And to which newspaper will you be submitting these answers?
Let's face it, nobody is going to come on here and say "I cheated on my partner because I fancied a better shag," or "because I can," or "because I am sex starved and I don't actually care about them therefore I shag who I like when I like." But you might well get those types of posts from people who have been cheated on and from people who have never cheated on anyone but who have a black and white view of the world.
Trust is that affairs are very rarely black and white, and as much as people want to believe that all cheats do so simply because they think with their nether regions, the reasons behind why people do are often far more complex than that.
And while some people would want to believe the adage that "once a cheat, always a cheat," the world just isn't that straightforward.
Reality is that the reason most people cheat is because the opportunity was there to do so. But that is vastly different from asking someone how it came about that they cheated, because there is a difference.
There are people who may be in unhappy relationships for instance for whom the opportunity will never present itself, but if it did there's a chance they would take it.
On the flip side there are people who thought they would never cheat but for whom the opportunity does present itself and they then find themselves in a situation where they didn't envisage cheating on a partner.
In my situation I never thought in a million years that I would end up having an affair. But being in an abusive relationship and then meeting someone who talked to me as a person and got to know me suddenly made me realise that there was more out there. It is without doubt the most regrettable thing I have ever done in my life and I would never do it again. I didn't leave for the OM, but having had the affair did make me realise that I needed to leave, and I did.
The issue that arises from an affair though is that the affair cancels out everything else in many people's eyes. The fact that my ex was emotionally abusive is irrelevant to everyone now, the fact I had an affair is seen as the only reason for the breakdown of the marriage even though my ex is now in a similarly emotionally abusive relationship with his current partner. It's as if the one action cancels out everything else, when in fact there are all too often issues which lead to that action which shouldn't necessarily be disregarded, even if the affair is just as much as wrong as the abuse which preceded it.