Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

DH ‘sexting’ colleague he only met at work party

382 replies

Jaydee92 · 07/12/2025 18:32

Feeling a bit fragile about this but I feel I need a sanity check. DH started his current job at the beginning of this year, goes into the office twice a week and has a lot of colleague who work remotely and he hasn’t seen before. Christmas party on Friday meant he met most of these in person for the first time as the company paid for them to travel and stay over. He was very drunk and I picked him up at the end of the night from the venue as pre agreed.

He was hungover on Saturday and in bed for most of the morning. Last night sat watching TV I noticed notifications on his phone (instagram messages) from a female name I didn’t recognise. I didn’t say anything but kept noticing it.

We have each others passwords for our phones and when he was in the shower this morning I looked at his messages. The message history only went back to yesterday. But basically the messages were sexual in nature. She posted a photo of her before the party, sat on a sort of sofa/stall. DH said to her he’d seen it and wished he was the stall. She said he was more handsome than he seemed on screen and that she couldn’t stop staring at his ‘bulge’ and suggested his trousers were too tight. DH said he couldn’t stop staring at her ‘tits’ and said sorry if she caught him talking to them.

I confronted DH immediately and he was initially really defensive before apologising, said he still felt drunk the following day and got carried away and had the ‘horn’.

I told him this is cheating and he said that’s nonsense as nothing happened.

My AIBU is whether I’m wrong to consider this cheating.

OP posts:
Defrostedmariahcarey · 07/12/2025 21:24

Oh lord - don’t have children with this man!!! Thank goodness he’s showed you his true colours before there are babies involved. Trust me - I married a wonderful man, and life is so much harder with children. He’s not long term partner or dad material. Let him go find a way to relieve his horn elsewhere

AliceMaforethought · 07/12/2025 21:25

Arlanymor · 07/12/2025 20:35

Disagreeing with me doesn’t make you correct. I don’t consider it cheating. I consider it pathetic and juvenile-sounding flirting. Doesn’t mean it’s ok or that I would put up with it. Not sure why you just jumped on me when lots of other people have said the same as me. But crack on I guess…

It certainly is pathetic and juvenile. It is also cheating.

mmmarmalade · 07/12/2025 21:26

Does it matter what you call it? You are (quite rightly IMHO) effing livid about it. How long married, together? Sharing a mortgage? Does this behaviour fit in with anything he's done previously that you perhaps dismissed? How's the guy going to behave when you (maybe you both) are run down with looking after a newborn and aren't spending much quality time together, etc? Drunk/horny is no excuse at all - zero - you wouldn't be the same would you? Exactly - neither would a lot of other people. I would definitely be reconsidering the future together.

Arlanymor · 07/12/2025 21:29

AliceMaforethought · 07/12/2025 21:25

It certainly is pathetic and juvenile. It is also cheating.

Again, your opinion. Jumping on me twice on this thread doesn’t make your opinion more valid than mine and it never will. Not cheating, but certainly stupid and immature. Close to the line. But not cheating. You’re welcome to quote me again but you’ll be wasting your time, I’m not changing my opinion despite your quoting me repeatedly. Feel free to go after someone else with the same view as me - there are plenty on them in this thread.

Yourlifeinyourhands · 07/12/2025 21:31

It’s cheating.
He’d be dumped.
You’ll never trust him again. Prick

Fauchon · 07/12/2025 21:33

Please do not have a baby with this fuckwit. Think of its gene pool. This will not be an isolated incident. Run while you can.

Joeninety · 07/12/2025 21:34

Does he play in a brass band then ?

Mintypanda · 07/12/2025 21:34

I predict that the allure of this colleague will completely dissipate when he is dumped.

CalculatingCrispen · 07/12/2025 21:37

IridiumSky · 07/12/2025 21:08

Yes. That’s correct.

Please read Darwin and Wallace. Then Dawkins’ non-atheist oeuvre.

Between them, and quantum physics, that’s most of reality explained.

Everything else is just chemistry.

Or parents making excuses for their sons not keeping it in their pants

Radionowhere · 07/12/2025 21:38

He's not ready to be a husband never mind a father.

Pyjamatimenow · 07/12/2025 21:40

Yea you need to rethink the ttc.

Galatine · 07/12/2025 21:41

Defrostedmariahcarey · 07/12/2025 18:38

A few questions..
how old is he? He has the horn?!
do you have children?
I wojld feel sick to my stomach and I’m sorry that happened.

He has the horn?!

Another way of saying that he had a erection!

lifeonmars100 · 07/12/2025 21:42

Don't have a baby with him, he will be off when he "gets the horn" and you are sore and knackered after giving birth and need time to recover

CandyCaneKisses · 07/12/2025 21:43

I would be astounded if she was the first or only person he spoke to like that.

SpinningaCompass · 07/12/2025 21:46

What an arsehole.

Imagine he'd have been furious and outraged had you been messaging another man about his 'bulge' and he'd been messaging you back about your body.

Laura95167 · 07/12/2025 21:47

Thats quite an escalation if we accept his version of events.

A colleague hes never met in person posts a picture and he responds with a comment about being sat on, and this woman's comfy replying not you perv or similar but oh yes handsome boy look at your bulge?!? And was fine with him a. Apparently openly staring at her tits and b. Then reminding her about all staring at her tits he did. His messages werent complimentary, and she escalated it.

When do any women you know do that? Not convinced there isn't more to this - prior flirting or something on the night out. Absolutely cheating. "Drunk and got the horn" isnt an acceptable answer.

PandoraSocks · 07/12/2025 21:48

IridiumSky · 07/12/2025 21:22

Now that’s an intelligent observation and worthy of engagement. Thank you.

I wonder to what extent socialisation is a method by which the more ‘raw’ evolutionary imperatives are moderated. I suspect that’s clearly the case, but there are times where the old lizard-brain limbic system breaks through all that and carries on regardless.

There are certainly evolutionary advantages in keeping society peaceful, in attenuating overt and continuous competition for females, and generally giving both individuals and society in general time to get on with other stuff. Like building the modern world.

But what makes us human - and the most successful species this planet has yet known (although I can argue against that) - is our innate character, and yes, neurochemistry. All attempts to fight that eventually makes people unhappy. And that’s just chemistry too. 😉

Are you a man, @IridiumSky ?

CheeseIsMyIdol · 07/12/2025 21:49

lifeonmars100 · 07/12/2025 21:42

Don't have a baby with him, he will be off when he "gets the horn" and you are sore and knackered after giving birth and need time to recover

And wait till she gains weight or her breasts aren't as perky as the hot woman at work.

If he does this before any pregnancy, he'll do it even worse afterward.

PandoraSocks · 07/12/2025 21:50

CandyCaneKisses · 07/12/2025 21:43

I would be astounded if she was the first or only person he spoke to like that.

Or the first and only time he has spoken to this particular woman like that.

BadgernTheGarden · 07/12/2025 21:52

Get him to message her back saying his wife has the rage.

PeachySmile2 · 07/12/2025 21:53

You need to stop TTC with immediate effect

Joeninety · 07/12/2025 21:54

Boring. Mammary glands are so so 70's. Don't think they're much in fashion now ?

Haroldwilson · 07/12/2025 21:55

God yes, if he's like this now, he's going to be zero percent reliable as a father.

caringcarer · 07/12/2025 21:55

Stop TTC with this poor excuse of a man. He's cheated on you, in full public view at work. He's been caught sexting this OW. Then he minimises your upset. I'd bin him off Xmas or no Xmas. Plenty of better men than this around. Be glad you are not carrying his child.

TwotierChristmas · 07/12/2025 21:55

Op count yourself lucky and run run run