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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

This is unforgivable, right?

306 replies

HeidiSchmeidi · 04/03/2021 19:00

I think this is probably unforgivable but just want to run it by an objective audience. This happened a year ago and my ex is trying to get me to take him back (he has been trying for a year) and I wanted to see if I am crazy for even considering it.

My boyfriend and I were long distance at the time, and I hadn't seen him in three months. His ex started working with him. She is a woman (colleague from another office) who he had a brief relationship with (a few months) and he ended it because she was in love with him and wanted more and he didn't return her feelings.

When she arrived though, she relentlessly chased after him. To the point of propositioning him for sex and telling him if he did it she would never tell me and so on. She started sending him messages and so on about how she still loved him and didn't he miss her (he did tell her to stop and eventually blocked her) but it was quite blatant she was trying to steal my man.

In his defense he did tell her to please leave him alone because he was in a relationship (she didn't respect this request) and he was also completely honest and told me everything at the time and shared any texts with me so I was in the loop.

At the time, pre-pandemic, there were a lot of boozy work nights out almost every weekend, and I know my boyfriend very well and he is one of those people who gets absolutely blotto and does and says crazy things (loves everyone), so I was very uncomfortable with him getting wasted drunk if she was around. Not so much because I thought he would sleep with her, but just because I thought a conversation would start that he would not be in control of and so on.

So we agreed he wouldn't go to events which she was at, or if he did that he'd stay sober. Which he did for three months. Then one day there was an event she wasn't meant to be at, but she showed up to and he was already completely wasted when she got there. He was drunk at this point with no boundaries so he didn't think to leave.

She started hitting on him quite blatantly, and he ended up talking to her for a while. I happened to call him, and he told me where he was and that he'd chatted to her and in his drunk state he didn't see a problem at all with it. He actually got quite belligerent with me "I am an adult I think I can make a judgement".

I was home alone, I'd had a really stressful day and I felt very threatened by how persistently this woman was trying to steal my man and so I asked him to come home and call me. So he did and left five minutes later (it was about 9.30pm). He had been drinking all day on some corporate boat trip and he was absolutely wasted.

We never argued much, but I ended up absolutely raging at him, shouting, and told him I wanted to break up with him. I then blocked him on everything. This might seem an over-reaction, but at the time we were under a lot of strain being separated, and I felt he wasn't doing enough to get this woman to stop chasing after him (maybe his ego enjoyed it a bit) and it was making me feel really uncomfortable.

I'd stress we never had ANY problems with trust before (together two years) but this woman was blatantly gunning for him in the most obvious way and I was worried after so many months apart and her constantly trying to get him alone that something might happen everyone would regret.

Anyway, I did my dumping tantrum, and he (already wasted) decided to go back to the party and carry on drinking because he was upset and said he was on a self-destruct mission. She got him talking, he told her we had split up and cut a long story short he went back to her place and slept with her.

The next day he woke up really horrified but he believed we were genuinely split up so he went home. Later that day I called him to try and patch up our fight and sort things out and he confessed what had happened.

I was absolutely devastated, and told him I could never forgive him. He cried for weeks, tried everything he could to win me back but I just could not get past it.

Here we are over a year later and he is still trying to win me back, I am the love of his life and so on, it was a drunken mistake he made when he felt I'd dumped him.

Any thoughts on this? We do still love each other, but although my behavior was bad on that night I couldn't figure out why a few hours after our breakup he went and had sex with the one woman who had been making me feel unsafe for so long.

Obviously I;ve been very uncomfortable

OP posts:
MsDogLady · 05/03/2021 06:46

He was drunk at this point with no boundaries so he didn’t think to leave. She started hitting on him quite blatantly, and he ended up talking to her for a while.

So after all of her obsessive behavior—incessant messaging, nudes, engineering alone time and inclusion on his projects, begging for sex at the door and at work functions, criticizing you—he actually made time that night to chat with her and give her attention. And then he coped with the trouble between you by returning to her and boarding that bus...

