38

Read Glennon Doyle’s book ‘untamed’ and free yourself x

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread