I am so sorry that you are dealing with this.
Three years ago, on 10/29/2010, I too learned of my WH affair. It was devastating and beyond painful.
My WH was 100% remorseful and committed to righting his wrong. Today our M is stronger and we are in a much better place. Know that you can survive this.
Of course you are scared, I am sure you feel as if a bomb just blew up your world. Dealing with infidelity is a difficult journey but over time, a lot of time, it does get easier.
Will he be remorseful? Will he agree to end it?
^^^If he want to save the M he will.
Remember, he caused the destruction, he must work to fix it.
Wishing you strength.
The truth hurts, but I have never seen it cause the pain that lies do.
Any thoughts would be helpful.
You don't have to decide anything right away, but your chances of true R are so much better if the truth is out. Sometimes they are really, really tired of lying, and having the A fully exposed is the best thing for them.
I don't really have any advice. I know that your head and heart are swirling. I laid on the floor many times, in pain, just breathing. I'm still breathing, not on the floor anymore, and finding my way to self-respect and happiness again.
'If you come into my life, the door is open; If you leave my life, the door is open; Just one request, don'
Please read up on the 180 and implement it like yesterday. Also, if OW is married or in a relationship, I would definitely let her H know what she has been doing.
Take good care of yourself and your kids.
E.
You will find a lot of advice here, some will apply, some will not. Take it all in, use what you can. Even though every story and person is different, there are some common threads that run through these things.
Did you confront? Did he admit to an affair? Be prepared for it not to end. All too frequently, they continue to see their AP for a while before they "get it". Sometimes you can encourage them to come out of the fog, sometimes they just do it in their own time. And then some are still in it.
Right now you need to be very clear in what you expect, what your boundaries are and what the consequences for crossing those boundaries will be. Do not threaten anything that you are not willing to do.
Keep posting with as much information as you are comfortable sharing - it will help us to help you.
Go to the Healing Library in the yellow box in the upper left hand corner. Start reading as much as you can with two small children. Arm yourself with knowledge.
Know that whether he admits or denies, if he promises to end it HE PROBABLY WON'T. Spouses in affairs are in a "fog" and don't always come out of it just because they are caught.
I see that you are confronting today. Please post here as much as you need to, and know that we are all here for you.
Good luck. I am sending good thoughts your way!!
(((Hugs)))
It is a long, long, long road. I can say that it has been worth it, reconciliation that is, but it was a close run thing several times.
Divorce would have been so much simpler to do.
what if he says 'sorry but I am leaving you for her'
If he does, tell him
"She's welcome to you, but she can't fix what is wrong with you either, and I hope you don't hurt her like you hurt me."
You can't control that, any more than you can control a person's decision to have an affair or their lack of a decision to decline one. What you can do is take care of the children, take care of yourself, and let him do whatever he is going to do, or not going to do, while you do what you must and set clear boundaries for him in your relationship.
One thing, so hard to realize, so hard to deal with, is the simple fact that your WS is far more messed up than they appear. People who are psychologically healthy don't do this to other people. It is cruel. It is hateful. It is destructive. It is sadistic at some level. Yet, they do it, like a psychopath strangling one of their victims. TT is the same. They do it because of their internal mess that they are not managing constructively. So many better options than infidelity, than cheating, but they pick this route.
Their road to healing is longer, and they can hold you back from yours because it is an ongoing struggle and they continue to inflict further wounds by TT and their other actions.
They are broken. If you reconcile, you will realize how broken after 2-5 years.
My wife got the message, fairly early on, speaking of boundaries, that any further lying was the end of our relationship.
It took her a longer to get the message that withholding information was going to do the same, and even longer to get the message that any secrets would do the same. Privacy was one thing, secrecy was another.
It took a lot of work and practice for her to realize that her focus had to be our marriage, me, the kids, our business, our hobbies, our activities, our needs, our wants...and that had to be, and remain, a priority each day. Other peoples needs and wants needed to take a back seat. That she needed to recognize the severity of the hurt she had inflicted. The last near divorce episode was around 15 months ago, when a friend of hers wanted to get her involved in helping with the friend's husband's weight loss, and another of her female friends chimed in that they wanted their husband to lose weight as well.
She tells me this, calmly, and tells me that she has this great idea, to have a competition with him and the other spouse, both spouses of friends, because she wanted to lose weight as well, all three of them. I sat there and listened to this, incredulous, then I blew up. I pointed out that just a few years ago she had "helped" an acquaintance with his needs, which included sucking his cock, fucking him, and spending time with him while I was exhausted and coming home to an empty house. Now, to remind me of all this, she gets involved in this? I pointed out that if the husbands really want to lose weight, they can go to weight watchers, they don't need my wife to help them lose weight, they can work with their wives, and their wives, my wife's friends, don't need any other woman to motivate their husbands to do anything. Nor, did I need my wife to be motivating any other man to do anything, anything at all, after what she'd done.
Good luck.
