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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

DH lied.

335 replies

ireallyshouldntbesurprised · 14/07/2022 20:24

DH has form for lying, he’s lied about tiny, insignificant things over the years, but he’s also lied about some big, shitty things too.

Each time he’s caught in a lie, I remind him of just how much I detest being lied to, he apologises and we attempt to move on - but it of course nibbles away at my trust each and every time.

Today, DH had meetings in London. I was told last night the meetings were a ‘big corporate spiel lasting from 9am to 5pm’. Anyway, I checked our tracking app that we have on our phones shortly after lunchtime, to see that DH wasn’t where I thought he would be (the HQ office), but was instead, in some random bar in a different area of London.

I messaged DH an hour or so later, asking him how he was getting on etc. He told me it was fine but a bit boring. I then asked him if his meeting was being held in the usual place and he stopped replying.

He got in this evening and I asked him what time the meeting ended up finishing, and if it’d been held at the HQ, to which I was told ‘yep, normal place, we finished up around half 4, was supposed to be 5 but they rushed through a couple bits so we could duck out a tiny bit early’.

Now, I can see from our app that he left the building where the meetings are held shortly after 2pm and was in a bar from then, until he left to get the train at around 5:30pm. When I asked him if he’d stayed and had any drinks, he told me that ‘once the meeting was finished, they left the HQ and he had one quick pint before getting the train’. I also asked him if the blokes from work were staying ‘out out’ for drinks after the meeting, and he told me they were apparently heading to a certain bar in Shoreditch. Well, I checked the app, and lo and behold, that bar that his colleagues were supposedly heading to ‘after’ DH had left, was in the fact, the bar DH had been sitting in for three hours.

For what it’s worth, the apps we use are never wrong. They might show you’re stood a few metres from where you actually are, but it would never show you as being MILES away from where you are, if you see what I mean. I can also tell when DH is lying by the level of (false) details he gives in answers.

I haven’t yet told DH that I know he’s bare face lied to me, but I am seething. He knows my stance on lying. He knows that above all else in life, I’m always, always going to be more mad about a lie than something he may or may not have done. It’s the lying. I can’t stand it. I don’t care that the meeting finished early. I don’t care that he sunk a couple pints in the midday sun. What I do care about is the fact he seemingly thinks so little of me, that lying about stupid shit is like a second nature to him.

Would you confront your DH if you knew he’d so breezily lied to you?

OP posts:
kateandme · 20/07/2022 06:37

Op you are going crazy.and this.dont stop.ecery day.everythi g you both do will drive you mad.
You will question everything.
Everyone.even outside your relationship soon.
Because your esteem and weariness will make you just tired of it all. Will be battered and broken.
It's not sustainable.something will blow.
Don't let it be your mental state or your kids!

1VY · 20/07/2022 07:30

As I said upthread OP, i was married to a man like this for 20 years. And i think theres no point in you going to Birmingham. Because theres 2 options here.

  1. he is having an affair
  2. hes playing mind games with you.
i think its 2 here. It might be both. But this time its 2, because he could just have kept quiet about the whole hotel thing.

I believe he is punishing you for asking him questions and not believing him. Because, like some of the posters on this, he thinks its all about YOU and you not believing him or trusting him or being paranoid.

Its not bizarre or crazy or pointless behaviour. It’s completely logical and Rational from his perspective.

Its having EXACTLY the desired effect. You are on edge all the time. Not thinking about your work / kids/ sick granny / yourself but about HIM. He is the focus of your mind and attention. Its all about him just as he wants it to be.

Also he is getting off on telling all his friends and Colleagues what a crazy bitch you are. That even when he is staying in the hotel with everyone else, you are still demanding the room number and even tracking him ( his version of events ). That you wont even let him go for one pint with the lads so he is forced to lie to you. Etc etc.

Abusive and controlling men love to play the victim. And it works, as you can see here, theres still posters blaming you for his behaviour Hmm. Though I suspect some of them are liars and deceivers themselves. Or have been brainwashed by one.

He’s not going to change. This isnt a behaviour, its who he is.

Please think about going to counselling yourself . And making an escape plan. I know its not easy and it may take years. But put your energy into you.

Thewookiemustgo · 20/07/2022 09:36

@1000chairs sorry you had this too.

Great post above, I understand the ‘what’s the point it’s who he is’ and agree with it, but I also think that knowledge is power (so does he, he’s using it to abuse and control OP) and that it might help OP to see it with her own eyes and finally know and face at least something which is an incontrovertible fact.

ireallyshouldntbesurprised · 20/07/2022 10:44

@1VY Thank you for your reply, a lot of it really hit home and made sense to me - particularly the part about him playing the victim and making me out to be the crazy one.

I must admit, I really struggle with the idea that this is simply who he is and it isn't behaviour that can be changed. I think that's why I've hung around for as long as I have. There are countless other things he's done to me/put me through over the years that I've 'put up with' thinking "this isn't who he really is, he's got it in him to change if he just does X or Y", yet I'm shown time and time again that actually, he can't or won't change.

That's a hard realisation. We've all got our faults and I believe that most people can change for the better if they put the work in/actually want to, but I think I'm starting to see that that isn't the case here.

DH doesn't want to change because he doesn't have to. He can do whatever he likes and there are no consequences for him, he gets away with absolutely everything so what incentive does he have to change?

