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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

I did a thing. Was it bad?

507 replies

turnabouttime · 13/10/2021 22:23

Okaaaaay so, I did something kind of big and I'm now watching the repercussions kind of feeling guilty, kind of not and honestly? Kind of fascinated. So I found out someone I knew was cheating on his gf. So I sent an anonymous letter to the gf outlining the betrayal. She's gone ballistic and dumped him. She is really upset. He has blamed the OW for blabbing. He is freaking out as he promotes himself as having very highly morals and never cheating. She and he are mid 20s. OW is early 30s. Was I evil?

OP posts:
HeartsAndClubs · 14/10/2021 19:43

The arrogance of those who are defending the OP is incredible. And when they are dismissing the feelings of someone who was told anonymously to justify their own sense of superiority it says everything there is to be said about them.

UnsolicitedDickPic · 14/10/2021 19:44

@KirstenBlest Oh yes, absolutely! Sorry, that was badly worded on my part.

CheekyHobson · 14/10/2021 19:45

What I didn't know didn't hurt me but the fact that I hadn't known hurt a damn sight more when I did find out.

Yeah, the thing is that the reason that it hurts when you find out is that the damage is already done.

The pain comes from looking back and realising that what you thought was true was a lie, what you thought was secure was insecure, from the anxiety of wondering if your health is now compromised. The pain is the realisation of your own divided life, the split between what's real and what you only perceived to be real, the loss of a future you trusted was secure. But all of the positive things you believed you had were already gone.

There was no future security in the girlfriend's relationship, there was no genuine concern for her wellbeing from her boyfriend, there was no protection from STDs that she expected in a committed relationship, there was no foundation of trust. Many of the benefits she believed she was getting from being in a relationship, she was not actually getting.

HeartsAndClubs · 14/10/2021 19:47

But why would you feel distrustful of whoever sent the mail? Ultimately they were telling you the truth, not lying to you that nothing was going on! Did you ask around your friendship group if any of them had sent it? I just don’t get your stance tbh, even if they told you for revenge or to hurt you, ultimately the joke’s on them because they saved you from a shit relationship, and if they told you for reasons of wanting to help you/tell the truth, they did you a favour. I can understand having a burning curiosity as to who sent it but not that it would feel like an extra betrayal. can you really not work that out? Are you really that short-sighted?

Surely it should be obvious to everyone that the reason for finding out anonymously isn’t about finding out, it’s about knowing that someone you know knows what’s going on, but you don’t know who it is. And you don’t know who else knows, and you don’t know who they’re talking to about it while being sweetness and light to your face.

minatrina · 14/10/2021 19:48

Hm I don't know. What I can say with certainty, is that if I were the girlfriend then I would be grateful to whoever sent me the letter.

HeartsAndClubs · 14/10/2021 19:55

Yeah, the thing is that the reason that it hurts when you find out is that the damage is already done.

No, the hurt is caused by the realisation that someone, perhaps everyone you know, is talking behind your back, plotting to tell you what they know, safe in the knowledge that you’ll never know it was them.
The pain comes from looking back and realising that what you thought was true was a lie, what you thought was secure was insecure, from the anxiety of wondering if your health is now compromised. The pain is the realisation of your own divided life, the split between what's real and what you only perceived to be real, the loss of a future you trusted was secure. But all of the positive things you believed you had were already gone.

Who are you to tell someone who has been the victim of an anonymous tip-off what it was that caused their hurt?

Who are you to dismiss someone’s feelings on the basis that you think the anonymous teller was the one in the right?

Yet more proof that this has nothing to do with wanting to protect anyone’s feelings but your own.

DrSbaitso · 14/10/2021 19:56

to protect herself from fallout from a situation that she did not in any way create.

But she did create it! That's what happens when you tell. Fallout! She told precisely because she wanted fallout and didn't think it would happen if she didn't do it! That's why she felt a wish to protect herself! Because she was making something happen!

KirstenBlest · 14/10/2021 19:59

Absolutely, @CheekyHobson.

Finding out that the previous 2 years or whatever was a complete lie and that people knew.

