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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

Can I continue a relationship with dp when he continues to prove that he lies?

90 replies

FarkingFalafel · 18/12/2020 08:57

I have known dp for a long time and we have been going out for 4 years. I have name changed for this. I have dc and he has dc but we have none together.

Dp is a great partner - he spent 3 days last week driving the ends of the country to pick up all my dc from university. He cooks all the meals, he takes care of most of the admin. I work FT (and am the breadwinner) and he runs his own business.

2 years into our relationship, I found out that dp had lied about some pretty significant things in his past. Nothing that would impact us or our future - but things like lying about how he broke up with someone, dates of relationships to make it look like he hadn't cheated, he lied about being estranged from his family, just a lot of lies and I only found out because someone else told me. We discussed it, he promised he wouldn't lie again and I thought that was that.

Coronavirus has been really tough on dp's business and he's not making anywhere near the money he's made the last few years. Because of that, he's been unable to contribute to the joint account (though he had fully contributed up to this point) and has actually been taking money out. I had a word with him about it - he owns a house with his exw that she was meant to have sold in 2018 but she didn't. It's none of my business but I feel that if he's essentially taking money from me because he has none, I'd rather he got the money from the house that he's actually entitled to. He said he was going to arrange a meeting. He went and saw her and came back and said they had visited 3 estate agents and she would make the final choice and it would soon be on the market. I said nothing more then a few months later, I asked how the sale was going and he said it was very quiet. I said ooh let's look at the listing and he said he wasn't sure who it was on with (at which point I knew something was up) and we looked on rightmove/zoopla and couldn't find it.

next week he says to me 'oh he knows why we couldn't find it, it was on purple bricks!' - i say great, let's see it. Of course, it's not on there.

Rather than him saying to me 'she won't sell it', he's continued with this ridiculous lie till the point this week where he needed to 'borrow' £2k from me and I put my foot down and he admitted that the house is not on the market and he'd have to see lawyers because she doesn't want to sell it.

So essentially he's been lying to me for months. This isn't the only thing, there are some tiny things too, really inconsequential things like when I went away to help care for an elderly relative and he told me that he'd managed to stay in bed because the dog slept later than normal yet I could see the dog had got up at his normal time (we have a dog cam), he just hadn't bothered to go down and let it out. This is an issue because I know dp doesn't bother to get up when the dog wants to go out for a wee in the morning (I usually do it) and I had asked him specifically to make sure he listened out for him.

I'm no demon, I don't start fights, this isn't about me being so difficult he needs to lie, I honestly think it's pathological. But my kids adore him, he does more for them than exh ever did - we get on so well, love the same things, are v happy together but I don't think I will ever be able to trust anything he says to me and I'm not sure I can continue any sort of relationship with someone I can't trust.

OP posts:
BiscuitDrama · 19/12/2020 09:42

I agree that he does it for an easy life.

I think the situations he’s lied about are significant.

Not letting the dog out for a pee? That’s quite lazy and mean to the dog.

Not getting the house on the market so he can’t contribute to your household financially? Also quite shit.

So he does these lazy/crappy things and then needs to lie about them.

It’s not just the lying that is the issue here. It’s the crap behaviour in the first place.

bumhead · 19/12/2020 09:51

I had a very good male friend who did this. He lied about all sorts and serially cheated on his partners. He married a lovely lady and had two gorgeous DC.
He died suddenly in an accident a couple of years ago and about 6 months after his death, a woman contacted a mutual friend to say she had been in a 2 year relationship with him and hadn't been able to locate him and did our mutual friend know where he was.
His poor wife doesn't need to know about this woman Sad it would break her heart. He put her through so much when he was alive with his lies.

bumhead · 19/12/2020 09:54

FWIW I always put my friend's lies down to the fact that he deep down felt so shitty about himself that he lied to recreate a better reality but that puts him in full on victim mode and the only victim was his poor wife and DC.
Because the lies, cheating and spending family money on porn, drugs, booze and OW crippled them.

Colourmeclear · 19/12/2020 10:44

His behaviour is unacceptable. Can he change? Will he face up to his actions? Who knows, let someone else find out. Life is to short to live on nothing but hope.

