Hi all - feeling very down tonight. DH told me he was no longer happy in our marriage last August having had a shortlived EA at work which demonstrated to him that we are too different, I don’t really love him and we don’t have a future together. This came on the tails of taking on a huge amount of normal but overwhelming life stuff over the past few years, and not investing in our marriage (with dates nights etc) - like having four young kids, moving to the US for two years for his work (just got back), building a house, his job being incredibly demanding, me too focussed on the kids, taking each other for granted, could go on. We love each other and weirdly have the physical side in spades but for him the spark/connection has gone and after months of counselling (though I have to say the therapists in the US didnt “get” us) we just couldn’t get it back. Moved back to U.K. a month ago and have separated and told the kids. We are now co-parenting and everything is very civil but I don’t do the kiddie hand-overs as too painful. Communicate via text. We are both having our own separate counselling now. His main issue is that he has for all his life been a people pleaser and this has led to depression (not that he seems depressed but he finally put these two things together as a cause and effect the other day in a text). He is not seeing anyone else (I am certain of that) and said he just needs solitude to figure out who he really is and what he really wants and is working with our amazing therapist on this (she really is brilliant though we are not having joint counselling as it didn’t work before and ended up being too painful for me as the dial just never shifted). He says he’s barely seen anyone. He has this weekend however seen two sets of family friends from his school days with the kids (which is fair enough) and that really hurts, as they used to be good friends of mine too. Anyway he has not given me any hope at all, but the therapist has said that things could change as a) we are now separated which sometimes can jolt things and b) we are now back in the U.K., which again is a big change and could cause things to shift. My question is: have any of you been in a situation where your DH has left the marriage but without another partner in the wings, just a sense that he could be happier with someone else, and returned having realised he made a terrible mistake? He is 42 and having a deep midlife crisis of sorts. I am getting on with my life as best I can - but I guess am still clinging on to hope. Looking for positive stories. Thanks x