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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

Could you make this relationship work?

29 replies

MoonEmu · 09/09/2025 07:39

My marriage broke down last year. In March this year I got together with a really great guy, so lovely, handsome, kind, attentive etc. He had also just come out of a marriage. It was so fun having a BF.

The issue was he had no boundaries at all. He told everyone about us after just a couple of weeks, including his DC and his ex-wife - and seemed completely taken aback that they were discombobulated and upset. He told his flatmate every detail - and then she got upset, despite him being kind of aware that the flatmate maybe fancied him. He told his colleagues (we know each other loosely through a professional network). He canvassed everyone’s opinions and fed them back to me.

It was just chaos. I felt like I was having a relationship with people I had never met. I ended it.

Six months have passed - mostly no contact - but we missed each other (we are well suited). And now there is a possibility we might get back together.

Could you make it work with someone who doesn’t really understand boundaries like this? He is really worth it. All tips welcome.

OP posts:
wardoffslaught · 09/09/2025 21:40

This is who he is....

He'll drag you into drama and then be "oblivious" and not think he's done anything wrong...

People can be incredibly bitchy/critical over a woman (much more so than a man).

He's happy exposing you to that....jealousy, ridicule, gossip, professional problems....his jealous flatmate won't be directing negative energy at HIM!

I have an ex friend who could not be trusted with private information. The impact on me was horrible. It sucked the life out of me.

It was some sort of horrific immature personality defect or for attention...

Even after I went completely NC, on Twitter years later she would post about me, using old photos and vague references.

"this traumatic incident happened with my friend...."....."my friends used to live in this house...."."this happened to a friend of mine".

When MeToo happened she gleefully posted how she "had a friend who had been sexually abused!".

When you have relationship issues, everyone will know instantly. If someone wants to make trouble they just need to contact him and he'll answer any questions they have.

He will destroy your life from within. Don't let him.

MoonEmu · 09/09/2025 22:13

Yeah, I can see it is not a great pattern,

OP posts:
Tiredannoyedflyer · 09/09/2025 22:14

MoonEmu · 09/09/2025 18:57

OK, thanks - I appreciate all the responses.

I think the telling people was some emotional incontinence - excitement and showing off and also just being part of things. Being newly single can be quite lonely.

He absolutely does need a lot of external validation. (Which he has - he is successful and recognised for his work.)

The issue is that he really is a lovely person - yes, really - but sort of unable to stop himself discussing the things that worry or bother him with people he thinks might have an interest.

Is there anything to be done?

OP, just putting this out there - but how do you know he has told all these people? Did you ever meet any of them in person, or is it him relaying that he has told them all about you?

couple of odd things in your first post ‘told the ex wife/children all about me’ and ‘his housemate fancied him’

Is this all his account of things, or did you actually witness any of the waxing lyrical about you? Giving bullshit vibes to me, has to be said.

MoonEmu · 09/09/2025 22:18

Oh, he definitely does tell people. There was a lot of drama. The flatmate in particular was a huge amount of drama. I had been a kitchen table topic for a while. I know the flatmate independently of him and she discussed it all with another mutual friend and also with the ex-wife.

Gah - it was a Whole Thing. The ex wife was in a state, the flatmate was in a state, BF was in a state. All avoidable with discretion.

OP posts:
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