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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

Brokenhearted and trying to save our marriage...

145 replies

LuJay · 24/03/2009 02:28

Here's summary of what has happened over the last year or so... I have told absolutely NOBODY about this so this is quite difficult for me, but here goes...
We have always had a close relationship and i have always trusted DH fully and absolutely. When we married i was so happy that i had found someone who i believed would never ever stray as this was way outside his moral beliefs and values. He is a kind caring man and i just never believed he had it in him to cheat, especially since he has always worshiped the ground i walked on so to speak. Anyway, early last year i began to notice a marked change in his behaviour and became suspicious that he may be having an affair. So i started making note of secret conversations he was having on the phone and to cut a long story short, found out that he had been having a telephone relationship with another woman. Well i was devastated and confronted him about it and he denied there was anything in it except that he was flattered that this attractive (also married) young woman would be interersted in him and admitted that he was attracted to her but that nothing had happened and it was mainly a phone thing because he found it easy to talk to her. This shattered me even further to think that he found it easier to talk to her than to me, his own wife. At that time we had a young baby and a toddler and i knew i had been neglecting him emotionally while caring for our kids - it is so easy for the children to take over and before you know it you haven't been intimate in a month. So i accepted my share of responsibility. Anyway, things were ok for a few more months but i was still noticing some strange behaviour around phone use. Anyway, then i busted him after he went on a short trip with her and my world fell apart. I was on the verge of leaving him but we worked through it and i decided to stay and give our marriage a chance to heal for both myself, DH and of course our 2 beautiful children. DH promised me that they did not have sex, but that he wanted to although he wasn't sure whether he would have actually gone through with it once in the situation. Apparently she was also struggling with it since she also still loves her husband and so for those reasons on both sides, they never consumated the 'friendship'. Even if i convince myself that nothing 'actually' happened, the fact that he wanted it to hurt me more deeply than i can even explain. He has always been my world, the love of my life. Then late last year i found out that they were still in contact via sms and all hell broke loose again. I was ready to leave if for nothing else than to give him a taste of what a broken home would be like. He swears that the only reason he has remained in contact with this woman was to try to keep her calm so that she wouldn't lose it and tell her husband out of guilt which would only complicate things further. Anyway, he promised that he would not talk to her or sms her again and that if she called, he would not answer her calls and he would tell me about it. Anyway, 2 weeks ago i randomly listened to his voicemail and she had left him a message on there. There was nothing untoward about the message, it was very short and basically just said that someone had called and she wondered if it was him as it came from a private number. My trouble is that he didn't tell me about the message as he had promised and i was already having so much trouble trying to trust him again. He said he just didn't want to open a can or worms again and that he didn't tell me because he didn't want to bring the whole thing back up again for no reason. He said he did not return the call and that the fact that she left a message should reassure me because he does not answer her calls. Any thoughts from anyone who has been in a similar situation?

OP posts:
PfftTheMagicDragon · 24/03/2009 11:46

Look, I don't know you and I don't know your relationship but if this were me, and he were so concerned about the OW knowing that you know (as it seems the OW has a need to spill her guts to her DH) I would suspect that he was concerned that the OW would get in touch with you and tell you everything. Like, all the things that he is not telling you. Because there will be things. He feeds you enough so that you feel that he has confessed and then you move on. There is more.

I am sorry.

LuJay · 24/03/2009 11:49

To Quintessential shadow, i have to tell you that i feel offended by your comments... 'This is getting to sound really sick. You have followed your cheating dh around for a year, and each time you have found out something you have told him, so he has changed tactics. Is this a game to you?'

Let me assure you that this most certainly is not 'a game' to me. This is my life and the lives of our two very young children, whom i would give my life for without hesitation.
I came to this board to find an outlet for my grief and hopefully some friendship and advice along the way. You have a right to your opinion, but a little more sensitivity might be a good thing.

OP posts:
QuintessentialShadow · 24/03/2009 11:50

Sorry about that. I posted before editing. It is HIS behaviour that I think sound sick.
He knows you keep a tab on him, yet he STILL keeps in contact with her.

LuJay · 24/03/2009 11:51

yeah, i got a little quick with the finger too, isn't it great that you can vent here freely though.

OP posts:
LuJay · 24/03/2009 11:53

he does know i keep tabs on him and that is my own fault for not being strong enough to keep all my methods a secret, but it is so hard to do that when you still love that person and want to try to get things right again.

OP posts:
LuJay · 24/03/2009 11:54

He now knows that the next time i found out about ANY contact with her will be the final straw. I just worry that i am now out of ways to find out, so i may never know.

OP posts:
KAEKAE · 24/03/2009 11:56

I would phone this other woman and tell her to f**k off!!!! That's just me though!!!

QuintessentialShadow · 24/03/2009 12:01

But, you dont have to find out more for it to be the final straw. Deal with what you DO know. You should not have to chase your husband around in a bid to catch him out.

I think you should take legal advice, speak to a divorce lawyer. The lawfirm may even have somebody to investigate for you (at least they do on american film...)

