Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

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

Married but not together?

114 replies

ReallyQuiteConfused · 30/09/2014 12:06

Hiya, I've name changed for this but a regular poster.

To get to the long and short of it me and my dp have been together three years now (yesterday was our anniversary actually). Normally a loving but strange relationship.

Not to drip feed, he was married and has a ds, but hasn't been with his ex in four years however they still live together, he says he can't bear to be away from his son and that his ex has stopped contact when he did move out after we first got together. I've never met his ds though he has obviously met my dc. He's also never spent the night (which we have argued about a lot).

Thing is I trust him, or did, for a long time. He saved me from an extremely abusive relationship, he's taken care of me and my dc, he's been there when my whole world has fallen apart and generally just been a normal loving partner if you put aside the fact that he doesn't include me in his life. I've never met his family, friends and we never go out as a couple (tbf I don't have any child care and we've both been having money problems until recently).

But a conversation we had yesterday has suddenly turned everything upside down and I'm beginning to seriously question if he is who he says he is at all, and if I'm just his bit on the side.

I asked him about children, said that I was worried my contraception had failed cause I was feeling out of sorts and a bit sick recently. His reply was "I don't want it, I'm not having some kid come looking for me in 18 years and ruining my relationship with my son." I asked him what he meant since he said he wasn't going to be living with her forever, only while his son was still young and until they got their finances sorted out, which would be about now anyway. He wouldn't give me a straight answer, we had a massive argument about if he was still with his ex or not and he kept telling me he wasn't, that I was paranoid and walked out.

But I'm not so certain anymore. He said his wife still wears her wedding rings when they go somewhere together and meet family to stop awkward questions, so far as his family and hers are concerned they're still together (though I didn't know that til last night.)

I've been taken for a mug haven't I? If I'd known he was still in a relationship and not getting divorced like he told me I never would have gotten with him, I would never want to be a home wrecker nor put another woman through the pain of that.

I just don't know what to do. On one hand I want to believe him so badly, but on the other I feel like I shouldn't, because in all my naivety I feel an overwhelming guilt that I may have been allowing another woman's partner to cheat on her with me. And being brutally honest, not knowing shouldn't be an excuse, I sshouldn't have been so stupid or ignorant.

But could he be telling the truth? Maybe he really is separated from her? Or am I just the world biggest idiot who fell for the man who saved me and ignored the fact that he may still be in a relationship?

What do I do?

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 30/09/2014 16:51

I can see that, and tbh,, you have done the right thing in bringing this to a head and taking control of the situation.

kaykayblue · 30/09/2014 16:53

RQC - just ignore the posts from people trying to antagonise you for no reason. Truly their lives must be very empty.

It's very easy for certain people to look from the outside and condemn you as being deliberately naive, but generally it's the obnoxious, judgemental ones who tend to do so.

Pregnancy test to one side, if you have the coil, then your symptoms could be a consequence of that rather than pregnancy. Have you made an appointment to see your dr?

AcrossthePond55 · 30/09/2014 16:53

Ouch! I don't think I'd want to find out my 'D'H had been unfaithful via FB! I understand that she should know she's married to a cheating sack of shite, but not sure that was the best way to do it! But what's done is done. Just be prepared for the fallout. The first thing she will do is show him what you have said, which he will deny and/or rationalize to her. If he wouldn't leave her for you when she was in ignorance, the only way he will do it now she does know is because he has nowhere else to go. Is that really the way you want him? As the 'fallback girl'? IMO, your relationship with him is now over, but that's a good thing. No one needs a lying, deceptive prick in their lives.

Take the test, find out if you are pregnant or not. Remember you do have options. If your belief system allows for it, consider all of them. But if you do decide to have and keep this baby, accept that you will most probably be doing it on your own.

kaykayblue · 30/09/2014 16:56

RQC - I just wanted to add something important.

Don't engage with any contact with this man for a good few weeks. Don't let him try and guilt trip you for saying something to his wife. EVEN IF the situation is as he says it is, it is not your responsibility to hide his secrets. His behaviour has been fucking dodgy at best, and you are absolutely entitled to want to confirm that you aren't being lied to.

If he tries to guilt trip you by saying his wife is now kicking him out and won't let him see his child - that's not your fault. That's the natural consequence of his own behaviour.

