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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's affair - I'm completely broken, please help

445 replies

Janeysbroken · 18/03/2013 20:16

I found out last week that my DH of 22 years has been having an affair. It was with a woman he met online who is also married and ten years younger than me. I found out when her husband knocked on our door at midnight and told me, in a rage. Our 20 year old son heard everything and is inconsolable. When the husband had gone my DH told me he'd already finished the affair a few weeks earlier, he was drunk and it meant nothing. I was shocked and angry and unbelievably sad but he works away a lot and it's something I'd always feared. He swore it was the first time he'd been unfaithful in the 24 years we've been together.

The next morning I was burning up with anger and asked him to leave. I went out. He then phones me to tell me the OW has turned up at our house wanting to apologise and is demanding to speak to me. I was so livid I went home and grabbed his phone and called her. I told her he wasn't leaving, neither was I and he was drunk and she meant nothing to him. What followed has broken me.

She was obviously enraged by this. And told me the truth. He loved her, he hasn't finished it, had been meeting at hotels for four months, he said she was love of his life. Thousands and thousands of FB messages. To cut a long story short me and DH ended up driving down to their house that night as both me and OW needed answers from DH.

We all talked for almost two hours. He admitted he loved her, had told her she was love of his life, best friend and soulmate. He'd told her that morning that he loved her but couldn't leave because he has nowhere to go. He'd bought her presents. Talked to her almost constantly on FB for months. Said he was unhappy, I'm boring, our sex life is rubbish. But because i now knew he told her it had to stop and he's staying with me. She was crying and devastated. He'd told her we were just friends now and he hasn't felt anything more than friendship for me for over a decade. He was clearly besotted with her. And she with him.

I was having panic attacks. Can't eat. Want to kill her, him, myself. She showed me a FB message where he called me a boring twat. I thought we'd had a lovely day that day - we'd even had sex. He took her to a hotel the day after.

She refused to stop contacting him. Threatening to tell our 19 year old daughter (who still doesn't know) and his boss, which would get him sacked as he took her to hotels on fake business trips on expenses. I made it clear he couldn't ever speak to her again and was feeling physically like I might die. She then texts to say she's pregnant. Her husband phoned going mad as he says it's impossible it's his, it's my DH's.

My DH is, to his credit refusing to speak to her and has told her to have an abortion and never contact us again. Her husband phoned pleading for him to speak to her as she's slashed all her arms with a razor over the guilt of having to face an abortion. But I've told him I'll kill myself if he speaks to her again. Our son hates him. Our life is shattered and I'm destroyed.

I can't bear to think he loved her so much. It was plainly obvious. He claims not to now and I know he isn't in contact with her. Could he really have fallen out of love with her in the space of 24 hours? They'd just come back from a hotel when her husband found out and came to our house. I don't know what to do or think. I'm grieving and love him. I'm 48 and don't work or drive. I have nothing without him. He's my life. Please, please help me.

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 18/03/2013 23:00

he has ruined his kid's lives too

they will never see him in the same light again

and why would they ?

DragonMamma · 18/03/2013 23:02

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

He's left your marriage. You. He just hasn't had the decency to piss off yet because, poor him, this wasn't part of The Plan.

He's only treating her this way because he's panicked. If he really loved you and your family he would have stopped way before now. Rut or not - you didn't go out and start shagging a younger model, all the while running your husband in to the ground and saying what a boring twat he is.

You need to get angry and sharpish. Fooling yourself will only hurt you again in the long run - he'll make all the right noises now but he's gone. It's just a matter of time before he actually leaves. Don't set yourself up for another fall. Please.

Janeysbroken · 18/03/2013 23:04

I know I sound like a doormat. But he's actually done everything I've asked since I found out. I've sat with him as he's replied to every text/email/phone call. He's had no other chance to be in contact. He's told her not to contact him again. He refused to speak to her about the pregnancy and explained about my panic attacks and how he thinks they are going to kill me, how it will kill me if he sees her again. So he is doing all he can because he loves me not her.

