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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

Why is my ex who abused me treating his partner now so much better. Was it really all my fault?

141 replies

21seconds12 · 11/06/2023 08:57

It’s been 4 years since I left my ex. To me he was abusive. I have moved on and happy in a relationship. I’ve worked through a lot but I’ve just got this one feeling I can’t shift.

The relationship was awful. I can’t decided what happened really other then he had a view of what he wanted, I wasn’t filling it so he treated me crap, like I wasn’t worth being kind or helping me with anything.

He drank and he was aggressive when drunk, he couldn’t control his temper and he smoked weed and wouldn’t stop. He never helped me at home, cleaning was all my responsibility. He promised so many times but he would always come back and say my behaviour led him to need those things because I didn’t love him enough. It was true because I often resented him. For treating me so badly, shouting at me etc etc. I guess it sounds pretty co-dependant. When I left he begged me not to go, would go to therapy etc etc but he had a decade to do something and he never changed. In the end I just didn’t want to be part of it anymore. I couldn’t work after a couple of years became I was just so anxious all the time. I walked on egg shells, I felt so worthless. He treated me like a second class citizen and said I brought nothing into the relationship. So why didn’t he just leave me? I was the one to leave.

So he has moved on and he has stopped all those things he did. Doesn’t drink or smoke and doesn’t shout and put her down. She works and I suppose contributes more. She fulfils his needs much better then I did. But then he doesn’t treat her like he did me. We share a daughter and she tells me these things. Let’s just say it is true. Why has he stopped for her but didn’t for me? I can’t help but think I was the reason to blame. I made him feel unloved and so he took to other things to numb the feeling. The only thing was he wasn’t nice. He never once considered my feelings. My agenda in life was not soley him and his needs I had my own and my own issues etc. He just seemed to stop seeing any worth in me. Unless I was fulfilling what he wanted.

OP posts:
21seconds12 · 11/06/2023 16:55

It’s just so unfair I was left so damaged and he is absolutely fine. It’s like nothing happened and suddenly all his dreams have come true. Like it was me all along. Whilst I’m left with an illness I’ll have forever and ptsd which I’m always having to control. I never ever shouted at him or put him down. I tried so very hard to make him happy and to be the person he would just stop being like that for, but he just couldn’t. I can’t understand how he could be just so awful and now fine. He used to be such a selfish angry person. He could be stop smoking weed, he used to smoke when alone with our daughters. He’d drink and drive. In the end I left to keep her safe. How can he now be this calm loving person with a 180 on his morals and personality.

OP posts:
EarringsandLipstick · 11/06/2023 17:00

Gymgoingfool · 11/06/2023 12:00

I’m going to differ from the “people don’t change” rhetoric that it aappears posters think will somehow make you feel better, that he’s abusing someone else. Of course it won’t, it’s a sick thought.

people behave according to the circumstances they are in. I’ve had relationships where I have not behaved well. We all have. We all have had relationships where we are wonderful partners. How happy we are can impact that.

the fact he was drinking and smoking weed, being horrible, indicates he was deeply unhappy at that point in his life, with himself, his life, his circumstances, his relationship. Should he have ended it, of course, but sometimes we get in a downward spiral and it takes something like you leaving him for him to pull himself out of the tailspin.

it isn’t about you. And it’s not about you v her. It’s about his life then and now, his relationship then and now, even his substance abuse is about this.

some relationships don’t work and make us unhappy. Many people will trek you they are in unhappy relationships and it can impact their behaviour to a shameful level.

it was a period in his life, he’s moved on. It was never about you personally.

That's not true of abusive people - men who abuse women don't change. Their pattern of abuse will, but they fundamentally won't.

I suppose there could be rare cases where they realise that they have been an abuser, commit to change & see it through but that's a very remote possibility.

There is no comparison between 'not behaving well' and being abusive.

EarringsandLipstick · 11/06/2023 17:01

MIBnightmare · 11/06/2023 12:02

It's a very unpopular viewpoint on MN but I do not agree that men don't change - anymore than women don't change. We all change overtime.

I was a weed smoking, coke sniffing party goer in my late teens and twenties who flitted from one relationship to the next. By 30 I had met and married . Calmed down and enjoyed motherhood and full time work for the same employer (now for over 25 years).. my ex and I grew apart after 18 years as we both changed in what we wanted in a partner. I met and married my DH in my late 40s . He has also changed from the person he was in his twenties and had fallen out of love with his ex wife. My ex and his ex are all remarried. We are all content and happy. Our previous relationships were good for then but our current relationships are perfect for now.

Life changes . It's not a reflection on you. It's just that you were not the right one for him at that time and now his partner is the right one for him.

MN always seeks to make women feel better about them selves by denigrating an ex (as though that validates the woman in some way) instead of the simple explanation that you were not right for him . Now someone else is. Just as you have someone else who is right for you. Enjoy it. Comparison is the thief joy. Don't compare.

Jesus Christ!

He abused her. It's not a case of them being a mismatched couple. Can't believe you'd seek to justify his behaviour.