Can you really see someone sticking their neck out and sitting down with you and telling you that your beloved DH is actually a cheat?

Imagine the advice you'd get if you started a thread on here

'I've got a strong suspicion that my friend's DH is having an affair our recently divorced friend...' You'd be told to butt out.

Reality is if you stuck your neck out, the DW would tell you to go to hell and you'd lose your friendship group.

Yet MN would be chirrupping 'men and women can just be friends'and the usual sort of s**te

CheekyHobson · 14/10/2021 20:01

the hurt is caused by the realisation that someone, perhaps everyone you know, is talking behind your back, plotting to tell you what they know, safe in the knowledge that you’ll never know it was them.

To be honest I think you're projecting the hurt you feel about your partner's betrayal onto other people, and validating why whoever told you anonymously chose to do so. What you know for sure is that one person (your partner) betrayed you by doing something that was against your best interests behind your back.

But now you have magnified this breach of trust into thinking many others ("perhaps everyone you know") were betraying you and plotting against you. When the reality is that perhaps just one person knew and told you because they thought you deserved to have the facts about your own life.

Tiredofbs123 · 14/10/2021 20:02

I found out by snooping but I damn well wish I’d found out earlier by whatever means. Anonymous or not.

My physical, mental, emotional and sexual health was being put directly at risk. My ability to make choices about my life

KirstenBlest · 14/10/2021 20:02

I've seen the damage that a friend's H's affair did to her and her children and her family. Someone they all trusted and had welcomed as a member of their family.

Yet she by MN standards is expected to be completely accepting of her DC's new 'siblings' (half-siblings) and just suck it up.

Tiredofbs123 · 14/10/2021 20:02

Sorry posted before finished,.. but my choices were ripped away. It was only on discovery I got my life back. That’s the truth for many betrayed.

HeartsAndClubs · 14/10/2021 20:08

@ CheekyHobson have you had an anonymous tip-off? Because there is a poster on this thread who has, and she has written in great detail about how she felt.

And people are quick to point out that when a man cheats he gaslights his partner into thinking various scenarios, and now you are doing the same. You’re telling someone how she feels, even though you’re not in charge of those feelings.

You care mor about yourself than about the feelings of the person whose life you are wading into. If you actually cared about them you would tell them in person,if that meant your friendship was destroyed then that would be their choice to make, and would be the consequence of what you’d done.

But by telling her anonymously you’re protecting yourself and only yourself, and daring to suggest that she can’t possibly feel a certain way, how dare she? You’ve done her a favour.

Gaslighting in the extreme.

SiberianSafari · 14/10/2021 20:11

I think you did the right thing. I would always want to know and would be grateful to whoever told me (unless it was the sidepiece who told, of course). You've freed the GF from lies and bullshit and now she can make her own choices. I can also imagine being fascinated about how it all plays out and there's nothing wrong in that.

KirstenBlest · 14/10/2021 20:14

@HeartvsBrain Gaslighting in the extreme.

Utter bollocks, posted anonymously.

DrSbaitso · 14/10/2021 20:14

To be honest I think you're projecting the hurt you feel about your partner's betrayal onto other people, and validating why whoever told you anonymously chose to do so.

Yet again, the betrayed wife who doesn't approve of anonymous tipoffs being told why she's wrong and how she really feels.

You'd think that if people really were motivated by concern for the wife, as they claim to be, they'd actually sodding listen. But that would mean having to understand that not everyone feels the same about the situation. And so maybe you shouldn't go blundering in unless you really are close enough to be sure of what you're doing, and to be a support.

But hey, a cheater won't get away with it, and that's worth any amount of pain. Except for the one with the God complex...

LindyLou2020 · 14/10/2021 20:23

@DrSbaitso

And to answer your question*@DrSbaitso, yes, I would say what I am saying on this particular thread if we were all on this forum having joined under our real names.*

I didn't ask that question.

