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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Husband no longer loves me after 24 years together

70 replies

Singlediva · 13/07/2010 23:28

My husband doesn't want to be with me anymore. We have been together 24 years, married for 17 with 2 dc's (14 & 10).
I still love him very much but can no longer be with him as it hurts too much. I always thought we had a really good marriage & so did everyone else. Have told both sets of patents (they were very shocked). In laws think there is something wrong with him as his behaviour is so not like him. They made him see his GP but they have said there is nothing wrong.
We have discussed the practicalities of separating (where he will go, financials) but have not told dc's yet. He doesn't see the point of going to Relate, I have been on my own and have requested more sessions as I need to come to terms with this, I thought we would ge together forever. He doesn't want to leave the dc's or the house but doesn't want a relationship with me except as friends. I have asked him to tell me straight that he no longer wants to be with me and doesn't love me but he either changes the subject or makes a joke out of it. Help, I can't work it out.

Has anyone else had experience of their husband suddenly wanting to split up?

OP posts:
pineapplecube · 13/07/2010 23:38

i think he may have someone else...mine did this after 20 years of marriage back in february....and he is now livivng with her. you need to do some serious snooping. please cat me if you wish i know what you are going through

hugs xxx

Monty100 · 13/07/2010 23:38

I'm so sorry.

If he doesn't want a relationship with you, I think you're going to have to ask him to leave so that you can get on with your life. As painful as that might be initially.

Singlediva · 13/07/2010 23:50

I've asked him several times if he has someone else but he has denied it, I think I believe him and to be honest it doesn't really matter.
I have told him I want him to go, it is him that doesn't want to take the next step. Things are too easy for him here!

Pineapplecube, do you have any dc's, how did you tell them?

Thank you for your support, it does help.

Xxx

OP posts:
Tortington · 13/07/2010 23:59

i'd get my financials in order, see a solicitor and find out where i stand on EVERYTHING legally.

i'd then think about how to get him out of the house and whether you need to sell it.

I'd also remind him that i was still quite young and he needs to fuck off becuase you want to get on with your life - find love and have laughs.

funny how they forget that you might have sex with somone else someday and that you wont be at home dressed in black widow get up.

i'd seriously get a back bone, find out where i stand with money - very important and with legal stuff - very important. then tell him he needs to go, you don't love him either (even if you do) and you want to get on with a full life

oh they love the pining, the thought that they have someone who loves them so unconditionally that they will DIE without them - put him straight and tell him to do one.

Eurostar · 14/07/2010 00:05

What is he asking for? To live with you on a house share basis with separate rooms?

jennifersofia · 14/07/2010 00:16

Tough talking from Custardo (but not unkind), but basically I agree. It sounds like he wants his cake and eat it too. He must realize that it is not acceptable to stay in the house if he has communicated that he doesn't want a relationship with you.

pinksmarties · 14/07/2010 00:26

Brilliant Custardo !!!!!!

It happenened to me a while ago and I did everything in that post.

It's vital that you rise up and fight for yourself and your DC.

Your h is one in a long long line of selfish twunts on here.

GOOD LUCK

Monty100 · 14/07/2010 00:46

Well said Pink.

OP, be strong.

WhenwillIfeelnormal · 14/07/2010 01:37

Good grief, yet another one....

I hope you've read some other threads like this in recent days, singlediva and gained some comfort that you are not alone. But you will have also seen that when this happens, there is a script.

It goes like this.

H says I love you, but I'm not in love with you. What this means is:

I've fallen in love with someone else and that must mean that I'm not in love with you any longer and so we must part.

H says: I've been feeling this way for a long time actually and I've been in turmoil. I don't know what I want to do.

H means: I've only been feeling this way since getting involved with someone else. I want to be with them, but I don't want to look the bad guy, so I'll deny an affair when confronted. After we've split up for a while and the dust settles, I'll claim I met OW soon afterwards.

H says: I thought I'd tell you now so that the DCs can have the summer holidays to get used to the idea.

H means: I've booked a holiday with the OW/am getting a lot of grief about going on the family holiday and so I must act now.

H says: There's no point going to Relate, I won't change my mind.

H means: A trained counsellor will see right through this crock of shite because they've heard it all before, so I'm not going to let that happen.

OP, I wrote a very long post last night to a woman in very similar circumstances. Like you, she has had a denial and is in denial herself.

