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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

Trying to save my marriage after my husbands affair

118 replies

Gizmo78 · 21/05/2017 23:35

It's nearly a year since I found out my husband had been unfaithful and although we are trying to save our marriage some days I just don't know if we are doing the right thing.
We've been together since we were teenagers , and every one says we have the strongest marriage they've ever seen , always been great friends as well as lovers but a year ago he had an affair that had been going on for 10 months. During that time nothing changed in our marriage he still treat me amazing , loved me the same but sneaked off when I was working to see her and lied to me about everything when I questioned him. I just don't feel I really know him ,. I has a breakdown as a result of this during the time I suspected he was having an affair an he convinced me it was all in my head and I must be going through the menapause( I'm not by the way)
I know she was an ego boost for him being nearly 20 years younger but I can't excuse how weak he was to not walk away. He had no intention of leaving me for her she just made him feel good but I'm left in pieces.
Every thing he says I question in my head , I know my marriage will never be the same and I know I will never feel the same about him so is it worth me trying to salvage my marriage.im so confused my marriage has always been the most important thing in my life and now I'm just devastated

OP posts:
PollytheDolly · 22/05/2017 08:40

You sound in so much pain OP. I think you should move on and make a new life for yourself. Yes you've given him 30 years, do he deserve another 30 years, or do you, free of this burden? What he did is beyond forgiveness in my opinion.

For you Flowers

NotJanine · 22/05/2017 08:57

OP I had a similar length relationship to you. It has been very difficult for me to separate the man I thought I was married to and the man who lied, cheated and watched me suffer. It is easy for someone from the outside to see what a complete shit he is, but when he's the man who you've shared so much of your life with and who you thought was your lifelong partner, it is very hard.

If you had only been with him a couple of years and he treated you like this would you stay with him?

C0RAL · 22/05/2017 09:06

Has he had any therapy of couselling to help him work out why he felt entitled to treat you like this ?

Why does he still not take responsibility for what he did ? ( one mistake)

What has he actually done to try to fix your marriage ? You say he is " trying " every day - what does that mean ?

Wormulonian · 22/05/2017 09:20

I agree upthread with DownTownAbbey - I thinkyyou need to explore why he didn't have a hidden affair (Use hotel rooms, OW flat etc) why did he flaunt her in your face and use your bed ? Was part of the thrill messing with your head, getting one over on you, does he resent or even dislike you on some level.

His gaslighting and lies caused you to have a breakdown - A BREAKDOWN - you are still on anxiety pills and he feels now that time is up and you should suck it up and move on? He should be going above and beyond to repair things, he should be available to answer any concerns you still have, provide information on the affair, he should be willing to wait no matter how long it takes.

People on here often recommend Shirley Glass "Not just good friends" to help with thinking and repairing after an affair.

hellsbellsmelons · 22/05/2017 09:21

I'm sorry you are going through this.
I always think staying and trying to work things out is the much harder road to take. I respect anybody willing to try this.
I couldn't do it.
I knew I couldn't do it and had to end it for my own sanity and self-esteem.

And as everyone else is pointing out this was NOT one mistake.
He did not fall dick first into her vagina!
I hate when men say this.
'I made a mistake, I'm so sorry'
Fuck-off is my response to that shite!

Counselling for you is a very good idea.
See what happens after a couple of solo sessions and take it from there.

FizzyGreenWater · 22/05/2017 09:57

No, I don't think this is fixable and I think you will end up out of your mind if you continue to try and make yourself live the lie you are in now.

I know my marriage will never be the same and I know I will never feel the same about him so is it worth me trying to salvage my marriage

The marriage - the partnership - you thought you had doesn't exist. It stopped existing when he became the kind of man you wouldn't touch with a bargepole, it really entirely stopped existing when you discovered that he was, in reality, this person.

Whether he was always this person and it was always a sham, or whether he did change so dramatically from a lovely, loving husband, lover and friend to a nasty, self-serving cheat who does not really care a fig for you, or probably anyone else, is anyone's guess. Do you believe it's his first affair? I'm not sure I would - ten months? And his behaviour to you was exactly the same, just as loving? And the details - deliberately bringing her into your life, your bed - the peversity of it. That's utter sociopath territory, the behaviour of a man who just does not give a single fuck about the notion of right and wrong, who just does not compute the idea of a marriage vow, or how love works, or how to be a friend. This can't be described as 'a mistake' - it was a demonstration, over a long, sustained period of time, of what his true personality was.