@DrSbaitso

You're absolutely right - sorry 🤦‍♀️
It should have been @HeartsAndClubs I was replying to.
Good job you're on the ball - time for me to bow out I think......😪

DrSbaitso · 14/10/2021 20:25

You're absolutely right - sorry

No problem! Don't worry about it.

CheekyHobson · 14/10/2021 20:37

@HeartsAndClubs @DrSbaitso

At the end of the day, everyone is responsible for managing their own feelings, which involves an element of choice.

The PP who received an anonymous tip-off has a pretty good idea of who sent it (having access to messages and photos shrinks the pool of candidates a lot). She knows her partner betrayed her, and that is hurtful for clear reasons. She also knows someone else v close to the situation decided to tell her, and she doesn't know their true motivations. That's also reality, and that also hurts.

But to then decide that everyone she knows must be under suspicion, perhaps unworthy of trust, perhaps laughing at her, that goes way beyond genuine hurt based in reality and becomes hurt that she is actively choosing and hanging onto herself. She can choose to think differently there. She can choose to believe that even if more people knew about it, they probably felt unsure and didn't want to get involved. They didn't want to hurt her. They were scared of her lashing out and losing her friendship. Not that they were laughing at her.

Being hurt by a real betrayal is one thing. Being hurt because you choose to project that betrayal onto many other people is quite another. It is not gaslighting to say that.

minatrina · 14/10/2021 20:40

I think this is just one of those things where there is no right or wrong.

Some people are grateful to be told no matter by who or how, and some people would have preferred to simply never find out. And in general, people tend to treat people how they would like to be treated. So whether telling her was the right thing to do or not is going to entirely depend on who you're asking and what they'd like to happen if it were them.

DrSbaitso · 14/10/2021 20:43

At the end of the day, everyone is responsible for managing their own feelings, which involves an element of choice.

Being hurt because you choose to project that betrayal onto many other people is quite another. It is not gaslighting to say that.

I don't think it's gaslighting. I just think it's phenomenally presumptuous to claim you're acting in the best interests of the betrayed wife, and then proceed to tell her why she's wrong when she disapproves of what you do, and why you know better than she does what she's feeling and what she should want. Whose interests are you really serving?

As for throwing a grenade into her life unbidden and then saying it's on her to manage her feelings, well.

CheekyHobson · 14/10/2021 20:58

I don't think it's gaslighting. I just think it's phenomenally presumptuous to claim you're acting in the best interests of the betrayed wife, and then proceed to tell her why she's wrong when she disapproves of what you do, and why you know better than she does what she's feeling and what she should want. Whose interests are you really serving?

Who are you actually talking to and about here? I think you've conflated a lot of individual scenarios into one and I'm not sure what the takeaway is meant to be.

As for throwing a grenade into her life unbidden and then saying it's on her to manage her feelings, well.

Again, it's a bit unclear who and what you're talking about here. The OP sent an anonymous letter to someone she barely knew, which is a fairly practical decision under the circumstances. If she had been a close friend, perhaps she would have decided to tell her about the affair directly, because she would have a pre-existing relationship in which she could then offer support.

OP didn't say it was on the girlfriend to manage her feelings, I did, but it is reality. Yes, the OP decided to tell the girlfriend, and her motivations are impossible to define clearly. But her message was honest, and it resulted in the girlfriend being confronted with a reality about her own life.

Yes, she's going to have unpleasant feelings about this newly discovered reality, and yes, she will have to manage them. She can do that in many ways, which include the option of forgiving her partner and potentially build a stronger relationship that is now based in reality, not delusion. The OP's motivations for telling the girlfriend ultimately are not that relevant to the outcomes afterwards.

Sidehustle99 · 14/10/2021 22:48

I do not agree everyone should tiptoe around the DP so she doesn't have to feel anything.

What she does with the information is up to her. Otherwise it's like telling the kids the dog went to live on a farm. We are grown ups and information is key. Not telling is as bad as lying about it. It's deceit through omission.

I strongly suspect those that would rather bury their heads and pretend everything is ok would sooner or later have to face those same emotions anyway in the full knowledge that everyone knew and no one choose to tell them.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. Again I say I would want to know and I think you did the right thing.

