Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

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

Is he still seeing her?

21 replies

whotookmycoffee · 24/11/2010 14:34

DH have been together for 7 years and married for 5 and have 2 DC's. Last year we separated because we'd grown apart for various reasons and remained on very amicable terms. So amicable in fact, we have still been sleeping with each other off and on and this led me to have hope for the future.

While we've been separated, we've still seen each other practically every day and he helps out around the house although we still said we would divorce as soon as feasible for us (mainly because I said that for it to be a fresh start, it really had to be a fresh start with the marriage behind us and work together on the future)and he would always tell me he loved me and hug me and give me kisses.

A little while ago a new woman came into his scene, we'll call her Ada and he seemed very taken with her so I stepped back a little, confused as to what it was he wanted. Up until last week, he was spending every spare moment he could with her and I admit to being jealous about it.

I asked him if he would consider giving the relationship between us another try and he said yes and would end it with Ada. Since that time though, he has lied to her about why he was ignoring her, lied to me about what was said to her (proof was in his e-mail account that he left logged in on my computer) and on the day he was supposed to break it off with her, he walked with her to her home (something he'd never done before) even though he said he had no feelings for her.

He is still receiving, and answering texts from her and gets very angry if I try to mention her, going so far as to defend her honor when I called her a derogatory name or seven Blush. He has also suddenly started witholding the affection he was showing me up until about last week.

I really want to make this work and am determined to give it my best effort, go to counselling with him if required and change some of the bad habits I'd gotten into but I can't shake the nagging feeling that he's still seeing her while seeing me.

I really don't want him to be with me if he wants her more or if he has only decided to try again because of the children and I certainly don't want to be with him if he's just playing a game with me but I don't know how to get him to open up to me about everything without causing a massive argument. He's not a very talkative person to begin with and doesn't do very well when dealing with talking about feelings and emotions to begin with.

Does anyone have any idea as to how I can do that without it all blowing up at me? Is he still seeing her do you think and just playing a game to see who he likes best?

Any advice would be appreciated right now :)

OP posts:
ConstanceFelicity · 24/11/2010 14:36

Sorry, but it doesn't sound to me as if he has the same commitment to your relationship as you do :(

whotookmycoffee · 24/11/2010 14:54

That's kind of what I think too Constance and I'm wondering if I should put a bit of distance between us to see if that would help clear his mind as to what he wanted Sad

OP posts:
PamelaFlitton · 24/11/2010 15:02

Agree with Constance. You never did put any distance between you, continued to give him sex without making him commit to the relationship. This has probably devalued the necessity for commitment in his eyes. Try cutting him off completely for a while and see what he does.

SheWillBeLoved · 24/11/2010 15:17

Well he's certainly having his cake and eating it isn't he? Cosy little family set up, with a wife who is still willing to offer up sex, as well as a new exciting bit on the side of that. Hmm

Tell him to piss off. Let this new one have him - read your post again and tell us that he sounds like something worth hanging on to? You don't need him.

IfGraceAsks · 24/11/2010 15:38

Yes. He is. You really need to get your focus back on yourself & DCs - stop thinking of yourself as 'half of' something and start living a complete life, by yourself.

I think you'll be better off with some formal DC contact arrangements, no dropping by and no sex. It'll feel weird, but not half as weird as you must be feeling now.

AnyFucker · 24/11/2010 16:01

Yes, he is still seeing her

whotookmycoffee · 24/11/2010 16:43

Thankyou for all your replies, I really appreciate them :)

I guess I already knew he was still seeing her but I was hoping that maybe I was reading too much into the little things that were causing that nagging feeling and that he did want to try again.

I'll talk to him tonight and tell him that I can't be left hanging just in case it doesn't work out with the new woman and that for now, contact between us has to stop. I'm sorry IfGraceAsks but I just can't contemplate formal arrangements right now, not when it's been so amicable up to this point. I might in future but right now I just want to curl up and cry somewhere in a corner :(

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 24/11/2010 16:44
Sad
dittany · 24/11/2010 16:52

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ChickensHaveNoMercyForTurkeys · 24/11/2010 16:53

Sorry whotookmycoffee :( Take care of yourself x

whotookmycoffee · 24/11/2010 17:00

Dittany - He didn't always used to be this way. He used to be a good dad and while he wasn't always brilliant as a husband, I still loved him, even when it got to the point where I asked him to leave the family home. I never really wanted to go the divorce route in the first place but I couldn't see any other option when he wouldn't talk to me about anything. That's partly why I was still sleeping with him and also the reason why I said that this marriage had to end and we had to start from the ground up to make it work properly. A clean slate so to speak.