The person we are when no-one else is looking.

It's this you are mourning - the fact (and it is a fact, and the affair ceasing does not change this fact) that he is a deeply unpleasant, untrustworthy liar at heart, and that it is not possible that he feels for you the way you feel/felt for him. You are mourning this loss, and it's a permanent loss. Nothing will make him the kind of man you thought you were married to. He won't ever be the kind of man who would never betray you like that because he loves you. He has shown you that he cannot possibly have been a friend to you in the way any normal person would define friendship.

The other emotion i would imagine is in play is fear. Again, your feelings here are right and correct - your gut instinct. It doesn't matter now what he says - this man you thought was your partner and who you thought you knew. You know better now. You KNOW that he can lie and lie and lie to you and you not suspect a thing. You KNOW that he can treat you with utter callousness and simply not give a shit as long as he is getting his own way. This is a really horrific story - it's so far removed from just an affair. He pushed you into a mental health breakdown when he thought he still had a chance for his lies to stand up and for his affair to continue. I would be terrified to remain in a 'partnership' with this man - common sense tells you that it's a horribly vulnerable place to be, where experience shows that you would literally be a fool to trust in him - emotionally, secually, financially, the list goes on.

You don't say whether you have children - I don't know about your other threads. I would be looking at a way to go forward without him, and that might indeed mean that you stay 'friends' - whatever that means to him - but that you take your life past the corrosion of trying to maintain the fiction that he is your husband. That word means something that he has shown he has no conception of. His use of the description 'mistake' is all you need to think through in order to understand that. I would definitely return to counselling with this plan of action in mind. You clearly cannot stay with the plan you have - it is not working (unsurprisingly, you are unable to lie to yourself any longer) and it will make you ill.

You did nothing wrong. I am so sorry for the way you have been treated. Your posts show what a strong and honest person you are. Turn away from him and take care of YOU.

Flowers Flowers Flowers

Collidascope · 22/05/2017 10:30

Also, you only have his word that she was the only one he's been unfaithful with during your marriage. I wouldn't be so sure. Seems quite risky behaviour for an inexperienced cheater.

Sorry, OP, this was my first thought too. He didn't alter his behaviour to you while cheating and he had her in your bed. That seems to me like someone who's done it several times before, hasn't been caught and has got cocky.
After you've discovered him, he's lied to you again and again, only admitting the truth when forced to.
Your pain comes across in your posts, and I feel sad for you, but you sound like you could do much better than this dickwad.

ImperialBlether · 22/05/2017 10:45

I think many of us have been in similar situations, where their husbands have had an affair, but what makes your husband so awful is that he brought his lover along to family events, slept with her in your bed and preferred you to be going mad than to know the truth about your own life.

It's unforgivable.

What you love is the man you thought he was, or even the man he used to be. You don't love this man.

I think you need to move house, to be honest. Your home will always remind you of what happened. I think you need to leave him and while you can be civil, don't think you can be friends. He is not your friend. What kind of friend would treat you like that?

I'm so sorry; I know how it feels to lose someone who meant everything to you, but this man is really, really bad for you and you won't be able to get past this while he's still there.

Whatthefoxgoingon · 22/05/2017 10:51

This is breathtakingly awful betrayal. Cold, calculated lying. He slept with her in your bed? Shocking. No way would I or could I forgive my husband this level of cheating.

Adora10 · 22/05/2017 10:55

No sorry that level of betrayal is unforgiveable, how can you possibly trust and respect him; he had her in your own bed, introduced you to her and they both went behind your back and took the absolute piss; in my book no man on the planet is worth hanging on to who can do that.

Only you can decide though if he's worth suffering for because you will never be able to trust him again.

ImperialBlether · 22/05/2017 10:57

I think if my husband slept with someone in my bed, I would never ever forgive them and would end the relationship. How can you lie there at night knowing what happened in that very bed?

thatdearoctopus · 22/05/2017 11:11

Excellent post by fizzygreenwater

HouseworkIsASin10 · 22/05/2017 11:15

Sadly he is not the person you thought he was.

That person has gone.