Onthedunes · 14/10/2021 23:35

@DrSbaitso

I just think it's interesting that, given how much we understand the pain and devastation cheating can cause, so many people would willingly actively bring it on, and even take pleasure in it, if they can a) convince themselves they are no more than a "messenger", despite tasking themselves to do it and b) can get the satisfaction of a cheater getting their supposed comeuppance. Optional c) if they can do it to everyone's pain but their own...it's only other people's suffering that can be justified.

I don't think you should never ever tell. But I think if you do, you should be close enough to the situation to be very sure it's for the best, and to be a support when needed, and to be open and transparent about who you are.

If you're happy, gleeful even, to make collateral damage out of innocents because it satisfies whatever urges are in YOU ...

This os probably one of the most hypocritical posts I've read as a counter argument.

"I dont think you should ever tell. But i think if you do you should be close enough to the situation to be very sure it's for the best, and to be a support when needed and to be open and transparent about who you are....."

Just as the ow is, is she being open and transparent about who she is ?

The level of control about this post is astonishing, you have accused others of having a God complex, but you are determining who and how close someone should be as to whether they recieve support and whether they are to be delivered the truth. Spoken like a true allienator.

How very convienient for the ow.

You have two arguments, the first being your disgust of someone being the bearer of truth by anoymous means.
Why are you upset about the concept of using anonyminity to uncover truths, to uncover injustice and to right a wrong.

There are many situations that require anonyminity that help others, tip offs to the police to catch criminals, whitleblowers that unearth all manner of deceitful acts, investagative journalists that livelihoods depend on speaking the truth for the good of mankind, they use these anonymous sources to put pen to paper and risk their own lives to make injustices heard.
This years Nobel Peace Prize has gone to two such brave individuals from Russia and the Phillipines, who have feircessly defended freedom of speech in their own countries, where do you believe they attain many of their sources of information.

When people phone social services to report their concerns for an abused child, what should they have done, approached the family first ?

You yourself admitted it is wrong to have an affair, but is it not quite wrong enough, the faux concern you have for the wife is laughable and extremely transparent.

Your second argument is really a latch on to the poster @Lobelia123, a convienient flying monkey.

@Lobelia123 I'm sorry what happened to you but your reasoning and subsequent anger are misplaced as others have said.

Your anger and total mistrust in the people arround you is due to your husband, no matter how you found out, you would have been gossiped about because his affair was public knowledge. Believe me you would still have been untrusting of the world, and paranoid because HE did that to you, regardless of who told you.

He humiliated you, he put you in that possition of not protecting you and your reputation.
He decided to take the chance of making you look a fool to others, it wasnt your anonymous tipper offer.
She may have wanted that to end for you, the gossipping, the stares, the pittying, She may have wanted to give you back some control over the situation.

If it were me I would be trying to find out who she was so I could give her a bunch of flowers.

I understand you may feel differently if you stay with your partner but here is where your anger lies in such an instance, you don't want the secret out so are angry she has the knowledge to spread the word.
Again it is not her fault, it is your husbands, he gave them/her a weapon to embarrass you.

@DrSbaitso would love you as the wife, if she was a ow (which many of the posters have assumed she may have been) you would be someone to turn the situation round and blame the wrong person, someone to manipulate.

You are a master of subterfuge @Dr, you would have made an excellent politician.

WaltzingBetty · 15/10/2021 06:45

@DrSbaitso

At the end of the day, everyone is responsible for managing their own feelings, which involves an element of choice.

Being hurt because you choose to project that betrayal onto many other people is quite another. It is not gaslighting to say that.

I don't think it's gaslighting. I just think it's phenomenally presumptuous to claim you're acting in the best interests of the betrayed wife, and then proceed to tell her why she's wrong when she disapproves of what you do, and why you know better than she does what she's feeling and what she should want. Whose interests are you really serving?

As for throwing a grenade into her life unbidden and then saying it's on her to manage her feelings, well.

Gosh, you spend an awful lot of your time arguing simply to slag off the actions of a stranger on the internet Confused