All I will add, because it is relevant to your length of marriage and him not having the common decency to move out and give you space is this:

It will matter to you in the long run if there is an OW, for all sorts of reasons.

Men having midlife affairs after a long marriage tend not to do so because of low satisfaction levels in the marriage. Their reasons for having affairs tend to be a complex mix of yearning for a risky adventure, feeling old and out of potential and being especially vulnerable to someone else giving them adoration, respect and desire. They very often get addicted to the feelings this engenders - and not the person giving it.

It will help your esteem and recovery once you find out the truth, because if he's having an affair, this is not about you and there was nothing you could have done to prevent it. You haven't suddenly become unloveable and it is nothing you've done or said. It is all about him.

If there is an OW in the background pulling the strings, her family situation might have a bearing on your finances. If he intends to set up home with her and help support any children she might have, he will become difficult over money.

You need to insist that he leaves and gives you space, but before he does, get digging for the truth - not from him, but via independent means. Do not believe what he is saying to you - test it out yourself.

I can imagine how awful you're feeling and I am so sorry. It's truly shit. But you need to act tough now, even if you don't feel it. Once he has had a taste of living on his own, or once the fantasy of the affair bubble is burst, he might wake up out of this indulgent middle-aged reverie. If and when he does, you hold all the cards. You might have moved on by then and realised there are actually unforeseen benefits to living without him.

If you still want to fight for your marriage, the only way you'll win is to take control and effect the appearance of starting a new life without him.

Don't beg, don't plead. Get your evidence and send him packing. Keep going to Relate on your own. Keep posting too. You'll get loads of brilliant advice and support.

KristinaM · 14/07/2010 01:43

wonderful post WWIFN

WhenwillIfeelnormal · 14/07/2010 01:44

OP, please read the thread "My heart is breaking" as I think it will help.

KristinaM · 14/07/2010 01:50

its here

Singlediva · 14/07/2010 06:59

Thank you so much for your advice.

I know I need to tell him to go. I have said we need to tell the kids in a couple of weeks, trying to time it best for them.

He first told me "I don't love you as much as I did" about 10 weeks ago after I questioned him about being distant from me. It has been 10 weeks from he'll. I have tried to get him to talk, see sense and he has said next to nothing and shown no emotion apart from sadness. Still don't understand but I am being to realise it's nothing I've done.

We have discussed how much maintenance he will pay me, I will stay in the house as we are only 5 years from paying off mortgage. I know what benefits I can claim.

We are still on speaking terms and I very much want it to stay that way.

What should we say to the kids?

OP posts:
BEAUTlFUL · 14/07/2010 08:21

I have no practical help to offer, I'm afraid. But just to say this EXACT thing happened to me a year ago. My husband of 7 years left me wih our two very young kids, saying he'd been desperately unhappy for "seven years" and got a flat round the corner. Three months later he "met" his new GF.

I went through every emotion but now, just 1 year on, I'm SO MUCH HAPPIER than I was. I've lost 2 stone, revamped my clothes, moved my cousin in, changed the house to look like it's mine, painted, written, and got tonnes of new work.

He, in contrast, looks constantly stressed, has put off moving-in with the GF, and is more annoying than ever.

There's light at the end of the tunnel. Please remember that how you feel now (which might still be numb with shock) is nothing like you'll be feeling next summer. It gets a lot better.

helicopterview · 14/07/2010 08:34

Singlediva

Listen to WWIFN.

It really is the silly season right now. I have not been on MN long enough to know, but maybe other posters will have seen that summer holidays are a seasonal crunch time.

You are not alone on MN with this horrible situation.

Keep posting.

And do hunt around, phones, emails, secret mobiles, that sort of thing, See what you can find. Don't worry that he'll think you are snooping. Too late for that.

If he told you 10 weeks ago there was a problem, chances are there's been an OW on the scene at least as long as that - probably much longer.

helicopterview · 14/07/2010 09:38

Regarding the kids, what were you thinking of saying?

Problem is at the age your kids are they'll know loads of other kids with divorced parents, and assume that's what's happening.

So maybe emphasise that you are working out what the future will look like, too early to say exactly, but each parent still going to spend time with the kids, no-one's disappearing, still a family even if not under same roof? Both of you want happiness for the kids, and are going to focus on that.