You need to decide if you want to be with this new 'bastard' version of your husband or cut your losses and live with the memory of the 'good' husband. He is never coming back. Flowers

Whatalready · 22/05/2017 11:18

I'm sorry OP. Flowers You must be in shock. I think that's why you are not seeing it. You have loved someone for so long. He gave you every reason to feel secure and loved in return. How can you go from love to anger/hate so suddenly? Especially when he is putting on such a show of love.
I think all these posts will help you to see. But I understand how you are struggling to process the pain. He doesn't deserve you and he knows it.

histinyhandsarefrozen · 22/05/2017 11:23

I think many of us have been in similar situations, where their husbands have had an affair, but what makes your husband so awful is that he brought his lover along to family events, slept with her in your bed and preferred you to be going mad than to know the truth about your own life.

This...

When people have an affair they often diminish their partner to someone irrelevant or inconsequential, just an obstacle. What your H did is even worse than that though, by bringing her into your world, he was actively, deliberately, thinking about you AND screwing you over.

One mistake? Nope. I would never forgive him.

Ellisandra · 22/05/2017 11:45

One mistake?

The fact he could dare to call this "one mistake" tells me that he is not accepting what he has done - so how is he ever going to fix it?!

You say he'll do anything he can... right, except counselling. Which is one of the few things that might actually help.

So - I'll tell you what effort he's putting in to fix it. The strategy of "she took me back, she'll give up browbeating me soon enough".

What a total cunt, basically telling you that you were going made because of the menopause?! ARSEHOLE.

C0RAL · 22/05/2017 12:04

I'm so sorry OP, this thread must be agonising to read for you. I suspect that the only way you have held it together for the last year is by believing his version of events . That it was no big deal, just one tiny mistake in 30 years of perfection. And that you would be mad to destroy everything because of your inability to forgive.

So it must be very hard to read these posts. To hear from so many other women that they don't see it his way and that's it's normal to not be able to just forget it and shut up.

It's not you it's him.

AceholeRimmer · 22/05/2017 12:32

Sorry but he's a terrible person. Saying you were going through the menopause when he was screwing someone 20 years younger in your bed... fucking awful. You will always be wondering now and it will never be the same. If it was me I'd have a fresh start, which he wouldn't be expecting.. he expects you to carry on as normal. Do it for your own emotional wellbeing. (I rarely say LTB)

ImperialBlether · 22/05/2017 12:49

Acehole, you say, "I rarely say LTB" - how do you manage that? There are so many cases on MN of really dreadful relationships where there's clearly no hope the man will change. Do you think the OPs should remain in those marriages?

Alfiemoon1 · 22/05/2017 12:56

Great post by fizzy. Sorry u are going through this op.

CardinalCat · 22/05/2017 13:01

He's a duplicitous gas-lighting arsehole who only showed any remorse when he realised that the game was a bogey.

forget about saving your marriage- work on saving your self-esteem by kicking this dickwad to the kerb and reclaiming some of your life and self respect. I would recommend you go back to counselling, alone this time.

buggerthebotox · 22/05/2017 13:39

This has happened to me too. I found out 'D'P was in a relationship with another woman for a year. I found myself gaslighted and minimised whilst he justified it. I can't get past his lack of remorse, or his failure to even apologise. It's all my fault, of course.

Why do these people do it?

Like others have said, I think you need to build yourself back up and move on from him, metaphorically if not physically at least.

yetmorecrap · 22/05/2017 14:01

Oh OP, I so know how you feel, I'm 6 months down the line from discovering what was I'm told an emotional affair only (and one sided at that with regards to feelings) even though it was 11 years ago it was never confessed, I found out and I still find it hard to realise and accept that my H was capable of such ludicrous and odd behaviour. Initially he wasn't that remorseful, as I don't think he knew how to be after such a long time, he now realised why it devastated me and is having IC , like you though I'm not sure if I ever will feel exactly the same as I too was told at the time(when I suspected 11 years ago) that I was paranoid and the menopause was to blame etc

AceholeRimmer · 22/05/2017 14:08

Imperial Not at all, I just don't post on relationships much. I'm continually shocked at the awful relationships out there.. I think cheaters belong in the gutter. That was a huge assumption on your part!

Apairofsparklingeyes · 22/05/2017 14:23

An affair of 10 months must have involved hundreds of lies to you and the way he was gaslighting suggests that he has a very cruel, calculating side to him. I think that staying in this relationship must feel like death by a thousand cuts.

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