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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

Telling a woman about her husband’s gay affairs...

225 replies

saturnaliand · 08/11/2021 10:31

First off, I don’t actually intend on telling her anything, although I could.

I guess I’d be interested in knowing if you’d want to know if this were your man?

The man I’m referring to is middle-aged and was upfront with his wife from the beginning that he’d had gay relationships and she was ok with this in a kind of ‘as long as you tell me and do not lie’ kind of way. That’s easy to agree to when you’re young, in love (with a woman you want to marry) and not intending on doing anything with anyone else, male or female.

It’s harder when you’re older, children almost grown up, sex life with the wife non-existent and you were gay to begin with. This isn’t some new thing he’s been experimenting with, he’s always been gay but he wanted the normality (apologies for the word) of being in a heterosexual relationship as he disliked the gay lifestyle and was regularly cheated on by the boyfriends he’d had when single.

Marrying a woman who was a lot less likely to cheat and he could have a family with seemed the better option.

He’s had some flings over the last few years or so and has recently started a new one as the last one was cut short because of the lockdowns and pandemic. Rather than go back to the previous boyfriend (if that’s the right term), he joined one of the popular hookup sites (Fabguys.com I think) and has met someone from there.

They meet regularly under the guise of going to the gym and often book hotels for the other workouts they enjoy. They go for meals, to the theatre and it’s a real ‘bromance’. The new boyfriend is also married to a woman and has a family.

To the outside world, this man is just a respectable married man with a family, but he has a controlling personality that he seems to reserve for his boyfriends. One of his ex-boyfriends that he’s had during his marriage needed therapy to get over his possessiveness, his jealousy, his moodiness and his constant need for attention as well as the cruel way the boyfriend was dumped and replaced with another.

Some of his behaviour to his boyfriends is borderline ‘gas-lighting’ behaviour.

His wife sees a totally different side, the nice side, as do his children and, so far, the new boyfriend.

This man hasn’t no intention of leaving his wife or nice lifestyle and presumably no intention of confirming her suspicions that’s he has a new boyfriend. She’s not known about any of them, just has suspicions.

He doesn’t see he’s doing anything wrong as he’s not getting sex at home, his wife knows he’s gay and has a new best friend. She just doesn’t know for certain that her husband and his new mate are lovers.

If you were his wife, would you want to know?

OP posts:
DameMaureen · 08/11/2021 11:23

It's really none of your business . You seem to know so much but it would seem that most of this is second and third hand .

saturnaliand · 08/11/2021 11:25

@PlausibleSuit

I'd want to know why you know so much about it, and why you're happy to splaff fairly specific details of their personal lives on the internet.

As an out gay man myself I would say that in my experience, men who remain partially or entirely closeted and entangle themselves in these longstanding faux-heterosexual arrangements are like hand grenades pinned to catherine wheels; damaging everyone around them as well as themselves.

I’ve not been specific and have been deliberately vague whilst also trying to put enough information here so people can form an opinion.

I’m only after opinions.

OP posts:
Signalstation · 08/11/2021 11:25

@Saturnaliand you sound like what my Grandad would call 'a proper decent sort'. You want to do what's right and you have a sense that this situation isn't right. You're right to point out that this man needs to realise the consequences of his actions.

Not sure why this man is being so closeted - it isnt the 1960s.

It's a bit of a moral dilemma for you really. Go with your gut xx

Glassofshloer · 08/11/2021 11:26

Leave it be. I would be surprised if his wife didn’t know, but maybe she doesn’t care enough to upset the applecart & enjoys a stable married life with him. Is it possible she is also bi/lesbian? I know of a marriage where both parties are bisexual and have flings/partners outside their marriage, and that was their agreement from the outset.

Atla · 08/11/2021 11:28

I imagine she already knows, and probably that they have some sort of agreement about what is acceptable to her. With respect, you only have a second hand version of events from your friends point of view.

All other things aside, her husband's behaviour toward his affair partners/boyfriends is nothing to do with her. I don't know what you think telling her would achieve - it's not going to stop him treating people badly.

sybillalle · 08/11/2021 11:29

All your information is third hand. You have no idea what he has told his wife about being bisexual, her reaction, whether or not they have sex and so on. Friend could be making things up, married man could be lying to friend. So it's weird that you're talking so confidently about these things.

Having said that, personally, I would want to know if my DH had had sexual relations with any other person, as that would be a violation of our vows and would not be acceptable to me, and I would wish to end the marriage.

youvegottenminuteslynn · 08/11/2021 11:35

You absolutely don't know if he still has sex with his wife or not. Or what their relationship is like behind closed doors.

It's really odd that you think you do.

You only know what one of this man's boyfriends has told you. He only knows what this man has told him.

Timessup · 08/11/2021 11:37

Reading this thread with interest as I have suspicions about my ex although he's never told me he's attracted to men, the evidence is growing. Jeez, I would want to know, first and foremost - STDs. But you say he doesn't have sex with his wife. Are you sure?

