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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

Found photos on boyfriend's phone

30 replies

sarahw1993 · 17/05/2023 18:46

Looking for advice! Might be long - sorry!

Found my boyfriend in the act of zooming in on a woman's photo. Was someone I didn't recognise wearing a fairly revealing outfit. I asked him what the photo was and he explained that he had screenshotted a photo and was zooming in to see her boobs. He saw it on Instagram reels and it just randomly popped up. No one he knows. I was a bit upset and pissed off that he was doing it right next to me. Asked him if that was all there was to it. Told me that was it.

Slept on it. Asked him again in the morning to show me the photo and it then transpires that it's a woman on Facebook who keeps popping up as a person he might know. And that when she pops up he goes and has a look through her photos. Again wasnt best pleased he'd gone out his way to lie but accepted and moved on.

This morning, for the first time ever I decided to look through his iPad. I have never done this before. See it as a breach of trust and privacy. But something didn't add up for me.

I found hidden away an entire folder of screenshots of all different women. All those he knows. My work colleagues, friends, family, people he works with. As bad as it can be really. They were all just screenshots taken from Facebook. Nothing that was sent to him directly. So I'm happy knowing that he's not been sent this stuff.

I'm pretty upset. We have a young child and I'm pregnant again. I'm also not particularly big boobed and self conscious having not lost the pregnancy weight from my first - let alone being pregnant again.

He's a perfect husband and a great father. This has come as a huge shock. He says it's a compulsion/addiction. He's ashamed. Promised he'll never do it again. What do I do?

OP posts:
sarahw1993 · 26/02/2024 18:38

Secondstart1001 · 26/02/2024 16:35

@sarahw1993 counselling / cbt for addicts ect.

Ah I'm with you. We attended some sessions with a therapist specialised in sexual addictions. It was useful to a point but I personally didn't connect with them. Maybe I should have suggested my partner carrying on but we both felt at the time it wasn't a huge help.

I may bring this up again soon and see where his head is at and whether he'd like to continue with sessions.

It didn't help that it was very expensive and I was about to head on maternity leave so household finances trumped the cost of the therapy.

OP posts:
sarahw1993 · 26/02/2024 18:41

pinkfondu · 26/02/2024 16:43

They were all just screenshots taken from Facebook. Nothing that was sent to him directly. So I'm happy knowing that he's not been sent this stuff.

So people post photos and he is keeping them in a wank bank and its people you know. I think that worse than keeping some he's been sent for the purpose

Yes it's not great either way is it. I guess for me there would have been a distinction between what he did and whether there was someone else involved.

OP posts:
Secondstart1001 · 26/02/2024 21:38

@sarahw1993 I’ve read your updates today and looks like you’re moving forward in a better space. If counselling too expensive maybe get some self help books you can both dip into, read and discuss? Not any I can recommend but research and I hope things keep improving x

RebelliousStarrChild · 27/02/2024 01:51

He has a sex addiction, He definitely needs ongoing help
He gets off on the fact that it's wrong. That's why he's choosing people you know rather than pornhub.
He will be triggered to do this again during stressful periods of his life unless he learns how to cope with that stress in healthier ways.

Did he have sessions on his own or were all of your sessions as a couple?

Sushimad · 29/02/2024 02:07

@sarahw1993 thanks for the update. I'm glad to hear things have been better for you 🙂
I don't think you're mad for wanting to work at it. Apart from anything else, I think it's human nature to want to fix things and make them better.
It may work out, or it may not, but it's your right and choice to make.
I wish you luck, and I hope things keep going well for you.
I think it's natural for it to still be affecting you even though you've drawn a line under it. He needs to earn your trust back, and that takes time. It should get easier for you with time, and if it doesn't, that is probably something you'd need to reflect upon.

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