Well done on the message by the way. You worded it very well, and it must have been nerve wracking.

ReallyQuiteConfused · 30/09/2014 16:59

Got an appointment on Friday this week kaykay, doctors have been closed over the sept weekend here so today was the first time I could make one since finding out I couldn't feel the strings. I've not really had any symptoms from having the coil apart from cramping before so hopefully it is just side effects.

Acrossthepond, if he's been with her all along I don't want to be with him at all, not even if she leaves him. I could never forgive him for it, or myself either.

OP posts:
pinkfrocks · 30/09/2014 17:00

I had no intention of ever contacting her until the women on here said it would be wrong not to.

So you just do what other people tell you?

Pity that didn't apply to having nothing to do with married men who say they are not really married but just live with their family Confused

This woman ( me) would have said do not tell her. The messenger always gets shot in these situations. Why should she believe you anyway? He's a prize liar and will probably try to lie his way out of it.

I am not sure I believe any of this cloak and daggers stuff about you having no inkling he was sleeping with his wife-or her not suspecting anything.

How could it have been morally right to have a relationship anyway with a man still living in the family home with a child?

You need to be honest with yourself and stop lashing out at other people who point these things out.

ReallyQuiteConfused · 30/09/2014 17:02

He's been messaging me today while at work, normally we speak quite a lot through text and calls, but atm I've not responded. I'm not really sure what to say to him, I'm not really sure I want to talk to him until I know what the truth is. And if it turns out he's still with her I never will talk to him again, I was being serious when I told her if they're still together I would cut all contact

OP posts:
pinkfrocks · 30/09/2014 17:02

What do you mean 'If he's been with her'?

Is this 'with her' a euphemism for having sex with her? Because otherwise it's clear he was 'with her'- he was living in the same house for all those years.

ReallyQuiteConfused · 30/09/2014 17:05

With her - in a relationship and not in the middle of getting divorced like he told me.

OP posts:
Meerka · 30/09/2014 17:07

fgs pinkfrocks back off. What a mean post. You're speaking as if she deliberately tried to cause this mess. What possible evidence have you got that she tried to get revenge?

Wow, is it a crime to be naive? Were you born knowing everything?

NorklessNora · 30/09/2014 17:07

Christ you poor thing, I do think you have been terribly naïve but so can we all be at times. I shall keep my fingers crossed for you that you are not pregnant.

pinkfrocks · 30/09/2014 17:12

sorry but it was naive. A divorce doesn't take 3 years and the fact he never stayed over should have rung alarm bells. I'm sorry and I know it's a horrible situation you are now in, but I still think- rightly or wrongly- that you perhaps ignored a lot of things because it suited you to.

I'll back off and say no more, but just a bit surprised that so many people think the blame is so one-sided.

Titsalinabumsquash · 30/09/2014 17:14

Oh dear OP, I know how easily you can make yourself believe someone is one of the good guys when everything else suggests otherwise.

I don't think you've done a bad thing contacting his wife, she'll either read it and ditch him if they're together or he'll baffle her with the same lies he's told you.

Even if what he says is true, surely this isn't a relationship you want to be in?!

He's basically said if you're pregnant he's off, what sort of boyfriend does that? Even if who doesn't want another child, that isn't the way you deal with it.
As for his wife, if she is as ex as he says then he needs to stand up to her and gain access to his child through the appropriate channels.

I think you need to step right away from this man and start focusing on you and your children without him in your life.

I hope everything works out for you. Thanks

WannaBe · 30/09/2014 17:32

Op, I lived in the family home for nine months after me and my ex split (in separate bedrooms) until I was able to move out, so a situation can happen where someone does stay in the family home for a time...

But whether he actually is still in a marriage with his ex or not, you need to ask yourself wy it is you were content to stay in a relationship with someone for three years who was never prepared to introduce you to his friends or family or even spend the night with you.what the truth is or isn’t, purely on the basis you deserve better.

Now that you’ve made contact with his wife you can at least begin to find out the truth, but in reality, even if what he said was true, you deserve better than to be someone’s woman in waiting. You need to cut all contact with this man regardless of

WannaBe · 30/09/2014 17:34

oops I'll rephrase that Blush

Op, I lived in the family home for nine months after me and my ex split (in separate bedrooms) until I was able to move out, so a situation can happen where someone does stay in the family home for a time...

