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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

Surviving an affair....long overdue update

109 replies

LetsGoToTheHills · 19/03/2015 14:52

Dear Mumsnetters,
Two years ago I posted on here after discovering my husband's affair. I asked you whether we could survive. I had many fantastic suggestions and comments as well as some difficult but insightful questions put to me. We had about 10 counselling sessions immediately, and it's been really hard work but I would say we are, finally, pretty much back to 'normal'. It was a horrible, horrible time, and just thinking about it makes me feel sick, but you all got me on the right path. So thank you to everyone who bothered to post, it did make a difference!

OP posts:
HaverinCuddy · 22/03/2015 16:42

Sorry for the typos - Im in a hurry.

JonesTheSteam · 22/03/2015 17:07

Was directed at me personally ginge?

Yet again, generalisations bandied about. 'Most men' sign up to date sites and lure unsuspecting single women to fall in love with them?

If that is your experience of men, I'm glad I'm with my DH, thanks.

Christinayang1 · 22/03/2015 18:25

Ginger

Why so bitter?

MaMaof04 · 22/03/2015 18:34

As Jones said I am also glad I'm with my H and not with any of the men who transformed some of you into LTBs and ingrained in you suspicion of 'males'. You would have been a supportive cohort if I were throwing mud on both the OW and my H. I know him. I know her. I know myself.
It is a nice thread with a wonderful success story and with some wonderful ladies around. I will read what they write and ignore the other posts. It is not productive. Too much hatred permeate them. I will live in my 'intellectual' world and I let you live in yours- call it the 'enlightened' /the real world if you wish to do so. Have a nice week all of you!

noddyholder · 22/03/2015 18:37

Fgs

ginge0407 · 22/03/2015 18:55

I'm not bitter at all and its a general comment not directed at anyone personally. I know friends of mine who have got involved with men who are married pretending to be single. Just saying a lot of ppl have a very narrow minded view. Crack on with your perfect lives cos your all kidding yourselves if you think you'll ever be able to trust fully again. Once a cheat always a cheat. I'm entitled to my opinion that's what we are all on here for. No person has an affair without good reason.

JonesTheSteam · 22/03/2015 18:55

Let's just get back to the original point of this thread.

LetsGo posted that she feels that she and her DH have got through an extremely awful time and have come out of it stronger.

It is a success story, despite what anyone else may think. She wanted her marriage to work, for a number of reasons, and for her (and her DH) it still is.

Thank you for posting LetsGo.

It's helpful to read that other couples have come out of the other side and have stayed together.

I hope that you remain happy and your marriage goes from strength to strength.

Christinayang1 · 22/03/2015 18:59

Ginge

Perhaps you could try a few more sweeping generalizations or a couple more trite sayings......

JonesTheSteam · 22/03/2015 19:11

Wow! I haven't said my life is perfect. Who's is? Yours?

I do trust DH actually. Why would he put us both through this again, as believe me he has been through it too, despite what a lot of you may think.

Once a cheat always a cheat? You are entitled to your opinion, but you still sound bitter. And what a massive generalisation yet again.

No person has an affair without a good reason. True. But it doesn't always mean (a) they were unhappy with the marriage / partner and (b) that they will do it again once they have examined why they did it.

My life is far from perfect. But I'm not deluding myself that I'm happy. Far from it. I am. Very.

So crack on yourself there!

HaverinCuddy · 22/03/2015 19:23

Ma, you speak of others here hating yet its you who are doing the hating - just look at how you describe the mother of your husbands child. She's not just getting her round of the kitchen, she's getting your husbands as well. As for me. Well, I don't hate anyone and not just because life really is too short.

Would I have been a supportive cohort if you were throwing mud on both your OW and H? I wouldn't say I'd support throwing mud but I would definitely support a person attributing equal blame to both people involved in a fiasco.

Do I have an ingrained suspicion of males? No. I dont. Granted I'm not interested in having another relationship but its not because Ive been put off men for good by my husband.

You are obviously upset by my last contribution and thats OK because Im sure the last thing you expected to find here was someone else who shared a circumstance with you and could comment on it.

IrianofWay · 22/03/2015 19:26

"No person has an affair without good reason."

Really? Define 'good' please because I can't think of a single good reason to do so.

Why on earth would you come on to a thread about women who have suffered from infidelity and tell them it's all their fault?

HaverinCuddy · 22/03/2015 19:26

And just to make it clear once again - I am not in the LTB camp. And for what its worth, which is probably nothing - I have long since thought Jones and her husband have it sorted.

JonesTheSteam · 22/03/2015 19:29

Thanks Haverin...

HaverinCuddy · 22/03/2015 19:32

I really did want you to know that, and saying it is long overdue.

JonesTheSteam · 22/03/2015 19:35

If I could work out how to send you flowers and wine on the app, I would! Grin

More importantly though, as lovely as it is to hear it, I actually don't need the validation (don't take offence, though please Wink )

I think DH and I have come an awful long way even in the last two weeks or so. And that probably proves it!

Smile
HaverinCuddy · 22/03/2015 19:45

LOLOL - No offence taken Jones. Grin

ITHOUGHTISAW2ANGELSAHEADOFME · 22/03/2015 19:53

so touching. so many people been through so much. I won't cry people in the room will wonder whats up.
Bless you op you sound like you have been through a lot of emotional stress :(
I wish you lots of happiness for the future.

childofacheat · 22/03/2015 20:07

OP thanks for sharing your story.

I have NC for this thread.

I just want to add a perspective from the point of view of the child of a marriage that turned out to be riddled with infidelity.

I am now in my 30s and my parents are still together in their late 60s and have a busy social and work life.

my mum found out about my dad's affairs when we were still children (all primary age) but it was kept secret from us until we were adults.

However, they couldn't conceal the fighting, shouting, bitterness, long-term hatred. I remember how loving they were towards each other when I was very small - but I am the eldest, and my younger siblings don't ever remember them really seeming to love each other.

I think it's a mistake to think that it's always better for your children if you stay together. As an adult, now, I wish my mum had kicked him out permanently when she found out. I have an OK relationship with both of my parents independently, but it has caused a lot of problems down the line for everyone in the family, directly and indirectly,

It would have been really tough for my mum to go it alone, no doubt, but it wasn't a picnic living through all of that either, for any of us. Family holidays were a nightmare

In a sense my parents are happy together now, but not really. I don't think my mum's ever really truly forgiven him deep down, and that comes out in a lot of unexpected ways.

So OP when your mum says "you have to be able to tell your children you did all you could", that doesn't necessarily mean staying together...

Christinayang1 · 22/03/2015 20:16

I'm sorry you had to go through that

ginge0407 · 22/03/2015 20:19

I'm not saying that it is the wives faults some men have affairs I was just saying it's usually a good reason why. That can be various different things.
My point was that if you can honestly forgive and forget your one hell of a woman.

JonesTheSteam · 22/03/2015 20:26

Believe me ginge, neither DH or I will ever forget.

I have forgiven him. I haven't told him yet though... Wink

I don't think he's forgiven himself. And I don't think he ever fully will.

winkywinkola · 22/03/2015 20:38

People have affairs for all sorts of reasons. None of them good. Deceit is never good.

beerbelly · 22/03/2015 21:49

Thank you for this. It gives me hope. I have just discovered my husband's affair. It is over now and neither or us want our family to break down, so we are trying to move on. It's hard. I waiver between cool indifference, just going through the motions of co-parenting with him ('cos that's all you can do when you discover an affair on the eve of your daughter's 7th birthday), and sickening rage, completely incensed by the thought of him wooing her in a posh hotel room while I looked after our children. I don't know how this will turn out, but I am taking comfort from stories of people whose marriages survived infidelity.

Christinayang1 · 22/03/2015 21:56

Beer

There is another support thread that you might find useful

Marriages in recovery

beerbelly · 22/03/2015 22:02

Thanks Smile

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