You already know he has had an affair, you are suffering from this. If he just ignores this fact, and wont do anything to make you feel better, then I am sorry, you have to seriously reconsider your marriage and if you really WANT to be married to him.

As it stands, he wont even reassure you it is over, he wont help you rebuild your relationship, he just goes on....

QuintessentialShadow · 24/03/2009 12:03

Can you sit yourself down and write a list of everything that has happened, in bullet points, in the last year. List every piece of information, how you found it, and his reation each time you confronted him.

It might help you see more clearly, it might help you if you show a lawyer.

LuJay · 24/03/2009 12:19

Thanks QS i think your idea of listing every piece of information and how i got it and his reaction to it might just help me see things clearly. i will do that tomorrow morning over a cup of coffee. Thanks for the advice.

OP posts:
LuJay · 24/03/2009 12:22

I really want to thank you all once again for all your input. i can't believe the response i've had to my post and i feel sooooo much better that i've finally been able to talk about my pain. There is a long road ahead, and i will definitely be back to let you know what happens next and hopefully get your advice again.

OP posts:
AnyFucker · 24/03/2009 12:27

please do come back

it is hard to see the "wood for the trees" when you are in the thick of it and in pain

you will get sound advice here (as well as the occasional reality check)

I really feel you are going to have to force this issue, one way or the other, because it suits him to keep things as they are

unless of course you are willing to accept a marriage where he maintains emotional and ?physical relationships with other women, while you turn a blind eye

did you sign up for an open marriage? Nope, didn't think so

solidgoldbrass · 24/03/2009 12:30

I think you have fallen in to the common error that passivity will somehow win the day: that if you just sit there being all patient and loving and keeping up with all the housework, laundry and childcare then your DH will realise what a prize you are and come back to you.
Sadly he won't. He will just carry on doing what he wants and covering his tracks. This isn't to say that you should cut up his pants and kick him straight out - or weep and scream and cling to him, either.
What you should do is go and get some legal advice straight away. This doesn;t mean you have to divorce him, it just means that you will have all the relevant information about your financial position, your house, etc. and he won't be able to persuade you that it's in your own best interest to tolerate his affairs (because otherwise he will give you no money/take custory of the children/throw you oult etc).
Then start to move on with your life as though he's a much less important part of it. Cultivate friends, hobbies etc and make sure you get some time off from childcare (as it sounds like you're doing everything while he swans around shagging seeing his friends).

QuintessentialShadow · 24/03/2009 12:30

And you mightsometimes get some uncalled for brutal not-so-well-thought-through remark also.

Good Luck. Let us know how you get on.

QuintessentialShadow · 24/03/2009 12:32

That was hinting to myself further down, not to what solidgoldbrass just said. She is very wise regards to sex and relationships.

AnyFucker · 24/03/2009 12:34

Qs, having a bad day ?

QuintessentialShadow · 24/03/2009 12:39

combination of tonsillitis, my dhs bike broken so he has the car, we live in the sticks and I am therefore stuck in the house, with no focus for work. so yes. bad day.

AnyFucker · 24/03/2009 12:41

aww, it can only get better....

ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight · 24/03/2009 12:48

Bullshit
He is clearly still in touch with her, he won't tell her it's over, he went away for a weeke3nd with her but 'nothing happened'...the other one has bells on.....
Sorry, but why can't he tell her to back off? What's the problem if she tells her DH? That's her problem, not yours. I smell a big rat and if I were you would be telling him to move out while I considered my options.

MorrisZapp · 24/03/2009 13:41

As a long time lurker on the relationship boards I have learned that caught-out hubbies routinely say that they can't break contact with the OW because she is a psycho/ a bitch/ mentally unhinged/ suicidal etc etc. It is a classic tactic.

In this case, he's said it's the OW's hubby who has to be kept in the dark. Well, I smell bullshit. I'd bet my life that he has other reasons for not telling her that you know - ie, because the last thing this man wants on earth is the two women in his life comparing notes on his story.

Chances are, he's told her a pack of lies about you (you're cold, don't want sex, are hoping for a separation etc) and keeps you happy with the 'we never had sex' line.

He has everything to lose if you two speak to each other.

I'm really sorry you're going through this hell but you are protecting a liar and a cheat, who doesn't even appear to be sorry.

100yearsofsolitude · 24/03/2009 13:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

KristinaM · 24/03/2009 13:55

you say he took out life insurance last year. is that policy on BOTH of your lives, so that if anything happens to you, he gets the money and vice versa?

AnyFucker · 24/03/2009 14:02

ohhh, KristinaM

< sharp intake of breath >

100yearsofsolitude · 24/03/2009 14:04

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

susie100 · 24/03/2009 14:08

Unfortunately, although rare, this sort of thing does happen and he has not exactly proved himself to be squeaky clean has he?

Hope we have not scared you off OP but please have a look through the archives here and you will see why we are such a cynical bunch, we have seen this all before

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