If there are family events coming up, work out how they will work, eg any birthdays? so they don't feel everything's falling apart.

WhenwillIfeelnormal · 14/07/2010 09:39

I believe in telling children the truth as much as possible and it is possible that your 14 year old will come to the same conclusion as we have, anyway. So your H needs to take some responsibility for this and tell them with you that although you have decided you can't live together as a couple any longer, you both still love them and the only thing that will change for them in the immediate future is that he will no longer be living there.

There are bound to be "why?" questions that you can't answer - and he won't want to. This is where the honesty comes in. He should say that he doesn't want to stay married to you and that because that hurts you very much, it is better if he moves out so that you can have some breathing space and get used to the new way of living. He must reassure them that his feelings for them will never change. Try to accentuate the positives, especially for the 10 year old - a new place for sleepovers etc.

It's one thing telling parents and friends and quite another telling DCs. He will get a huge reality check then - and he's avoiding it.

Now that you have told us the timescale of recent events, I am more sure than ever that there is an OW. I think you believe this too really, don't you? Have a think about what is preventing you from finding out for sure. What is it you fear?

Let's start from what your bottom line is. If it turns out to be an affair, could you forgive it, or with the right conditions, start a path to forgiveness? Or would that knowledge be such a deal-breaker for you that you could never have him back?

If you think you could not forgive, perhaps you're bargaining with yourself that if you don't know about it, you can pretend it didn't happen? So you're putting your head in the sand and your fingers in your ears and refusing to confront the obvious.

Now let's try and get into his head and since he's not telling you, speculate where he's at.

He probably wasn't emotionally ready to tell you about his changed feelings when you queried why he had been so distant lately. But when forced to give an explanation, he took the opportunity. The mistake you made then was in letting him stay. This has delayed resolution for 10 weeks.

He stayed and there are usually two reasons for this.

One is that there is an obstacle in the OW's life (like her own relationship) that means she cannot leave just yet. He doesn't want to burn his boats with you until he sees some commitment from her, so is waiting. Life is perfectly tolerable at home and he gets pretty much everything done for him. He doesn't have to pretend to be into you anymore and apart from the questions from you and the parents, life can go on much as normal. He doesn't much fancy living on his own and doing his own stuff.

The alternative is that he hasn't really decided yet whether it is worth leaving his marriage for the OW. He'd rather let the illicit relationship progress for a while to see if it's the real deal. He's aware that this might be the first flush of a romance and that this too might pass. He doesn't want to completely end things with you in case this turns out to be a passing infatuation. If it turns out to be a relationship that burns brightly and then out, he can claim that he has worked hard to regain his feelings for you and that he is "back now".

What is noticeable in both scenarios is the sheer selfishness. Nothing about the effect this is having on you, the DCs, even the OW to an extent. And you are enabling that selfishness.

Now if you take control and force the issue - and get some proof that there is indeed an OW in the mix, you will take back control of your own destiny. At the moment you are giving him all the power over your life.

So what ever happens, he must go and live with the consequences. This will kick-start some other changes for him too. In the first scenario, the OW might leave her partner or she might decide to stay with him. In the second scenario, the relationship might get stronger once they are free to be together, or it might wither for its exposure. What I can tell you is that secrecy is a hell of a fuel in illicit affairs and they tend to run on empty once they are out in the open and the people have to live with the consequences.

All the while you are colluding with this secret you are giving it more fuel. Please realise this.

What I will also tell you is that if you want to hang on to your marriage, you will take no comfort in preserving the secret of an affair. If he comes back and an affair is not acknowledged, you will never know why he decided to stay with you - and of course an undiscovered affair usually means it will happen again.

Please for your own sake, box clever here and confront your denial. Stop enabling this selfishness. Find out if there is an OW and you know what? On discovery, he might well end the affair and you two start the road to recovery. And you will be able to sidestep that awful conversation with the kids.

Lucy85 · 14/07/2010 10:01

Singlediva,

lots of good advice on here. Very sadly I too have come to understand that being unfaithful is unbelievably common. The script, in addition to WWIFN (who seems the goddess of all issues on here) goes...

withdraw from r'ship
be grumpy / miserable ... cause arguments at home
make wife feel like she has done something wrong but doesn't know what

eventually be forced into action by W or OW eg over holidays, money, Christmase etc.

