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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

Secret e-mail address and OW

111 replies

Louise2Louise · 08/12/2010 21:05

I really need some perspective please. Some 18 months ago I caught my DH sending an amorous text to OW. He denied and minimised before admitting to an inappropriate relationship with his colleague. I feared worse. He refused to discuss it other than to say he would end it. He deleted the messages he had posted on the address box he had created for her under an alias. He refused to give me any passwords but I discovered the password and adopted the address when he thought he had closed it down. Both he and she used aliases. He promised to close down the 7 or so e-mail addresses he had and keep only 2, one for work and one for personal. I discovered the passwords for both. He had refused to give them. I was dignified about my discovery but lost some 6 months of my life in grief. He appeared to get closer to me. I still checked his e-mails from time to time as he had told me how easily he had deceived his former wife because he understood computers and had a secret phone. His first marriage ended as a result of one of his girlfriends threatening to inform his wife. I read on MN that bad behaviour such as his often reoccurs after 6 months and so it was. I discovered compromising e-mails to a different colleague some six months after the original discovery. He denied anything other than flirtation. This time I went balistic. I offered him a divorce. He recoiled as he says he lost everything in his previous divorce. He admitted he was wrong and that his behaviour would cease. Last week whilst I was checking his e-mails a secret address list appeared showing a previously not known e-mail address for him. I wrote it down but failed to note the names on the address list which I have never seen before. He has an address list other than this. In order to check whether the e-mail address was an old one closed down like he had promised, I e-mailed it a message" Hello xxx'. I expected it to bounce back as unavailable. just in case it did not, I emailed it from the e-mail address of the OW, to which only I have access. It didn't bounce back. H works away often and he phoned me eventually asking me details about my whereabouts at the time of the message, and whether I had found any thing on the net. I was vague, but later thought it must relate to my e-mail. Still no reply 2 days later on the e-mail address of the OW. Late last night I googled the alias of the OW and up came a Twitter page listing contact between her and my DH. There had been contact her to him about one year ago, he had replied. DH had had depression at the time. Then again about 6 weeks ago, and then my HelloXXx message and his reply some minutes later saying Wonderful to receive your e-mail, but showing only the first few words of those e-mails. I am very upset about the existence of the secret e-mail address, and about him replying to her e-mails. Am I overreacting?
I feel dirty and ashamed that I snooped.

OP posts:
BringOnTheGoat · 08/12/2010 21:15

Absolutely not. I couldn't live like this. Do you think he cheats on you physically as well as emotionally?

SantasENormaSnob · 08/12/2010 21:24

This man will never change IMO

spidookly · 08/12/2010 21:24

You married a man you knew was an unashamed cheat and liar.

Why did you think he'd change?

He's not monogamous. He never has been.

He's already told you that the only reason for not divorcing you is financial.

CatPower · 08/12/2010 21:32

Don't feel dirty or ashamed about snooping. From the sound of it you had more than enough reason to do so.

What do you want from this relationship? Are you happy to try again and wait to see if he can restrain himself from emailing other women? Only you know what you want, but were I in your shoes I wouldn't be giving him another chance to play happy families for six months, then find another girl to get his cyber kicks with.

ValiumSingleton · 08/12/2010 21:36

omg, is this your husband?? he just doesn't get his vows at all does he?? I would leave him to his seven email addresses and his aliases and let him get on with his furtive little activities while you get on with forgetting him.

Sorry. But no way are you going to be happier with this 'character. Tough to face it,but this man is NOT worth it.

He obviously didn't reckon on you being quite computer/phone savvy.

ValiumSingleton · 08/12/2010 21:38

He won't divorce you out of financial interests????? well fuck that. YOU divorce him. He doesn't get to decide that there will be no divorce!

Keep a record of the 7 aliases. What a knob.

Scruffyhound · 08/12/2010 21:42

My EX husband liked to go onto porn sites and I swear he spoke to women as well at some point. He always made excuses and was full of shit about a lot of stuff. Im glad to be rid and dont you think you deserve a life where someone thinks your sexy and wants you and you feel happy. I think if your still checking e mails and other stuff the trust is gone. You should not have to do this all the time you should be able to live your life and feel loved by someone. This man sounds like a prat. Your NOT in the wrong here he is. And from getting divorced my self and speaking to most men and men that have got divorced they hate having to pay out so make sure if you do this you get a good settlement. He sounds like a knob you need and know you should have better. Men hate giving money away. So if you do this think how much he has hurt you and make sure your settlement reflects this! Good Luck Smile

LittleMissHoHoHoFit · 08/12/2010 22:43

You gave him other chances.

He blew them.

Enough is enough.

Actions not words

So sorry.