WiseOwlWan · 19/12/2020 10:50

He obviously has his good points which makes this really really hard but if you don't trust him to be truthful then how can you ever know that the good points are authentic. Perhaps he has an agenda for being so obliging? His ''good points'' may not be good points but they may be part of the lie that is the face he shows to you.

TheGremlinsAreComing · 19/12/2020 10:56

In the end, it was my exh lies that ended it for me. And he would never ever come clean until I'd worn myself out proving that I knew he was lying. I was just 'crazy' and didn't trust him. Well no, in the end I didn't because he'd lied so much about things large and small that it was hard to tell which was truth and which was fallacy and I actually did feel like I was going bonkers!

I had forgiven a couple of white major indiscretions, but I couldn't live with the lies.

OP your DH does sound like he has many good qualities, only you can know really if you can live with the lies he's told.

WiseOwlWan · 19/12/2020 11:02

Just to go back over his being so obliging in many ways (collecting your DC from all over the country), it reminds me of a dynamic I was once in where he was the perfect boyfriend apart from..... (insert something that is a big fucking deal here)

I see now that it's over that even though he never admitted he drank 4-5 pints every day and 6-8 at the weekend, he knew that that was not a selling point. So whilst completely denying that he I was right or that he had a problem, he knew he did, and compensated by being perfect in every other way. But it was a tactic. A strategy. It wasn't real.

I think it was that he knew deep down that I could do better. Even if the doing better was being single! Which is what happened.

Your bf is driving around the country collecting your kids because he knows there's an imbalance and he's trying to equalise that.

Maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe he just did a really helpful thing.

WiseOwlWan · 19/12/2020 11:05

If you end it with this guy OP, focus on how the respect has GONE. Past tense. I can see the situation you're in, where if you say the lies are very damaging, he'll just lie and say ''i'll never lie to you again'' and then you'll be doubting he's changed.

With a bf like this you might have to say I don't love you any more.

Opentooffers · 19/12/2020 11:14

I'm not surprised she isn't selling the house at present. If he's not even making enough to cover his share of the bills, and in fact wants to borrow more on top of that from you, I doubt he is paying her any maintenance if the kids are still young enough to receive it. They may have already had an agreement to let her stay in the house instead of maintenance payments over the years. I think it would be wise to ask his exW about it as you get on well.

pog100 · 19/12/2020 11:49

I know it's right but pushing an exW to sell up when she doesn't want to is going to be highly uncomfortable at least and it's easy to see why he might want to wiggle out of it. The problem is that he's been trained from childhood to present a good face to the family/you. Given that he seems nice in so many other ways and there's no pressing need to split, I think I'd see if you can thoroughly impress in him the seriousness, the likelihood that you will split, then work with him to change his outlook. A combination of joint and single counselling maybe. Obviously it's not your job to cure him but overall it might be in your best interests? He does seem to recognise he has a problem.

ReggaePerrin · 19/12/2020 11:53

@ReggaePerrin They're not married so thankfully she won't have to worry about paying him spousal maintenance.

Sorry, I missed that bit Blush

goldenharvest · 19/12/2020 13:17

The lying is incredibly difficult to deal with and I am sure it is to do with his childhood and learned behaviour, rather than a personality fault. My ExH was like this and his childhood was one of being blamed, his sister causing problems for him, and he was repeatedly beaten for things he didn't even realise he was doing. It became a survival mechanism for him to lie and get himself out of trouble, even if it was only temporarily. It also caused problems with temper control, and a complete inability to take responsibility for his actions. Owning up in his childhood meant punishment, so he could not do this.

If the choice is between ending an otherwise good relationship and getting counselling and understanding his behaviour, then I'm sure he will get counselling. It's a choice he has to make as your choice is already clear.

LividLover · 19/12/2020 13:27

I divorced an alcoholic and the lying was one of the many things I just couldn’t live with any more.

The psychology behind it is irrelevant. You can’t live with somebody you have to second guess.

It took me a long time to remarry, but it’s so different to be with someone you can trust.

SeaEagleFeather · 19/12/2020 17:59

Good lord, why on earth are you questioning yourself here?

if you can't trust your partner in life, you have nothing. The relationship is built on shifting sand and you'll never face a crisis knowing that he -really- has your back.

And god help you if he's financially dishonest or has an affair. You'll likely never know.

Mangerfield · 29/12/2020 00:03

How's it been, @FarkingFalafel ?

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