EarringsandLipstick · 11/06/2023 17:01

21seconds12 · 11/06/2023 12:10

@MIBnightmare he threw stuff at me and laughed when I cried. He backed me up against walls and screamed at me. I’m pretty sure he was abusive even if he said sorry after he still did it again.

I'm so sorry 💔

I know how this feels.

HazelBite · 11/06/2023 17:03

Its taken me many years to realise that my exH didn't actually "like" me. He was apparently madly in love with me according to his friends and family so we married, but something felt "off" from the get go, and no matter how much I did for him, gave up for him, loved him I was unhappy because he treated me poorly dismissively, I didn't matter, I was not important, he became rude aggressive was sullen with me, but was Mr Charming personified to any visitors or when we were in a social situation.
I believe he has been married to the same woman for many years now, but he has married someone he was friends with who lived near him during his childhood that he went to school with. He obviously "liked" her, but not me, he pursued me, but once married probably realised he didn't like me and treated me accordingly.

SavBlancTonight · 11/06/2023 17:08

Op, why on earth are you taking responsibility for his abusive behaviour? He was abusive to you. That's a line that he crossed all on his own.

As for current relationship... well, I very very much doubt that he's anywhere near the nice guy you think he is. For a start he's clearly lying to your dd and his new gf about his relationship with you. He's setting a narrative of you being crazy/abusive/difficult etc and actively avoiding taking.in financial responsibility for your dd. Most likely he's also using this as an initial control tactic to the gf, who unfortunately is not seeing the red flags. Eg he will justify negative responses due to "trauma" from his relationship with you or ask her to behave in certain ways because (supposedly) you did the opposite.

Most likely, she is not currently a victim of the level of abuse you were because she is still doing what he wants, so it's easy for him to be nice. But it will change as what he wants will be more and more difficult for her to provide.

WorkHardPlayHard1 · 11/06/2023 17:10

Please don't believe the "happy families" act, it's so fake!

He's trying to blame you for his bad behaviour and you are taking the bait! Please see it for what it is and laugh as you are well out of that crap!

Huge respect and congratulations for having the strength to leave and trust your gut, it was him.

Work on your own self development and self care and use this pain to catapult you to further your own successful life and dreams.

Put your joint past in a box, nail down the lid and get someone better.

Much love and total respect. #gogirl

You will be laughing one day, believe me!! 😜

21seconds12 · 11/06/2023 17:18

i just wish I didn’t have to still hear about it. Daughter comes home and tells me all the places they’ve been all the things he buys her. She is rude to me because I say no to everything she asks for and says she loves daddy more as he buys her let’s her do whatever she wants. He is Disney dad and doing all the things he wouldn’t do when together. He used to travel quite far to work and he’d tell me all the time how he was doing it for me. I’d often tell him to move jobs closer but he refused. Suddenly he’s moved jobs to the place I used to say to so he could be home with us more. I used to beg him to move closer for his own sake but nope.

OP posts:
2bazookas · 11/06/2023 17:28

So he has moved on and he has stopped all those things he did. Doesn’t drink or smoke and doesn’t shout and put her down.

You believe that? Yet the reformed angel still doesn't support his child.

Maybe he's now abujsing her and also your DD, who is now walking on eggshells, too scared to tell the truth, and relaying his lies and fantasies to order.

2bazookas · 11/06/2023 17:32

21seconds12 · 11/06/2023 09:28

@Whatofher if he didn’t like me then why not leave. Why sit and drink and shout and swear and throw things at me and tell me how worthless I am and don’t contribute to anything. It was 8 years like this before daughter came along.

If you didn't like it for 8 years, and there were no children, why didn't YOU leave?

SunnySaturdayinJune · 11/06/2023 17:37

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This has been deleted by MNHQ as it was posted by a previously bas

Mehmeh22 · 11/06/2023 18:25

21seconds12 · 11/06/2023 17:18

i just wish I didn’t have to still hear about it. Daughter comes home and tells me all the places they’ve been all the things he buys her. She is rude to me because I say no to everything she asks for and says she loves daddy more as he buys her let’s her do whatever she wants. He is Disney dad and doing all the things he wouldn’t do when together. He used to travel quite far to work and he’d tell me all the time how he was doing it for me. I’d often tell him to move jobs closer but he refused. Suddenly he’s moved jobs to the place I used to say to so he could be home with us more. I used to beg him to move closer for his own sake but nope.

He would not have changed when with you so just think you've improved your daughter's relationship with her dad! That's the positive from your post

21seconds12 · 11/06/2023 19:13

@2bazookas because I was trapped and isolated and scared. He used to tell me if he caught me with someone else he’d kill them and me. I think that’s kind of the nature of abuse you just can’t leave. I was so caught up trying to change myself because he said I made him behave bad I completely lost myself and my identity.

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21seconds12 · 11/06/2023 19:17

When I did leave he took back all the gifts he gave me, my engagement ring and wedding ring. He told me if I came back he’d hurt me and then told me he felt suicidal. I was a mess a lot of the years I was with him. It took a complete mental breakdown for me to leave. Still he begged me to come back even after threatening me.