Louise2Louise · 08/12/2010 23:27

`I see that I have been stupid and that he really is not going to change. I really believed that his wife was unhinged and that they had no sex and were only together for the children. Before MN who would have know they all say that. I was shocked at the lengths he went to to deceive her, but he told me that I was special. Sadly I still love him, and really want this to work. I see now that I have no "weapons" left. If I admit what I know, and don't divorce, he knows I can do nothing. Strangely, he is very kind and generous in all other ways. I can't imagine life without him.
I feel sh-t. I feel outmanoeuvred and humiliated. I am shaking. Thank you for all your posts, it has made me think.

OP posts:
booyhohoho · 08/12/2010 23:31

so sorry for you OP, but i agree with otehrs he wont cahnge. thsi is who he is. he has a lot of history of this. he has been getting away with it and has no reason to change. i couldn't live like this. do you think you can or will you leave?

Louise2Louise · 08/12/2010 23:36

boohohoho, I am so distressed I just don't know. I don't know what to do.

OP posts:
booyhohoho · 08/12/2010 23:52

what do you want to do? right now if you had to decide right now, knowing all you know, what would you do?

Louise2Louise · 08/12/2010 23:58

Bringon the Goat, He hotly denies physical contact, which is probably true now as he has some problems in that direction

Right now I would strangle him boohohoho, talking would be useless as I cannot believe what he says.

OP posts:
booyhohoho · 09/12/2010 00:03

ok two questions

1)do you, hand on heart, think he will ever stop cheating?
2) can you, hand on heart, say you would be happy to stay if you know he wont?

booyhohoho · 09/12/2010 00:04

the first question should be cheating AND lying.

robberbutton · 09/12/2010 00:20

Hi Louise, I'm so sorry you're in this position :(

But did you say in your OP that his marriage ended because "one" of his girlfriends dobbed him in??? And then there is a whole list of OWs, for the ex and you :(

Please be strong. Please know you don't need him, you deserve someone who respects you and tells you the truth, who thinks of you and whose love for you helps them exercise self-control.

Good luck x

Louise2Louise · 09/12/2010 00:25

No, I am certain that he will always lie. He denies that his post discovery communications with other women are anything other than friendly and flirtatious. Most of the communications on Twitter ( the texts of which I cannot access) are instigated by her not him. But if that is so why does he need to be secretive? There may be other communications such as phone calls of which I am not aware. Clearly his behaviour regarding women is unacceptable and makes me very sad. In most other ways he treats me very well. He shops, cooks, cleans the kitchen, arranges fun weekends, encourages my friendships and hobbies, praises me, encourages me to buy anything I want within reason.

OP posts:
booyhohoho · 09/12/2010 00:28

tbh when i read the part about him refusingto give you passwords, i knew straight away he had no intention of it stopping.

i think you need to work out whether you can live with this. if you know he will always lie, you know tehre will always be a chance he is lying about cheating too. you will torture yourself wondering if he is.

melezka · 09/12/2010 00:28

Given that you feel dirty and ashamed that you snooped -
can you foresee a time when you will not feel it necessary - or even wise - to snoop?

Louise2Louise · 09/12/2010 00:36

He started leaving his i pad around in full view. His e-mails can be accessed without a password. That made me think that possibly he had another e-mail address and so it turned out. But he is secretive about many things. For example, I have never met his grown up children who did not know about me until recently. I have been around for 14 years, married for 6.

At the moment his lack of capacity would probably prevent his from physical infidelity. He would not want any woman to know about that. But he is hoping to get help for it.

OP posts:
Louise2Louise · 09/12/2010 00:39

melezka, sometimes I think should I just let him get on with it, and that I should just enjoy my own life. I hate snooping. I am not a policeman or his mother checking up on a naughty boy. Besides, it is not a game of hide (the e-mails) and seek. I feel so worn down by it, I just want to move past it.

OP posts:
booyhohoho · 09/12/2010 00:40

his lack of capacity doesn't prevent him from lying to you. sorry but just because he physically can't at the minute doesn't mean he wont again, and it doesn't mean he doesn't want to. he shouldn't need to be incapacitated to prevent him from cheating.

melezka · 09/12/2010 00:42

Ah.

Do you think there is something about the lack of capacity that makes him secretive - or accretive - I mean is he collecting emotional back up positions (I don't mean to refer to women as positions) in case he feels inadequate physically?

It doesn't make anything right or ok. Just sometimes understanding something can help with a decision over what to do about it.

booyhohoho · 09/12/2010 00:42

"He shops, cooks, cleans the kitchen, arranges fun weekends, encourages my friendships and hobbies, praises me, encourages me to buy anything I want within reason."

you know you can do all that for yourself without having to live with a lying cheat? you don't have to be with him to enjoy all those things. you don't have to be with anyone.

melezka · 09/12/2010 00:46

I know. At some point it becomes less about what he has or hasn't done and more about what you feel you can live with - or not - in your own behaviour. (Which stems from the situation he has put you in).