So sorry to hear you too are going through thisl. You are not alone, the world has stopped turning and, eventually it will start again. Ultimately you will find happiness one way or another. One thing I could suggest which will help you is to really truly think what you want from your relationships. You may find that, actually, he wasn't quite good enough for you after all and you would be happier on your own, or, you may find the opposite.

It is scary, it is daunting, it is lonely. It is also possible and it could be a short tmer pain for long term gain, I don't know. IMO he is not a nice man.

Hugs for you today xx

abedelia · 14/07/2010 11:18

Wwifn: can't remember which other thread you were on... not looking too closely as there are so many of them on here presently that it is making me feel quite sad.

Just wanted to drop in and say glad you are doing really well. I realised you'd posted the tetchy stuff at 2am so tone not surprising! I think it is coming round to anniversary time for us both so I was thinking of you the other day... Ax

OP - sorry to gatecrash. Listen to wwifn. The speed of the withdrawing here just screams ow. In my case, H went from 'You are the love of my life' to 'I don't think I'm in love with you anymore but I'm confused and it will be okay again soon' in just 6 weeks. You can guess why, I am sure.

littlecritter · 14/07/2010 12:14

Hello from another one in the same situation except I found out about OW and kicked XP out 12 days ago. Best move I ever made. I, too, got all the other crap about not being in love any more and denials about OW. Then I found one piece of evidence and within 2 hours he was history. Listen to WWIFN. Her advice is spot on. Thinking of you, it's a difficult time.

fabatforty · 14/07/2010 12:20

Beautiful - I like your post! The grass is most definitely not always greener as your ex has discovered. The "other woman" tends to lose her allure once the day to day grind gets in the way by which time the wife may start to seem the more attractive of the options. Only trouble being, by that stage there aren't many options left - the wife has possibly moved on to pastures green and decided she is quite happy on her own or possibly with a new admirer and the "other woman" may be discovering that her paramour is not quite as attractive as he seemed when he was tantalisingly unavailable.

WhenwillIfeelnormal · 14/07/2010 12:25

"The script, in addition to WWIFN (who seems the goddess of all issues on here) goes..."

Lucy85 was this meant in an unkind way? If so, I'm a little puzzled. Difficult to read tone in some of the posts here, I know.

Thanks Abedelia. I really understand why reading these threads makes you sad. Like I said on that other thread, perhaps it's because I didn't get that speech, that these threads don't make me sad about our stuff, just angry at how disingenuous these Hs are.

Yes, 2nd anniversary coming up and everything I used to read about the second year not being date driven - and therefore easier to cope with - was true in our case. Feeling in a much happier place this year, that's for sure. Thank you again.

Malificence · 14/07/2010 13:19

There are other reasons than infidelity that might make a man very unhappy and unfulfilled in his marriage, just because there seems to be a script, doesn't make it automatic that he's having or about to have, an affair.

It's dangerous territory to tell every woman who comes on here saying her husband doesn't love her any more that her husband must be cheating, yes, it's the most likely explanation but it's not the only one.

Telling someone so categorically that it's always the reason is unhelpful, telling them that it might be the reason is far more useful.

I dread to think what I would have done had I come here for advice when my own marriage was having problems, I would have been told "he's having an affair", no doubt about it, when that wasn't the reason at all - had that seed of doubt been planted in my mind, it most likely would have spelt the end.

Just for the record, my DH works with 3 men who are unhappy in their marriages, none of them are having an affair, they simply don't love their wives any more, one hasn't had sex with his wife for 2 years, since she moved out of the the bedroom.

It's all a bit ironic seeing as I'm always being told that nothing is 100% on here, yet for some reason it's been decided that :
man no longer loves wife = man having affair.

WhenwillIfeelnormal · 14/07/2010 14:14

So are you saying Mal that if your H had said he didn't love you anymore and wanted to part, you'd accept his reassurances that there was no-one else involved and not try to rule out, what you acknowledge is the most likely explanation?

Getting information has the effect of ruling an affair out, as well as in. Information helps decision-making surely?

Anniegetyourgun · 14/07/2010 14:26

As I read it, Lucy85's post seemed very respectful of you, WWIFN (and rightly so, of course!). It sounded as though she endorsed your advice and then added to it from her own observation/experience.