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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

Teenage Sweetheart back after 20 years and horrible

31 replies

FirstHeartbreak20yearson · 10/02/2026 15:03

I've used AI to shorten this as it was way too long.

When I started university I was very naive, with no relationship or sexual experience. I fell deeply in love with an older student who ghosted me after a brief situationship. Because it was a small campus, we saw each other constantly and he would walk past me without acknowledgement. I never knew why, and it devastated me.

Twenty years later, out of the blue, he contacted me saying he’d been thinking about me. I told him I was happily married with children, but was open to being friendly and forgiving the past. I assumed he might be interesting to reconnect with.

However, he showed no real interest in my life, was evasive about his own, and focused instead on songs and poems he’d written about me. He then began making sexual comments about our past and suggested meeting in a hotel. When I shut this down, he replied with "Shut up and show me your c." I told him if he wanted to see a c he should look in a mirror, and that he had nothing at all that would tempt me to go near him. He then said, "You earn because you get sp*ed in a few times, I earn writing which is my passion." I don't know what this means, I have a good job and I'm not a sex worker.

There were a few more horrible messages which are too disgusting to type out, and I have obviously blocked him (and know I should have done sooner) but I feel quite shaken and confused by the experience. I'm not sure what I'm after by posting, it's just such a strange situation and has knocked me quite a bit. I’ve now blocked him, but the experience has left me shaken and confused. My husband knows and agrees the man is awful, but I don't know why I'm feeling sad after barely thinking about him in years.

OP posts:
FirstHeartbreak20yearson · 10/02/2026 15:51

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"Shaken" and "completely destroyed" are quite far apart, are they not? You've not actually read my OP, he didn't call me a c although I did call him one in retaliation. I never had any closure from this relationship so having it all dragged up again but still no closure has left me questioning things.

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Cheekycoffee · 10/02/2026 15:53

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allthingsinmoderation · 10/02/2026 15:56

FirstHeartbreak20yearson · 10/02/2026 15:07

I've done that but I'm not sure why it's affected me like it has. I almost feel like I've been living a lie for all this time thinking that he was this amazing person and wondering what I did wrong- how can my judgement of character be so far off?

You said he ghosted you after a brief situationship and walked past you without acknowledgement and you were devastated....... Why have you judged this man "this amazing person"?
He wasn't an amazing person then or now ,he is a foul misogynistic man out for what he can get . Block on every possible portal .

FirstHeartbreak20yearson · 10/02/2026 15:56

StrawberryJamAndRaspberryPie · 10/02/2026 15:48

See - 17! That’s SO young! Can you imagine looking at a 17 year old now and expecting them to have it all figured out?

Can you imagine expecting them to have keen ‘bad man’ sensors or the ability to conduct mature sexual relationships when they have 0 experience to fall back on? No, we know that many 17 year olds are hormone-driven innocents with wide eyes for handsome older men who ply them with pretty words and know how to manipulate.

In our 30s, those same men are laid bare to us for the grotty pigs they are. Hence why some of them aim for vulnerable younger women still who will fall for their lies. And hence why it didn’t fly with you.

You are completely right but now I'm looking at my daughters and thinking, how can I protect them from being spoken to like that and blaming themselves like I did? Especially considering the rise of misogyny in young boys, they might just think it's normal to be treated like this. I had no basis for comparison and thought that was just how boyfriends (or not quite boyfriends) treated you.

OP posts:
newrubylane · 10/02/2026 16:36

I had a similar experience in my university days - charming, artistic, seemed like a dream. Your thread sparked the memory, so I Googled him. It turns out he's now a well-known scam artist - multiple Reddit threads and YouTube videos about him 😆 Once a douchebag, always a douchebag.

I'm reminded of Taylor Swift and Matty Healy. If it can happen to the most famous woman in the world, it can happen to any of us.

Know that he is the problem. Block and move on.

FirstHeartbreak20yearson · 10/02/2026 16:42

newrubylane · 10/02/2026 16:36

I had a similar experience in my university days - charming, artistic, seemed like a dream. Your thread sparked the memory, so I Googled him. It turns out he's now a well-known scam artist - multiple Reddit threads and YouTube videos about him 😆 Once a douchebag, always a douchebag.

I'm reminded of Taylor Swift and Matty Healy. If it can happen to the most famous woman in the world, it can happen to any of us.

Know that he is the problem. Block and move on.

Ha, I said this to my best friend, that he's just Matty Healy, I'm settled down now with my Travis Kelce but he thinks he's my LOML! 😂I can fix him, well maybe I can't...

He says he's making a living writing. I asked him what he's written and he said he can't tell me for legal reasons.

Except or the half dozen songs and poems he's written about me over the last 20 years when he could have just said hello to me.

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