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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

Please Help

115 replies

LyingDP · 10/05/2015 18:08

I've NC'd but am a regular poster here, and have started a good few lighthearted pointless threads, I'm afraid this one is decidedly more serious. Sad It is long but I don't want to dripfeed.
I will try and keep this as brief as possible, thank you to anyone who replies - I really need some advice.
I have been with my DP for four years. He is the kindest, funniest man I know and my soulmate.
About 6 months into the relationship, I found some pretty flirty messages between him and a woman at work. I told him to stop, that it was disrepectful. He promised he would.
About another 6 months after that I found some more (to the same woman) and hit the roof. He said he would never do it again and just felt bad for her because her DH had recently died, but that he would stop.
About a year after that I found the same sort of messages to the same woman. I was devastated, I left him, lived at a friends,he was inconsolable. We worked through it and he has not (to my knowledge) text her again. Let me be clear - They were not 'Oh my god they are fucking' messages, more silly, flity ones. Stuff like 'Do you want soup?It's upstairs' - 'Only if it's as hot as you' 'I've got new uniform' 'Oh I've always liked a woman in uniform'
God reading that back it's so shit.
He changed the settings on his phone so all messages immeadiatley came through to the ipad I own, let me go through his phone if I wanted to, etc etc, and was by all accounts determined to show me he wouldn't do it again.
Anyway, we got through it - Been together about two and a half years at thsi point.
About a year ago, almost to the day, I found a weird blue pack of pills in his bag. They were open and a few had been taken. He at first said they were nothing, just headache pills. I didn't believe him so looked up the name of them. Obviously it was viagra.
I confronted him and he 'came clean' and said they were for his boss (He part owns a garage with him and tbf they are very close)
After I asked why the hell he would pop a few out of the packet and give them to him just in his hand, then keep the half empty pack himself, he said it was because his boss didn't want his wife finding the pack and he would pop them just as he got home. Confused
After I pointed out that it really wasn't a big deal, that ED is really quite common, he said that this boss was too embarassed to go to the doctors.
I told him I wasn't happy with him getting them for him (He said he got them from a bloke at work) and he agreed he would stop. A few months later I found the same blue pack in his bag again. I again told him this was dodgy as fuck and to stop. He apologised again, was really upset and said he would tell his boss he couldn't get them for him anymore. When he came back from work that day, unprompted, he said: 'I've told * I can't get him his pills anymore as it's causing me and LyingDP some problems' He said his boss was fine with this and that was that.
A few months later I was in our house at the top window when he pulled up outside. I saw him sitting in his van, take something from his bag and put it behind the visor. He came in and I made some excuse to go outside. They were viagras. It came out that (of course) they were for him and he had just been too ashamed to tell me. He was bawling his eyes out.
I pointed out to him that, having seen my calm and reasoned reaction whe I thought his boss was taking them (nothing to be ashamed of etc), he had no reason to keep this from me.
We have a very open and honest relationship, our sex life was fine. He said a few times he hadn't managed to get it up and he was embarrased.
I am 10 years younger than him and he said he felt ashamed. (I should point out at this point he was drinking about 2-3 cans a night)
We went to counselling. He stopped his drinking. We cried and he said he doesn't know why he lies, just that he doesn't think. I don't think it's malicous. I think he genuinely is a people pleaser and doesn't think of the conesequences.
As part of the counselling, he wrote a kind of 'pledge' that said:
I promise to be truthful and honest with LyingDP, that I will not lie, No matter how big or small and signed and dated it. He carries it around with him in his wallet.
I made it very clear throughout all of this that were it to transpire that he'd lied to me again, no matter how big or small, I had no choice but to leave him. He agreed.
That was a year ago.
We muddled through and I can honestly say we are the best we've ever been, and I have been the happiest and safest I've ever felt.
Cut to today and I don't know what to do.
A week ago we went to a restaurant for our anniversary. He said £40 was through tips at work that he was putting towards it.
I had a pushbike that he kept at his work that he bought for me about two years ago. I don't use it.
My sister (who's DH works with him) mentioned 'Oh, my DH says you've sold your bike?'
So I asked my DP about it today, expecting him to say he hadn't and it was crossed wires.
He'd sold my bike, and, so he said, had used the £30 (???It was a nice bike) to go towards our date night.
He told me he had got all that money from tips. He said nothing about selling my bike or getting the money from it. I don't know how he was going to wriggle out of it when I inevitably asked for my bike.
Had he of asked me if he could sell my bike, I would have said yes. He knows this.
He lied again.
Please help me. I know all on paper this looks awful and I have no doubt what many will be thinking. Imagining my life without him brings me to sobs. I don't know where to start.
If I don't leave it will be succumbing to a relationship where, at a rate of approx one a year, i will be deceived, whether big or small.
I don't have a choice, do I??

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 10/05/2015 19:01

IB, there was a nice woman I used to chat with a while ago on here. This thread reminds me of her. If it is, she will know why I asked the question.

Optimist1 · 10/05/2015 19:02

I didn't mean to minimise the lie about the bike, but felt that the OP read as though it was something that LyingDP didn't value or use much. I do agree with PPs that selling someone else's property is wrong!

LyingDP , each lie he's told has been a nail in the coffin of your relationship. Whatever his reasoning, he has chosen to deceive you knowing full well that honesty was a priority for you. If this is the end of the road for you two please be ultra careful that he doesn't hoodwink you about financial assets, etc.

ImperialBlether · 10/05/2015 19:02

Oh ok. Smile

LyingDP · 10/05/2015 19:11

Thank you all.
I have lots of support from family and friends but I really needed it from an outside perspective. I'm glad I did Smile
Re: The Viagra. Of course in the end I don't know, but by all intents and purposes there are no signs. (Staying late, being secretive, etc)

I have to worry about the respect he has for me, our relationship and indeed my property. It kind of shows a complete contempt for the love he supposedly has for me.
Re: Other lies. You are not the only ones who have thought this. My DM and DS think the same. Sad
I need to gather myself together. I'm feeling stronger.

OP posts:
Dowser · 10/05/2015 19:11

First they start off with little lies, then they get bigger and bigger until not only do they not relies they are doing it...they don't care either.

My piece of doo doo on the end of my shoe was a regular liar and a cheat.

Call time on him love.

He's had his chances.

Miele72 · 10/05/2015 19:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LyingDP · 10/05/2015 19:12

Anyfucker
He owns a car garage.

OP posts:
LyingDP · 10/05/2015 19:14

Miele
You must be right.

OP posts:
ALaughAMinute · 10/05/2015 19:16

Do you think he's having an affair with the woman he was messaging on facebook?

I hope you have some good friends and family to support you because I think you're going to need it. Sorry.

Flowers
Cherryapple1 · 10/05/2015 19:17

He doesn't have any respect. He is a liar. There really isn't anything else to say. And the viagra - I would say it is his, and I second getting an STI test for yourself. Sorry.

AnyFucker · 10/05/2015 19:17

ok, LyingDP

it was just a feeling of deja vu I had

I am not surprised to learn there is more than one bloke with this exact MO knocking about and making the women they are supposed to love fucking miserable Sad

CheersMedea · 10/05/2015 19:18

What surprises me is how the development of little lies to big lies takes people in - it's almost incremental gas lighting. This isn't a criticism btw OP - it's just an observation that when you spot a lie, you need to be down on it immediately first time - because that process seems to be a grooming process towards bigger lies.

If someone told you Viagra in their possession was stuff they'd obtained for their boss you'd think "yeah right" for a million reasons - not least that it's dangerous and illegal to be supplying drugs like that to a mate. They could die if it is contra-indicated for them. But because of the history it's accepted.

There's another thread that features a woman being told that a sex toy was for a mate and then admitted to be for a female. Again, no one would believe the first lie.

It's like someone telling you they work for MI5. Er... no... it's a pile of crap. But if first they lied about working abroad, and then lied about working for the government etc etc. By the time they get to MI5 you might very well buy into it.

AnyFucker · 10/05/2015 19:19

of course the Viagra is his...he hid it in the car so OP wouldn't find it

because he likes to keep secrets from her

I would not like to predict if it was for an OW, my instinct says no

it doesn't change anything though

he knew he was on his last chance and he decided that lying was more important than the respect of his wife

AnyFucker · 10/05/2015 19:21

I agree, it's like the Boiled Frog scenario I guess, CM

ImperialBlether · 10/05/2015 19:21

I don't want to make things worse, OP, but he's self employed, isn't he? He doesn't have to work late.

If both parties are married, then the daytime is when most affairs occur.

I'm not saying that's what he's doing - how would I know? It's just that you mustn't think that he's not simply because he's not out at night.

Dowser · 10/05/2015 19:38

My daughter caught her dad sneaking an underwear set into his car. He said it was for me and then he changed his mind and was taking it back to the shop as he didn't think I'd like it.

He had never bought me underwear in his life.!!

He also needed Viagra/ cialis to keep his pecker up with the ow!

CheersMedea · 10/05/2015 19:43

I'm not sure it's particularly helpful to be all "OW Alert! OW Alert!" here. The OP wasn't suggesting that he was having an affair.

The OP's main problem is lies. Not all men are cheaters you know; often it seems the answer to everything here.

"My husband won't help with the cooking and it drives me crazy"
"He must be having an affair".

LyingDP · 10/05/2015 19:49

IB he's not self employed as such, he works for the area manager who is there. He finishes at 5:45 every night and is always back by 6:00.
I do hear what PP's are saying re: the Viagra. I would probably say the and thing. But it just doesn't seem to be the case, again it's hard as I'm the only one who knows him IYSWIM but my family feel the same.
That he's not a cheat.
He's just a twat.
Whenever I feel weak I look at your replies Smile

OP posts:
LyingDP · 10/05/2015 20:05

I don't know what I'm going to do without him.

OP posts:
CheersMedea · 10/05/2015 20:06

Well you don't have to leave him. It's just a question of whether this is something you can tolerate forever. Which is worse for you?

Miele72 · 10/05/2015 20:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

EhricLovesTheBhrothers · 10/05/2015 20:37

Cheers are you for real? Secret Viagra is a big fucking different to not doing the cooking. Secret Viagra screams affair.

Anyway, the point is, this guy lies, he won't stop lying for you, so you either accept being lied to for the rest of your life or you dump him. I'm sorry, I know it's awful.

RagstheInvincible · 10/05/2015 20:39

He's a silly weak fool who thinks a lie can serve him better than the truth. Sorry to be brutal OP but that's how he comes over to me. I don't think you have any need to worry about an OW - he's not got the talent to keep an affair going for any length of time IMO without you finding out.

Having drawn your line in the sand, he's crossed it. Logically then you should leave. BUT if you think your life really would be worse without him, then stay. He is such a crap liar that I doubt if he could actually two time you without you finding out PDQ, just remember that sadly you cannot really trust a word he says.

MrsSheRa · 10/05/2015 20:47

I'm so sorry Op Sad

He has proved that you cannot trust him.

CheersMedea · 10/05/2015 21:13

Secret Viagra screams affair.

Not necessarily - ED is notoriously often overcome in a new relationship because it features newness and excitement. If there is one time you don't need Viagra, it is likely to be at the start of an affair. It is equally plausible that it was something he wanted to hide from his wife because he was embarrassed.