You are correct that he never took definitive steps to shut her down. On some level, he enjoyed the ego massages and wanted to protect her.

I wouldn’t sabotage my life with this weak-boundaried alcoholic who has proven to have dysfunctional coping mechanisms.

chocolateorangeinhaler · 05/03/2021 07:00

He is the one with the issue...getting involved with two controlling women.
In the same way that some women only go for controlling men.

I didn't read past the first paragraph where you asked for people to tell you what to do. It's been a year! Dear god, move on woman. You've completely ignored the massive red flag of the binge drinking.

This is a get out of jail free card. Move on darling. Delete and block him. Sounds nasty but you have to lol after yourself here

Rainbowqueeen · 05/03/2021 07:02

Not unforgivable but certainly not worth the drama.

Way too toxic for me

sofato5miles · 05/03/2021 07:30

You don't belong together. I'd move on

Aspiringmatriarch · 05/03/2021 07:46

Honestly, the only potential red flag I see is the drinking. That would really bother me. But the other stuff, it sounds as if he was respectful and honest with you and unless there's an aspect of that you're not aware of (some encouragement on his part) then I think you were the one being controlling and unreasonable. He wasn't expecting her to be at the party, he left at your behest, and then you dumped him. If I'd been him in that moment, I may have acted similarly, especially if drunk (which, again, is the red flag here if anything).

Honestly the whole thing sounds like a ridiculous drama and you need to decide to either move on or get past it with him. For me, since you'd dumped him (for no good reason), him sleeping with her is forgivable - tbh he had no obligations to you whatsoever at that point and I would be more inclined to say he should be forgiving you for ending the relationship over a situation in which he wasn't at fault and had done everything he could to reassure you. But I can understand you feel very upset about it. The question is whether you can get over those feelings. And whether he's going to continue getting blind drunk on a regular basis.

LookofEvaBraun · 05/03/2021 11:12

So he was not too drunk to perform sexually but too drunk to resist her advances.

Even if you forgive him you will never be able to trust him, imagine if this was you being pursued by another man. You would have nipped it in the bud long ago.

I'm sorry he hurt you OP, you deserve better.

Branleuse · 05/03/2021 11:48

someone who has no boundaries when they get drunk, is someone who has no boundaries in general, especially if they are someone that gets drunk sometimes

VinylDetective · 05/03/2021 12:01

@LookofEvaBraun

So he was not too drunk to perform sexually but too drunk to resist her advances.

Even if you forgive him you will never be able to trust him, imagine if this was you being pursued by another man. You would have nipped it in the bud long ago.

I'm sorry he hurt you OP, you deserve better.

You’re misinterpreting this. That was a fuck you screw after OP screamed at him, dumped him and blocked him - all after he’d already left the party at her behest. He was single. I can well imagine doing the same thing.
BillMasen · 05/03/2021 13:04

Surprised at the number of people who think you can control what someone does after you’ve broken up with them...

Tulipsareblooming · 05/03/2021 13:12

@BillMasen anyone with respect for a relationship, even when it’s over - doesn’t have sex within hours of break up - with the one person op was worried about (suggesting there was something going on all along) He’s a waste of time

BillMasen · 05/03/2021 13:20

@Tulipsareblooming so what’s the acceptable time to wait?

JSL52 · 05/03/2021 13:21

[quote HeidiSchmeidi]@beelzeboob it isn't necessarily about the time after the breakup, it was that he was wasted. I'd expect him to at least have the good sense to go to sleep and deal with the situation sober the next day rather than go out immediately to find comfort[/quote]
When people are drunk their reasoning doesn't work.
I'd like to hear her story as well

PyongyangKipperbang · 05/03/2021 13:23

[quote Tulipsareblooming]@BillMasen anyone with respect for a relationship, even when it’s over - doesn’t have sex within hours of break up - with the one person op was worried about (suggesting there was something going on all along) He’s a waste of time[/quote]
The OP clearly didnt have any respect for the relationship when she was in it so why the hell should he when she has yelled at him, dumped him and blocked him?