I have a lot to think about and mull over.

OP posts:
1VY · 20/07/2022 10:48

Thewookiemustgo · 20/07/2022 09:36

@1000chairs sorry you had this too.

Great post above, I understand the ‘what’s the point it’s who he is’ and agree with it, but I also think that knowledge is power (so does he, he’s using it to abuse and control OP) and that it might help OP to see it with her own eyes and finally know and face at least something which is an incontrovertible fact.

If he defo is cheating this time then yes, if the OP saw his with OW then it might help her. But

what if she sees him in the bar with his arm around a woman and he says it’s just a colleague and she was upset because her dog died?

what if she sees a woman going into her husbands bedroom and he says it was just a colleague borrowing his laptop for a presentation ?

if anyone from his work sees the OP , she will indeed look crazy.

what if he is just gas lighting her this time? Maybe he was going to stay in another hotel with OW but she has cancelled now so he is innocently staying alone ?

who knows ?

Men like this lie as easily as breathe. He can talk his way out of anything and when he has run of of lies he will Stonewall her until she apologises.

1000chairs · 20/07/2022 12:09

"Men like this lie as easily as breathe. He can talk his way out of anything and when he has run of of lies he will Stonewall her until she apologises."

If OP was there and introduced herself in many of the scenarios you mention in your comment, her DH cannot then just wriggle out by stonewalling.

MNetters very good at suggesting it's an affair, raising red flags etc, planting seeds of doubt and advocating LTB without absolute evidence.

Calling it a day on a long invested marriage does require absolute evidence, especially when many women have been so worn down by abuse in the form of stonewalling and gaslighting. We need to see it in black and white to be able to make good judgement. It sounds like OP has no evidence just more dodgy behaviour from her DH and this work hotel stay is a good enough time as any. Yes, there are far more issues going on than a possible affair, lack of respect and lying to name but a few. However OP needs that evidence to end this turmoil, get ducks in row and come to a quick decision rather than soldier on unhappy until it smacks her in the face when he just ups an leaves.

dramakween · 20/07/2022 12:15

DH doesn't want to change because he doesn't have to. He can do whatever he likes and there are no consequences for him, he gets away with absolutely everything so what incentive does he have to change?

Exactly. But then it's a real bummer when you give the ultimatum and they suddenly decide to change, and you realise their motivation to change isn't ever going to be care for how you feel but selfish reasons like how the consequences will impact on them or make them look....

Dacquoise · 20/07/2022 12:23

My exH was a complete liar, mostly connected to his selfishness and needing to do exactly as he pleased at all times ie all spare time belonged to him and his hobbies despitehavinga family. This even translated into using most of his annual leave to play sport but left for the day as if he was going to work.

The worst part was he got a kick out of his passive aggressiveness and would brag about what he had got away with, when drunk, to our daughter, telling her not to tell 'mum'. No concept of the emotional damage to her having to keep his secrets. She didn't and I think he actually wanted her to tell me to torment me.

Needless to say the marriage didn't last. I saw it as a complete lack of respect and part of his dysfunctional personality in having to play these games. Now with someone who wouldn't dream of indulging in this crap and life is so much more pleasant. I wouldn't waste my life on a liar @ireallyshouldntbesurprised

Dacquoise · 20/07/2022 12:59

1VY · 20/07/2022 07:30

As I said upthread OP, i was married to a man like this for 20 years. And i think theres no point in you going to Birmingham. Because theres 2 options here.

  1. he is having an affair
  2. hes playing mind games with you.
i think its 2 here. It might be both. But this time its 2, because he could just have kept quiet about the whole hotel thing.

I believe he is punishing you for asking him questions and not believing him. Because, like some of the posters on this, he thinks its all about YOU and you not believing him or trusting him or being paranoid.

Its not bizarre or crazy or pointless behaviour. It’s completely logical and Rational from his perspective.

Its having EXACTLY the desired effect. You are on edge all the time. Not thinking about your work / kids/ sick granny / yourself but about HIM. He is the focus of your mind and attention. Its all about him just as he wants it to be.

Also he is getting off on telling all his friends and Colleagues what a crazy bitch you are. That even when he is staying in the hotel with everyone else, you are still demanding the room number and even tracking him ( his version of events ). That you wont even let him go for one pint with the lads so he is forced to lie to you. Etc etc.

Abusive and controlling men love to play the victim. And it works, as you can see here, theres still posters blaming you for his behaviour Hmm. Though I suspect some of them are liars and deceivers themselves. Or have been brainwashed by one.

He’s not going to change. This isnt a behaviour, its who he is.

Please think about going to counselling yourself . And making an escape plan. I know its not easy and it may take years. But put your energy into you.

Second this too. My exH would give me umpteen excuses to get out of doing things that were his responsibility, usually work related excuses, that I wouldn't be able to verify. I couldn't check up on him without a load of hassle so he thought he was safe and I was the mad/unreasonable/controlling one for doubting him.

But I KNEW he was lying/manipulating me. Trust your instincts. There were also obvious clues including the sun tan he would sometimes turn up with ie been abroad on a golf trip whilst claiming he was working. Also the work trip to Florida turned up on Facebook as a holiday to Barbados with his girlfriend when he let our DD down on a promised holiday.

Canabelievethis · 06/08/2022 19:29

@ireallyshouldntbesurprised - how are you OP?

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