But whether he actually is still in a marriage with his ex or not, you need to ask yourself wy it is you were content to stay in a relationship with someone for three years who was never prepared to introduce you to his friends or family or even spend the night with you.

Now that you’ve made contact with his wife you can at least begin to find out the truth, but in reality, even if what he said was true, you deserve better than to be someone’s woman in waiting. You need to cut all contact with this man regardless of what the truth is or isn’t, purely on the basis you deserve better.

ReallyQuiteConfused · 30/09/2014 18:00

This is her reply -

Thanks for letting me kno. Yes we r still together im surprised he told u about me he didnt tell the last 2. (Name removed for obvious reasons).

I threw up. Idk what to reply to her, idk if I should reply to her, idk how he could do that to her, or to me or any other woman. He's a fucking bastard. I feel so sick and disgusted.

OP posts:
whitsernam · 30/09/2014 18:05

I don't know that you need to reply to her at all.... or to him, for that matter. Sick and disgusted sounds like a totally normal reaction.

Be kind to yourself. Please get in to the Dr. and just take mini steps from there. Talk to people in real life; you need support, but you do not need to talk to either him or her. You have to be your priority now.

He is definitely a fing waste of oxygen.

ReallyQuiteConfused · 30/09/2014 18:09

How could he do that? To either of us? And how could she be so calm about it? I thought she'd call me every name under the sun and more besides, it's what I want to do to him right now. I think I need to go offline, I don't feel so great right about now, the last thing mn needs is me having a full scale meltdown on here. Thanks for the advice n support

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 30/09/2014 18:16

I am really sorry, but at least now you know. if you had asked him, he would have just told you more lies. What a kick in the teeth.

You won't understand this now, but some time in the future you will realise you did well to take control of this situation in such a decisive manner.

Poor you, and poor her.

Now, anger where it belongs. HIM

AnyFucker · 30/09/2014 18:18

Just before you go, my advice would be to make no further contact with either of them

Cold turkey, as of now.

They obvioulsy have some fucked-up dynamic going on and you need no part of it.

Offload the whole fucking sorry mess, chalk it up to miserable experience, and concentrate on yourself and your kids now.

Take care xxx

AcrossthePond55 · 30/09/2014 18:19

No reply is necessary. You informed her that he is a cheat, she informed you exactly what kind of a cheat he is! The worst kind! She also informed you in a roundabout way (the other two!!??!!) that she, for whatever reason, has decided to tolerate his behaviour. Thank God you are not that foolish!!

Now, concentrate on yourself. If he tries to contact you (but I'm betting he won't), do not respond. Delete him from your phone, your email, your life. If you have anything of his in your home, get rid of it. Frankly, I'd toss it on a rubbish heap but if you don't want to do that put it in a bin bag, text him to pick it up at XX time on your doorstep and then be gone at that time.

See your GP, take the test, & find out if you are pregnant. I pray that you are not, but you will be able to deal with it if you are. You will survive this and come out a stronger woman.

You aren't the first woman who has been duped, you won't be the last. I'm sure every woman on MN has her own story to tell. I know I have!!

happyandsingle · 30/09/2014 18:21

Sorry but this all sounds a bit weird to me........
Why would she be so calm about the fact you have been sleeping with her husband? Esp as he has done this twice before.
Surely she would be out the door herself being with a serial cheat?
Are you sure she's not just stirring trouble for him? They may live together but are not together and she's just scaring away potential new partners?
Her reaction does not sit right with me,surely she would want more info on your relationship or at least have an angrier response.

WannaBe · 30/09/2014 18:21

Well at least you have your answer. But wtf would she stay with someone who had done that to her so many times? Words fail really.

AcrossthePond55 · 30/09/2014 18:21

Xpost with your last. If you see this, I wish you nothing but peace and strength. You are worthwhile. You are worthy of love.

magoria · 30/09/2014 18:22

When you are at the docs you need to sort out STI tests.

From what his wife says he is a serial cheat. You don't know who with, where or when!

Better safe than sorry.

Also please don't take this the wrong way, if you are pregnant and it is early days then a termination would not keep you linked to this man for the rest of your life.