ChickensHaveNoMercyForTurkeys I have to say, your username made me giggle and I need it right now and thankyou :)

OP posts:
LadyLapsang · 24/11/2010 17:49

Sounds like you never really were seperated in the first place. If things were that amicable do you really need to end your marriage? If you do, start to put things on a more formal basis. If you may salvage your marriage then I would suggest both of you giving up sexual relationships with other peope, counselling and then making a decision.

whotookmycoffee · 24/11/2010 18:00

Thankyou for your reply LadyLapsang. I do appreciate what you're saying and I did think that this relationship could work if he'd given it a fair chance. I don't know where you got the idea that I had, had a sexual relationship with someone else though. The only person I've slept with in 7 years is DH Confused.

I can't however say the same for him. I would love for him to go to counselling with me but I don't know that he would. I'm already on a waiting list to see and NHS counsellor for unresolved anger issues from my past so I'm not worried about going alone but if he would see one too, maybe it would help him see what he's doing isn't giving anyone a fair chance.

I know it seems silly but I'm actually starting to feel a little sorry for the other woman. She's being played as much as I am and though I am still jealous about her involvement with DH, I know that it takes two to tango and he's led her down the garden path as much as me.

As I said before, I'm going to talk to him tonight and tell him that we have to break contact for a while and then, if he decides that he really does want to try again with me, I'll ask him to go to counselling with me and see where that takes us.

OP posts:
dittany · 24/11/2010 18:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

WhenwillIfeelnormal · 24/11/2010 19:07

Have a really good think about how much his new relationship induced a suggestion to try again, from you. It sounds as though you were both happy with the status quo of a co-dependant but separated partnership until that is, Ada came on the scene.

Now from her point of view, she has been told that he is separated from you and since you are living apart, she will have been reassured that all is as it seems. I'm pretty sure he won't have told her that since he separated from his wife, he continued to have sex with her.

As far as I can see, she has done nothing to merit you calling her names at all. It is therefore not silly at all that you feel sorry for your fellow woman. It occurs that she has been used to bring this situation to a head, one way or another - and possibly by both of you. That's not decent behaviour to a woman who has done neither of you any harm.

It sounds as though he is too cowardly to end the relationship with her and has taken to ignoring her instead, but then realising that he isn't quite ready to burn his boats with her, so reignites things. He is being horribly unfair to her.

Try if you can to separate your understandable feelings of jealousy and the loss of this amicable "friends with benefits" relationship, from your desire to return to an exclusive, living-together marriage. Would you want that as much if Ada hadn't entered the picture? Is there anything going on that is best expressed as "I don't want him, but I don't want anyone else to have him either."?

If you are convinced that you want to try again and learn from the mistakes of your past relationship, then insist that he decides what he wants and treats Ada with courtesy and dignity. It also sounds like relationship therapy would be essential.

AnyFucker · 24/11/2010 19:23

I would dump him purely because of the way he has treated "Ada"

The way he has treated you, I dunno really.

You seem to have had your eyes open all the way through this, so although I think you deserve sympathy that you are upset, I think you have been complicit to a certain extent.

You just didn't expect him to meet anyone else, and for it to get serious, did you ?

Eurostar · 24/11/2010 22:01

With WWIFN on this one. Plus, I feel sorry for Ada too and I think I would contact her and tell her what's what. OK, she'll probably think you're the nutter ex wife making it all up given she'll have been fed a lot of crap by your H, but at least it will bring things to a head.

You do sound pretty confused. You wanted to divorce him while you were still seeing him every day and sleeping with him for some sort of symbolic fresh start? Hopefully the counsellor will help you work through this.

Sorry to say this while you are down but it's possible he's spinning you lines because he wants out but is scared to lose such easy access to his DC.

IfGraceAsks · 24/11/2010 22:16

... and, possibly, being all "respectful" of Ada since he's got a willing supply of sex anyway.

gingerwig · 25/11/2010 00:15

why were you derogatory about Ada?

LadyLapsang · 26/11/2010 13:33

I still can't get my head round why he moved out and you were going to get divorced originally? You'd grown apart, yet you still got on, saw each other nearly every day and still had a sexual relationship. Doesn't sound like your marriage had irretrievably broken down at that point.

Before Ada became involved, who instigated the original split?

IfGraceAsks · 26/11/2010 14:12

It's not that unusual, LL. Habit accounts for many irrational choices, especially in relationships. I'm interested in hearing OP's take on it, too, but disagree that getting along & having sex amounts to a 'marriage'. It's far easier to get along with someone when you haven't got to share a life with them ... and extremely easy to play nice when you're secretly hoping to regain control of the relationship.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page