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BreaktheCycle · 11/06/2023 20:00

He sounds awful and thankfully you’re now well rid of him.

He’s creating a fake narrative and using your child to feed it back to you. Ignore.

You need to try to move on now. Get some counselling and move on with your life.

21seconds12 · 11/06/2023 20:23

He really was awful. Never wanted to bath or read to the baby, never wanted to take her out. Think he walked the dog 5 times in 4 years. Never gave it any water. He literally has had a personality transplant. I find it hard that someone can change so much. I mean I have changed in that I’m not such a pushover but I haven’t changed my personality, the things I like to do or the way I dress etc, it’s odd and very radical

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BadLad · 11/06/2023 23:44

21seconds12 · 11/06/2023 09:16

It just seems he has everything he wanted with me with her now. They work at the same place. They eat the way he wanted with me, I was not really too interested in his food is my bible lifestyle so much. He goes out on day trips, he just sat at home and smoked with me. He smoked since age 8 so that wasn’t my fault. He has a 1 year old baby with her. She is 12 years younger. She has her own car and house. She has everything so she gets treated so well. Me on the other hand he used to say I made him depressed and I wasn’t worth stopping it for. He didn’t help with our daughter when she was small but he does with his other baby now. His life seems everything he ever wanted. We could have had a nice life but he gave me ptsd and I had a breakdown from panic that just rose and rose.

She has everything so she gets treated so well.

Sounds like he thinks she’ll kick him out if he treats her the way he treated you.

panthermoon · 12/06/2023 05:28

gettingoldisshit · 11/06/2023 09:29

Trust me he most definitely hasn't changed! They never do.

this. I'd bet my house on it OP

panthermoon · 12/06/2023 05:31

Men like this are like AIs. You told him and showed him what would be needed to be an acceptable partner. He's taken the information and is acting it out in his new relationship. She's basically going out with you at the moment -- your good side that he's copied. But heaven forfend when his real self actually shows through. He took something from you OP, he had a parasitic attachment. Think of it like a vampire. I am glad you survived.

21seconds12 · 12/06/2023 06:33

Well he said during court proceedings that she found a broken deeply depressed man and put him back together. Then after a year had his baby so he owes her everything. When he met me he was a broken man who had been abused by his father. That and he needed a visa to stay here. Because of me he got a British passport. I feel like such a twat for helping him so much till I was empty.

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Carryonkeepinggoing · 12/06/2023 07:05

21seconds12 · 12/06/2023 06:33

Well he said during court proceedings that she found a broken deeply depressed man and put him back together. Then after a year had his baby so he owes her everything. When he met me he was a broken man who had been abused by his father. That and he needed a visa to stay here. Because of me he got a British passport. I feel like such a twat for helping him so much till I was empty.

Ah, so he expects his wife to be his savior as well as he perfect ideal of a women. That’s not a good thing. At some point in his life he’s going to feel rubbish again, for whatever reason. Life always throws us a few curve balls. And when it does he will blame her. Either for ´causing’ his rubbish feelings or for failing to fix them.
OP, he’s an abusive arsehole. Currently he’s a happy abusive arsehole and (seemingly) managing to avoid abusive behaviors. But unless he’s learnt some healthy coping mechanisms, and having your wife ´save’ you is not a healthy coping mechanism, his abusive behaviors will start up again when life gets hard.
You were never the problem.
Being his solution is not an enviable position.

Yetisrus · 12/06/2023 07:10

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This has been deleted by MNHQ as it was posted by a previously bas

You sound quite smug and victim blaming is low.

So because I was argumentative and entitled (I wasn't but that's how my ex tells it) I'm not to be believed when I say he was abusive?

I have this fear that no one would believe me if I told them because he's apparently this perfect gentleman who just looks after the women in his life. Your post just makes me think I'm right to keep it to myself.

21seconds12 · 12/06/2023 07:13

@Carryonkeepinggoing I do agree. I once thought he was my saviour, well he used to call himself my knight in shining armour but he was anything less. My next relationship (this one) which is coming up to 3 years I’ve made sure that I don’t ask anything from him I fixed myself. I may have not been 100% before I met him but we took it very slow and only just moved in together. He has helped me have the space and love to help myself. I don’t owe him, he’s not my knight in shining armour, he’s a pain in the arse at times but he has a good heart. My ex only used to see a person as either good or bad. I know we are all capable of being good and bad.

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Zanatdy · 12/06/2023 07:14

You can’t just go on the view of your DD as it’s likely they are on best behaviour around her. But maybe he has stopped drinking and drugs and that would account for a lot of changes in his behaviour. Perhaps they pay a cleaner between them which would cut down a lot of resentment / arguing over cleaning. But it’s absolutely not you who caused him to behave like that. Perhaps he realised what he lost when he lost you and has made a big effort to clean up his act. But perhaps it’s all an act in front of your DD and they are in the honeymoon period. I’d be surprised if he’s changed completely

21seconds12 · 12/06/2023 07:54

It’s crap being the only person in the world who knows how bad he treated me. It’s such a difficult feeling. Well apart from his other ex partners

OP posts: