Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

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

My boyfriend cheated on me and my soul is broken

90 replies

Poppet626 · 11/04/2024 15:15

Hi,

My boyfriend of two and a half years told me on Tuesday that when he went on his works Christmas due in December, that he ended up sleeping with somebody. He said he was blind drunk, he didn't even know her name, she just ended up in a taxi with him and a couple of the other guys and when they got back one thing led to another, she ended up in his room and they had sex for a few minutes and then he came around and realised what he was doing and told her to leave.

He said he has wanted to tell me every day but didn't know how to because he knew what it would do to me, but he is starting to think that he may have caught something from her and given me something. He says he thinks this because my periods have suddenly been messed up? And also, he is getting red and sore a lot.

I obviously confronted the fact that the only reason he told me was because he's afraid of being caught out because I recently said I was going back to the doctors for reoccurring thrush, I have been getting this for ages and we both went for STD checks the month before he cheated on me because of this and we both came back clear, so he knows that if I had another one and had something that i would know he has cheated.

He admitted it forced him to tell me but that he wanted to tell me every day before but he just didn't know how.

Anyway, I am absolutely distraught, I feel like everything has been a lie, I feel like I don't know him, I don't know myself, I've got signed off of work because I cannot cope with every day life, I'm not eating, barley sleeping, I don't know what to do with myself, I've got drunk every day since to numb the pain because it's too much to actually bare feeling right now. Our relationship was so good, I was so in love and I thought that he was too, he was the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with; we were even planning to try for a baby later on this year and he would have let me do it knowing full well what he'd done behind my back, he would have let me live a lie. I have so many insecurities about my body image and my looks and this is just going to get so much worse now, I already can't even look at myself. I keep asking myself and him why? What was I not doing or doing to make him do this to me, he says there is no reason and it's not my fault and it was just a mistake that he will regret for the rest of his life, he said he never imagined he would ever do this and especially not to me.

His words mean nothing to me right now, absolutely nothing. He is the man I loved with my whole heart, I showed him my most vulnerable sides, I completely let him in, he was my home, my safety, my person and he is the person that has broken me more than anybody on this planet.

I feel like somebody has died and every time the image of him being with somebody else comes into my mind, I keep not being able to breathe like I'm having a panic attack. My soul feels completely broken, my inner peace has gone, the world feels a different place to me now and everything I once knew feels like it didn't exist, I don't know how I will ever get through this pain, it's like emotional torture.

He is begging this not to be the end of us but I don't know how I could ever ever trust him again, I don't know how to like myself again, I don't know how to put the pieces of myself back together and I'm terrified. I love him so deeply that I don't know how to leave him but I also don't know how to stay either.

My future, my happiness, my stability and my inner peace as just been wiped, all for something that apparently lasted minutes and I can't get my head around that or make sense of any of it. Even if I decided to leave him, how would I ever put my faith in somebody else?

I did not see this coming, there were no signs, nothing to suggest he had done that. I keep replaying the past 5 months over and over in my head and I keep obsessing about the details of the event and the girl, even though it makes me hurt more.

Can relationships ever work after such a betrayal? Because I don't understand how I could ever even be normal with him again. I'm completely broken and I don't know where to turn. I'm embarrassed that this even happened to me, I'm so sad that he done this. So deeply sad that I wish I didn't even exist to feel this pain.

I don't even know if he has done this before, obviously he says he hasn't and I am inclined to believe that because surely he would have fessed up before that STD check we both went for, he said he will never ever do anything like this again but how can I believe that?

He calls it a mistake. I call it a choice, blind drunk or not he had plenty of time to make the decision. He could have decided before he got his d**k out of his pants, and he decided to do what he did. He keeps saying he loves me so much but I you don't destroy people you love to you? You don't do this to someone you love. I have been very drunk at events that he's not at and I have never even thought to do it what he did.

OP posts:
CrunchingNumbers · 11/04/2024 18:54

Xenoi24 · 11/04/2024 17:27

Why bother.

No kids involved.

Proven cheater.

Why set the bar so low.

And his story smells of bullshit to me tbh.

It does to me too but good people do make bad mistakes....but yes, not married/no kids would certainly lessen my enthusiasm for recovery

FriendlyNeighbourhoodAccountant · 11/04/2024 18:59

GoodnightAdeline · 11/04/2024 15:48

I’m so sorry you’re going through this. I was cheated on once (years ago) and felt this way, lost a stone in weight, barely slept and had this awful crushing feeling in my chest.

All I can say is years later I barely think about it, I feel absolutely nothing towards the entire incident anymore and that’s because I walked away and never saw him again. It’s SO hard to do but the only route to complete inner peace. Staying with him means staying bound to this incident in some way and having it overshadow your milestones - a proposal, wedding, baby, anniversaries - it’ll always be at the back of your mind and niggle at you.

It’s absolutely gutting but please walk away, pour your heart out to family/friends and basically just allow yourself to feel all the horrible things. In a few months you’ll feel better, in 6 months better again, and in a year a lot of the pain will have gone. A few years and you won’t feel much when you think about it.

Hugs 🌷

I've been in your position as well, and this post explains it much more eloquently than I could. You will always define your relationship by what he's done, he's tainted it. I would, and did, walk away.

Workhardcryharder · 11/04/2024 19:05

EVEN IF you want to believe he was drunk and made a those mistakes, he was sober when he put his potentially infected penis in you and risked your health. Many times, knowing what he did. Would you be as forgiving if it was HIV? Or syphilis? Or something that could harm any future baby?

CrunchingNumbers · 11/04/2024 19:15

Drunken choices are still choices, mistakes are turning left and not right...or forgetting to take the pizza out of if the oven !

anxioussister · 11/04/2024 19:26

Dearest OP

in five years time….

If you stay with him you will still be thinking about this. He’ll still have lied to you, cheated on you. You’ll still be stuck with a version of this pain.

but if you take a deep breath, set your core, find your anger + your self belief and walk away - then all this pain that feels so all consuming now, will be five years in the past. It’s your whole story now. But if you leave it will gently become a chapter, and then a footnote in your history - and leave space for authentic / trustworthy love.

His story is pathetically minimising of his own agency. The fact that he PUT YOUR HEALTH AT RISK and told you not because he cares about your health - but because he was scared of being caught - tells you who he is.

Don’t let your heartbreak trap you for your whole beautiful life. Don’t let someone who cheats on you, lies about it and risks your health be the father of your future children.

who can support you?

Fullfatcokealltheway · 11/04/2024 19:40

Kick him out!
You will feel amazing in 6-8 weeks
Be more confident in yourself
Have a hot girl single summer
And he will be crying into his pillow over what he lost

dolphinette · 11/04/2024 19:47

I've been there. Move back in with your Mum for a while and block him.

Geebray · 11/04/2024 19:49

anxioussister · 11/04/2024 19:26

Dearest OP

in five years time….

If you stay with him you will still be thinking about this. He’ll still have lied to you, cheated on you. You’ll still be stuck with a version of this pain.

but if you take a deep breath, set your core, find your anger + your self belief and walk away - then all this pain that feels so all consuming now, will be five years in the past. It’s your whole story now. But if you leave it will gently become a chapter, and then a footnote in your history - and leave space for authentic / trustworthy love.

His story is pathetically minimising of his own agency. The fact that he PUT YOUR HEALTH AT RISK and told you not because he cares about your health - but because he was scared of being caught - tells you who he is.

Don’t let your heartbreak trap you for your whole beautiful life. Don’t let someone who cheats on you, lies about it and risks your health be the father of your future children.

who can support you?

This is a lovely, wise post.

Somatosensational · 11/04/2024 20:06

I’m so sorry OP, you sound lovely. I’ve been where you are. I was having multiple panic attacks a day and had a constant crushing sensation in my chest. It was terrible. I remember not even being able to focus on the TV and just willing night to come so I could take a sleeping pill and not have to feel anything for a few hours. I’d never felt anything like it and I totally understand the world feeling like a different place.

I would put decisions about the relationship to one side for now. You don’t owe him anything and he needs to give you space. Your priority is your own well-being and managing this rollercoaster. It’s worth visiting your GP since it’s having such a big effect on your ability to function, they may be able to prescribe something. Do you have anyone you can stay with who can look after you?

Something that helped me a lot was listening to guided meditations every time I felt the panic rising. It didn’t take away the feelings but it made them bearable. I used Tara Brach ones which you can download as podcasts. I also put her talks on as background noise while trying to sleep, so I didn’t get too lost in my own thoughts.

These feelings won’t last forever. For me, they were so intense and all-consuming at the time, I struggled to imagine ever feeling ok again. I didn’t go back. And I think of it/him now and feel nothing, it’s like it happened to someone else.

Xenoi24 · 11/04/2024 20:21

Workhardcryharder · 11/04/2024 19:05

EVEN IF you want to believe he was drunk and made a those mistakes, he was sober when he put his potentially infected penis in you and risked your health. Many times, knowing what he did. Would you be as forgiving if it was HIV? Or syphilis? Or something that could harm any future baby?

Yeah he's risked your health and only told you now cause he's got symptoms.

And kinda weird he's only got them in April ..from one brief/interrupted incident of intercourse at Christmas.

ThirtyThrillionThreeTrees · 11/04/2024 20:59

You shouldn't be in this relationship even if he hadn't cheated and you definitely shouldn't now that he has.

There is far too much co-dependency. It's really nad for youm A relationship should enhance your life, not consume it.

You need to speak to your GP and start counselling. You need to turn to friends or family for support until you manage to cope again.

OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon · 11/04/2024 21:05

I hope during this drunken state when

' she ended up in his room and they had sex for a few minutes and then he came around and realised what he was doing and told her to leave. '

that he had heard the word ' yes '

and that despite being soooooo drunk that she ended up in his room and so on and so forth

that it wasn't the word ' no ' that made him realise what he was doing...

Mags1001 · 11/04/2024 21:22

Go and get an std test.
Repeated attacks of thrush could very easily be chylmidia, but the treatment for that is a week of pills.
Get it sorted, as for him...he told you because he thought he had caught something, as somebody else said he still managed to do the deed, if you forgive him then is it a free pass?
I'm not sure of that one.

danitheastrologer · 12/04/2024 16:32

I don't know if you should leave him but you should not touch alcohol again for a while. Getting blind drunk is not the right thing to do. Also, if you have body image issues you need to address them for your own sake as this is clearly affecting your confidence.

If it was me I don't know if I would end the relationship. It would depend on a lot of things. What I do know is that for any chance of the relationship surviving id want a one off full access to his phone. I'd want to see his messages leading up to that night and directly afterwards and if he refused to show me then I would end it there.

paulaparticles · 12/04/2024 16:40

Some amazing advice on here for you

New posts on this thread. Refresh page