He didnt know she was going to change her mind the next day! What he does after she has finished with him is entirely up to him, and the OP has no right whatsoever to be pissed off with him about it. She is reaping the consequences of her piss poor actions.

cherrytreecottage · 05/03/2021 13:23

@beelzeboob

But he was 100% honest with you the whole time, he tried to block her / ignore her but it would have been difficult when they work together. He got shitfaced one night, you dumped him (totally unreasonably IMO), he went a shagged her probably as a “fuck the world” type action whilst pissed and upset. I think I’d be able to forgive him if I loved him.
I completely agree with this
RuggeryBuggery · 05/03/2021 13:24

You were on a break

ClarkeGriffin · 05/03/2021 13:27

If he actually loved you, he wouldn't have slept with her.

Lovelydiscusfish · 05/03/2021 13:35

[quote Tulipsareblooming]@BillMasen anyone with respect for a relationship, even when it’s over - doesn’t have sex within hours of break up - with the one person op was worried about (suggesting there was something going on all along) He’s a waste of time[/quote]
Why? You can do anything you like if you believe you have been treated like shit by your ex. Which presumably he did.

PyongyangKipperbang · 05/03/2021 13:38

@ClarkeGriffin

If he actually loved you, he wouldn't have slept with her.
And if she had loved him then she wouldnt have screamed at him and dumped him for doing exactly what he had asked her to.

I had a drama llama ex who would pull stunts like this and I got sick of it. The last time he threw a wobbly and then called me the next day like nothing had happened, I told him that I thought he was right that we should split up. Then he went off on one, playing the victim, because I wouldnt have him back! The only thing that surprised me in this car crash is that the guy wants the OP back.

Bouledeneige · 05/03/2021 13:57

I have had two relationships - both long term where we broke up and got back together. They were both devastated we broke up and pursued me to get back together but in the period during the break they slept with someone else. I found that hard to understand since when I'm, heartbroken the last thing I could do is sleep with someone else. But you know, quite a few people do do that. The fact that it was the one person who was an issue in your relationship was pretty hurtful and devastating. And I very very fast turnaround.

The ultimate question really is whether you could trust him in the future. It sounds like not if he's drinking. And that would not be a firm basis for any relationship. Its hell to be with someone you're unsure of and can't trust - and simply not worth all that pain.

BuggerBognor · 05/03/2021 14:01

This reply has been withdrawn

Message from MNHQ: This post has been withdrawn

thornyhousewife · 05/03/2021 14:08

So sorry OP.

I felt sick on your behalf reading this.

You've done nothing wrong, and their behaviour prove you were right to respond strongly to the situation.

Of course the woman should be blamed for her own behavior. And your ex should be blamed for his.

I would strongly urge you to move on. This man is not good enough for you and you can do so much better.

Tulipsareblooming · 05/03/2021 15:22

@Lovelydiscusfish so if you had a row and dumped your partner, you wouldn’t be hurt or feel distrust that a couple of hours later he slept with the woman you were worried about?? Okay Confused

Porcupineintherough · 05/03/2021 15:41

Actually I wouldnt be a bit surprised @Tulipsareblooming, drunk heartbroken people often jump into bed with the first offer to come along.

I think the lesson here OP is not to dump someone on the basis of a hissy fit. And no you shouldn't get back together, he should run for his life.

MrMeSeeks · 05/03/2021 15:49

I agree with others, you were really obsessive with this woman, you didn’t trust him, threw a tantrum, dumped him then got upset he slept with someone Confused
I would be upset if my partner had slept with someone straight away, but i also could not hold it against then when i’d dumped them Hmm

If you want him back then do it, but there needs to be trust ( sounds like he did everything to make you trust him) but if you don’t when he goes out drinking then there’s no point.

RantyAnty · 05/03/2021 15:59

Delete and block him
Sounds like he has a drink and boundaries problem

There are 1000s of men out there who would be better.