I just can't come to terms with the fact he did love her. I'm sorry. I'm going on now. Thank you everyone. It means such a lot. And to be able to talk about this.

OP posts:
pigsDOfly · 18/03/2013 23:05

Read what you've just written Janey. 'Why would he love her after what she said to him'. Yet you are willing to hang onto him after everything he put you and your DCs through.

Open your eyes. He's taken so much of your self worth that you think this sort of treatment is all you deserve. He's no prize. Believe what everyone is telling you.

noddyholder · 18/03/2013 23:06

Regardless of how this pans out you do need to look at your life ad how dependant you are on him for your view of yourself.

Teahouse · 18/03/2013 23:06

Learn to drive and get a car, make this part of the divorce settlement. Move on. You and this ex-OW are better off without him.

You can make a new life for yourself, at 48 you have a whole lot of time and adventures ahead of you. It won't be easy but you can do things for you and not have to worry about this selfish lowlife.

Good luck, be strong, see a solicitor

Skyebluesapphire · 18/03/2013 23:07

OK. so lets see what happens shall we. You have got support on here. Please do not rush into anything. Please do not sleep with him.

Please keep posting.

AnyFucker · 18/03/2013 23:09

Janey, I am the same age as you

I consider my life not even half over. You don't need a man to hold you up. None of us do. He is the one going to kill you (metaphorically)

JacqueslePeacock · 18/03/2013 23:09

Even if you think you can't live without him, just ask him to leave for a short time. You need some thinking space, and he needs to realise fully the consequences of what he's done. Don't make decisions in the heat of the moment and in all the shock. Have some time to yourself to think things through and see how you feel when the initial shock has subsided. It's too raw now. If nothing else, kicking him out for a week or so will make him realise everything he has jeopardised by acting like such a twat.

AnyFucker · 18/03/2013 23:11

Janey, you are still here, still listening. That is to your credit. There is a kernel of strength inside you, that you are not even aware of.

A lesser woman would have run screaming from this thread, or reacted with angry recriminations at the absolute battering your H has received here. I have seen it happen lots.

Stick around and keep talking it out. Keep listening. Even if we don't agree with your course of action, there is much support for you here.

Janeysbroken · 18/03/2013 23:12

If there's even the slightest chance he'll go back to her or still loves her then I will make him leave. I know I can't live like that.

I guess what I'm asking is for honest opinions. No matter how much it hurts. Even after all that's happened, all she's now said to him, the fact he's heartbroken about our kids, he's told her he no longer loves her and it's finished - is it possible he still does love her?

OP posts:
DragonMamma · 18/03/2013 23:12

You want to be with a man that strings 2 women along, gets one pregnant then cuts her off with instructions to have an abortion.

What happens if she doesn't?

Have you thought that maybe he's doing all these things you ask because you've been talking about it killing you/you'd die? And maybe he's just trying to absolve himself of any more guilt in the short term? I bet he's going to 'support you' through this until he thinks your stronger and then piss off with the still pregnant OW.

rootypig · 18/03/2013 23:12

My DH is, to his credit refusing to speak to her and has told her to have an abortion and never contact us again.

To his credit? I actually feel sorry for OW now. Am pro choice but that sentence made me terribly sad.

LTB, obviously. and don't fall into the classic trap of letting your entirely understandable rage and hurt settle on her, when it's HE who has betrayed you, and is now behaving abominably to her too.

JessicaG1985 · 18/03/2013 23:13

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bringbacksideburns · 18/03/2013 23:13

'He refused to speak to her about the pregnancy ' - i think that is pretty disgusting actually.

I hope you make the right decision OP. Remember, he's going through all the motions now whilst you sit at his side. The truth is that he was probably hoping you would never find out and he could continue seeing her on the side. Hope you realise you are worth more than all this.

AnyFucker · 18/03/2013 23:15

Janey...did he even say to the OW that he is staying with you because he loves you or can't live without you ?

Look at the language he is using. He is hiding behind you. He is still denigrating you to her, by citing your mental health as a reason to dump her. How demeaning for you.

he should be staying because he cannot contemplate the alternative

not so his son won't hate him (I am afraid that horse has well and truly bolted) and certainly not out of pity for you

DragonMamma · 18/03/2013 23:15

Of course he still loves her, you don't just switch that off in a couple of days. You may feel guilty at the hurt it's caused but it's still there. She's pregnant with his kid fgs, you can't just switch off.

It's all just damage limitation until he can get his shit together.

Skyebluesapphire · 18/03/2013 23:17

Janey - you remind me of me - especially with AF's comment about you being strong and still being here. I kept posting, kept ignoring the advice, making excuses for XH, trying desperately to think that everything would be ok.

Everybody told me what would happen and said that they would still be here when it all went wrong. and it did. and they were. and not one person here said "I told you so".

Please dont be scared off by advise that you dont want to hear, please keep posting

DragonMamma · 18/03/2013 23:18

I agree with AF.

When my mum left my father all he banged on about was 'who is going to want me now, who am I going to grow old with?' He never once mentioned losing the supoosed love of his life, couldn't contemplate not seeing her every day or seeing his days out with her.

Says it all really.

AnyFucker · 18/03/2013 23:19

skye, I have to admit I was thinking of how you were at the beginning of your own nightmare journey Smile

I told you that you were stronger, much stronger than him. And so it was.

Wonderland121 · 18/03/2013 23:19

Op he is telling you what you want to hear, I very much doubt someone who said & done all that he did can just move on from that within hours, people even in relationships say awful things sometimes to each other & they still move on.

He really is pulling out all the tricks.

I think you should ask him to leave and have some time to think.

What about the next time he is at work or away on a business trip? Will you be sitting there wondering if he is shagging someone else or even back in contact with this OW?

Will you spend your life checking his phone/bills/emails?

Not a life is it? He has betrayed you & your children & thinks because he has said sorry & cut contact with the OW everything will now be just fine.

You need to get tuff or he is going to walk all over you.

AnyFucker · 18/03/2013 23:20

Oops, that was very nearly a "told you so" ... Blush

Wonderland121 · 18/03/2013 23:21

What happens if she goes on to have there baby?

Bluekitty · 18/03/2013 23:23

Janey,

I have walked this same path you are on. First thing, I know you won't accept it now or believe it. But time heals you. My heart goes out to you and your son.
I had all the same pains, and emotions you are feeling. You have to be strong though. If you feel you can't for yourself, do it for your son. Draw your strength from somewhere.

This is NOT your fault. Nothing you did or did not do gave him the right to do what he did ...full stop.

I would not have spoken to the other woman, definitely would not now. Nothing she is saying to you will help you or matter in the end. Whether you stay with you husband or leave him. She will only inflict pain on you from this point on, and most likely on purpose. I would cut all contact with her and her husband.

It's not anyone place to say whether you stay or leave your husband, that is your choice.
Ask yourself, if this was your mother, son, or someone you cared about what would your advice be to them.
This hurts now.. but wounds, even the deepest do heal.

Janeysbroken · 18/03/2013 23:28

I just don't know where my head is at now. I wouldn't let him go out of the house to speak to her privately. That's when she texted to say she was pregnant. So then he went outside to phone her but I ran after him and heard him saying he couldn't support her and she had to have an abortion. My DS grabbed the phone off DH and called her a fucking cunt and said his dad hated her. I was just screaming in shock. She hung up. She then texted back later to say sorry, she loved him and would arrange an abortion as she had no support. DH texted back 'Thank you. Goodbye'.

We haven't heard from her in a week now. When she sent the email saying he was spineless liar etc. Her husband called begging my DH to speak to her as she was in a bad way. Though he's left her. I feel like she's just tried to twist the knife and is obsessed with DH.

OP posts: