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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Husband ick and porn/youtube

61 replies

Dropthatdonkey · 24/08/2025 07:47

So we’ve been together 10 years, married 1. Both early 50s with late teen/grown children and living together. He’s great in so many ways - fair with housework, money, reliable, no real vices, hobbies in reasonable proportion etc. Sex life is good and active.
We have previously discussed porn briefly and I’d assumed he might use it but I guess thought lightly and during dry spells as he downplayed it a lot.
He came down from a bath a few weeks back were he always takes his iPad and we went to look at house finances and a porn page was open as he went to look for something. He looked panicked but pretended he wasn’t. I felt very uncomfortable and tried to explain it left me feeling odd as he’s literally just said he was too tired for sex that night and like I said I didn’t know he was a regular user. He swore blind it was from weeks ago and he mustn’t of shut tab. We moved past it but yes I didn’t forget and it left a bit of a ? Over what he watches on iPad and does in bath…
Then the other night he was chilling in bed before me with iPad and headphones on and as I went to ask him something I realised he’s watching a reactions YouTuber video - the sort with a pretty 20 something scantily clad but nothing obscene. I googled her and nothing too awful comes up but she is clearly making money by old men mostly sending her ‘gifts’ for her reactions videos. She has no onlyfans thankfully but discord etc. He said she was just a YouTube video that popped up in his feed. How much he loves me etc etc and would never cheat. I have no idea if he’s ever gifted anything and on the surface I’d say he’s far too sensible with money for that but obviously I didnt even know he watched these vids. Maybe it was a one off and did genuinely just pop up in his YouTube feed … maybe it’s a regular, I’ll never know.
Problem is i now feel all disconnected from him. I think he thinks it knocks my self esteem - it doesn’t really though yes it’s not great. So his reassuring he loves me only goes so far to help. The fact is it’s given me a bit of an ick for him and makes me think of him as a sad dirty old man. Every time I see him on iPad I wonder what he’s watching and feel a bit grim about it. The girl was about same age as his eldest. Not a kid but mid 20s and we are 50s!
We are due to go on a romantic break and I just feel like I can’t even be bothered talking to him let alone having sex. I just feel like I don’t really know him and now don’t trust him or feel at all close or loving. I’m downplaying it with him as I wanted time to process without him constantly declaring his love etc. But for me I feel so different when I look at him at the moment and am avoiding him. In some ways it’s only 2 small instances but yet it’s opened a can of worms of what else does he look at and what’s going on in his head.
Aibu?
If so how do I stop feeling like this?

OP posts:
AHellOfAGoodNight · 26/08/2025 08:25

Tidekiln · 26/08/2025 06:43

Would it still be grim if they didnt have daughters? What age of woman is it ok for a man to fancy or find attractive?

Yes. Not one young enough to be his daughter. And it’s not just finding them attractive, it’s wanking about them. So yes, grim. HTH.

Tidekiln · 26/08/2025 08:54

AHellOfAGoodNight · 26/08/2025 08:25

Yes. Not one young enough to be his daughter. And it’s not just finding them attractive, it’s wanking about them. So yes, grim. HTH.

Edited

So when a man hits 40 all of a sudden he is expected to not find women in their twenties desirable? In terms of YouTube etc all it takes is watching a few videos featuring a young woman for it to recommend many more. I can watch one female fitness video on instagram and my feed is full of them, many young attractive females. It's so easy for a man to be drawn in. It doesnt mean they are creeps. Most videos feature younger rather than older women for a reason.

AHellOfAGoodNight · 26/08/2025 09:03

Tidekiln · 26/08/2025 08:54

So when a man hits 40 all of a sudden he is expected to not find women in their twenties desirable? In terms of YouTube etc all it takes is watching a few videos featuring a young woman for it to recommend many more. I can watch one female fitness video on instagram and my feed is full of them, many young attractive females. It's so easy for a man to be drawn in. It doesnt mean they are creeps. Most videos feature younger rather than older women for a reason.

Oh the poor little lambs being ‘drawn in’ and before they know it, their dick is their hand and they’re ignoring their actual partner. Yes, they’re creeps. I’ve seen your posts on mumsnet before and I’m not interested in engaging with you further. 🤮

Tidekiln · 26/08/2025 09:50

AHellOfAGoodNight · 26/08/2025 09:03

Oh the poor little lambs being ‘drawn in’ and before they know it, their dick is their hand and they’re ignoring their actual partner. Yes, they’re creeps. I’ve seen your posts on mumsnet before and I’m not interested in engaging with you further. 🤮

Not interested in engaging with me yet engaging with me. Its human nature I'm afraid. Men are allowed to wank, men are allowed to find grown women attractive. As a middle aged woman ideally I wish I lived in a fairy land where men suddenly stopped finding younger women attractive but realistically it doesnt happen. Men will always be attracted to fit attractive women of child bearing age.

Sixpence39 · 26/08/2025 12:30

Sometimes when im low or stressed I'm not in the mood for sex with H, and the effort/connection/confidence it entails, but just want a quick 'release'. I wouldn't take the part about turning down sex and then masturbating personally, they serve very different functions and can be totally different experiences. Up to you how you feel about porn of course, that's very personal.

GoldOP · 26/08/2025 14:44

Last year I caught my dh on a call with a web cam girl in the middle of the night, it led to our marriage being blown apart and me discovering he was addicted to porn and accessed it most days. I felt betrayed, stupid, unloved, ugly etc etc
We paid for couples therapy, she made me realise it wasn’t my fault and the addiction to porn was his issue not mine, we could have sex daily but it wouldn’t take away his need to access porn as it is an addiction.
I’m not saying your dh is addicted to it but when people say “oh it’s only a bit of porn all men do it” it really pisses me off. The days of men just looking at scantily clad women in a magazine are gone and the internet now offers actual one on one access with a sex worker which in my opinion is cheating.
18 months later I’m still unsure if I can get past it, I think I have some days but then something will trigger me and I get the ick all over again.
Talk to your dh, don’t let this fester.

Sashya · 04/01/2026 14:44

OP - your story is something that pops up on MN a lot. Mostly women tend not to see their part in it - so it's positive that you do. Kids are hard, granted. 6 years without sex is also hard. Both of you played a part in this.

I think - given that you are not one-sided on this - you have a good chance of getting through this. Many marriages get through physical infidelity - when both people want to work on it. Yours didn't go as far. And both of you want to make it work.

I do think you two should find a councillor and talk about what happened and how to re-build your marriage. Also - have a look at Ester Perel - I think she has a lot of god insights into marriages - she has years of experience as a family counsellor. And she is pragmatic and does not see life in simplistic black/white.

JLou08 · 04/01/2026 14:54

I'd feel the same about porn. The YouTube video though could be nothing, lots of entertainment involves beautiful young women, there's no escaping that and he may watch it for the content rather than the woman. It sounds like a good relationship other than the porn so I would look at couples counselling to try and move past it.

Jc2001 · 04/01/2026 15:21

Ablondiebutagoody · 24/08/2025 09:28

I think that he's allowed to have a wank when too tired for sex

It's not the wank that's the problem, it's the porn.

MissJoGrant · 04/01/2026 15:23

Sashya · 04/01/2026 14:44

OP - your story is something that pops up on MN a lot. Mostly women tend not to see their part in it - so it's positive that you do. Kids are hard, granted. 6 years without sex is also hard. Both of you played a part in this.

I think - given that you are not one-sided on this - you have a good chance of getting through this. Many marriages get through physical infidelity - when both people want to work on it. Yours didn't go as far. And both of you want to make it work.

I do think you two should find a councillor and talk about what happened and how to re-build your marriage. Also - have a look at Ester Perel - I think she has a lot of god insights into marriages - she has years of experience as a family counsellor. And she is pragmatic and does not see life in simplistic black/white.

Looks like you've replied to the wrong thread.

Thepeopleversuswork · 04/01/2026 15:54

I'm sorry, OP, I would leave.

Porn in certain circumstances wouldn't always be an automatic dealbreaker, but catching your partner wanking over women young enough to be his daughters.... I couldn't move past this. I couldn't ever find someone sexually attractive after that.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly (if they haven't already) to say its silly to throw away a "good marriage" over this but... Nah. Dealbreaker for me.

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