Sparklfairy · 08/11/2021 11:37

Despite the updates, I think the OP is the husband.

GoodnightGrandma · 08/11/2021 11:37

I’d suggest that she’s happy to have his money and security, and turn a blind eye.

Timessup · 08/11/2021 11:41

@Sparklfairy

Despite the updates, I think the OP is the husband.
The husband wouldn't admit to gaslighting would he?!
GrandOld · 08/11/2021 11:42

Best friend - yes I'd tell them.

A random women - no I wouldn't.

BoredZelda · 08/11/2021 11:46

Unless the person telling me was my sister or my best friend, no I wouldn’t want to hear it from someone.

Cas112 · 08/11/2021 11:47

What has this got to do with you?

Playingoutinthedark · 08/11/2021 11:48

I think you need to ask yourself what you possibly hope to achieve by telling the wife.

Is it just to do the morally right thing? Is it to see him suffer in the way he has made those close to you suffer? Is it to humiliate his wife and children who are old enough to be aware of the fall out.

Personally, your post reads like you are coming from a place of wanting to hurt the man in question. Which will not help anyone.

Signalstation · 08/11/2021 11:54

I cannot work out if OP is male or female but they certainly don't come across as wanting to hurt the man in question to me.

oakleaffy · 08/11/2021 12:01

The wife is bound to know.
A gay friend I know has a married boyfriend with grown up DC, there has been zero sex - so say- for many years, and they only very recently got legally married, having been together decades.

Married men and gay sex is not uncommon
As long as condoms are used ( as with any affair) it helps stop spread of STI s

Beefcurtains79 · 08/11/2021 12:02

The OP seems to want to hurt the man to me - and randomly his wife too….,just because he dumped her mate?
Was this mate happy to shag this man behind his wife’s back then?

ThePoliceOfficer · 08/11/2021 12:02

I think

  1. it’s none of your business
  2. your ’intel’ is not first hand so unlikely to be accurate
  3. If all this is true the wife likely knows already
Thymeout · 08/11/2021 12:10

This is nothing to do with you. It sounds as if you'd be acting out of the dubious motive of revenge/payback as a surrogate for your friend who thinks he was treated badly.

It sounds as if the couple have a Don't Ask, Don't Tell arrangement and I would be v surprised if she didn't already know, but would be disturbed to find out that it was public knowledge. How do you think your intervention would help anyone?

saturnaliand · 08/11/2021 12:12

[quote Signalstation]@Saturnaliand you sound like what my Grandad would call 'a proper decent sort'. You want to do what's right and you have a sense that this situation isn't right. You're right to point out that this man needs to realise the consequences of his actions.

Not sure why this man is being so closeted - it isnt the 1960s.

It's a bit of a moral dilemma for you really. Go with your gut xx[/quote]
Thanks!

My gut instinct is to obviously stay out of things, however, there’s a small part which thinks she (the wife) should know, but that’s only a small part of me.

Also, it’s my friend (who’s an ex-boyfriend of the husband) who’d probably have to do the telling and he doesn’t want to, but I’ve seen how broken he was left by this man and, yes, he had an affair with a man he knew was married so in that sense he’s not without blame.

OP posts:
oakleaffy · 08/11/2021 12:15

@HollowTalk

I think he's the guy who needed therapy, otherwise how would he know about it?
Yes, I thought that. Someone who has been hurt by the husband who so say “ Has it all his own way”

Sadly blackmail still goes on in cases like this- Where one of the party for religious or professional reasons is “ Terrified “ of being outed.

I think it is much better to be honest and upfront about being Gay, it stops blackmailers on their tracks.

saturnaliand · 08/11/2021 12:15

@youvegottenminuteslynn

You absolutely don't know if he still has sex with his wife or not. Or what their relationship is like behind closed doors.

It's really odd that you think you do.

You only know what one of this man's boyfriends has told you. He only knows what this man has told him.

I’ve seen texts from my friend to the husband where the question has been asked, although the man obviously lies on a regular basis so it can’t be said for certain that the husband and wife aren’t having sex any longer, but part of the justification by the husband for the gay affairs was that he was not getting sex at home.
OP posts:
SirGawain · 08/11/2021 12:21

Reverse??

youvegottenminuteslynn · 08/11/2021 12:23

I’ve seen texts from my friend to the husband where the question has been asked, although the man obviously lies on a regular basis so it can’t be said for certain that the husband and wife aren’t having sex any longer, but part of the justification by the husband for the gay affairs was that he was not getting sex at home.

I mean... it's the oldest script in the book whether someone is having an affair with other men or other women.

"We aren't having sex anymore" / "We sleep in separate beds now" / "We're more like brother and sister" etc

Obviously sometimes it's true. Often it's not.

The one thing you / your friend know for sure about this man is that he's a gaslighter, liar and cheat.

So I wouldn't put too much stock in his version of events tbh.