Me 37 year old Husband
Her 35 Year old Wife
Him 30 something OM
Background: Wife is diagnosed Bi-Polar 2, was already struggling with depression yet on steady medication for years. She quit a high pay, high stress financial job in June and was searching for her next thing ever since. She and I have been very active Yogi's for years.
We have been married for 3.5 years, been together for 4.5 years.
My wife left me without warning the morning when I arrived home from a week long work trip. We weren't fighting, we had a great relationship. There was no prior discussion or warning that we even "had to talk".
Now she was not working and spent her days only doing ashtanga yoga 6 days a week from 7am-9am. She is trained as a yoga teacher as am I. The one thing I did notice over the past couple months is that she was becoming more and more obsessed with Ashtanga and it was all she would talk about. She kept telling me lots of stuff was "coming up" for her but she couldn't even begin to explain it. She kept urging me to go back to yoga, incessantly. I had injured my back doing yoga, had a herniated disc, 2 steroid spinal injections and 6 months of physical therapy before I could walk without pain. I was apprehensive about going back to classes.
So, I arrive home late on a Friday night, she leaves food out for me, tells me she can't wait to see me. She was asleep when I got home, I went to bed. I wake up the next morning, sit on the couch. She comes over to me and says, "I fucked up our marriage. I had an emotional affair with OM for the last month, I think I'm in love with him, I've never felt this way about anyone before, if you weren't in the picture we'd be dating right now. Our lives are going in two different directions now. I want someone to do yoga with, I want a baby now, I want to travel to India to do yoga 3 months a year, I want to move out of the city."
Shock ensued. I knew she was hanging out with this yoga teacher. I knew the guy, we use to go to his classes together. He's met me and he knows she is married. Apparently she confessed her love to him while I was away, he told her hue wouldn't get involved with her because HE didn't want to get hurt because she was married.
My wife continues on saying "That she is the happiest she's ever been, she has her emotions back, her depression of 30 years has lifted, she watched it go. She truly wants a baby now and believes she can be a great mother now." We decided before being married that we both were adamant about not wanting kids, we even two months prior to this would talk about how great our life is together and how we don't have to deal with the stress of kids, we have a lot of friends without kids, etc. 4 months into our marriage I had a vasectomy. We went to joint therapy together before I had the procedure to talk it through and make sure it was the right decision.
So she continues to tell me that "She doesn't want to force me to have a kid, to do yoga, to move out of the city. I'll be so much happier without her, she knows I'm not happy with her. I'm going to go on and do great things, She loves me so much, our marriage is the most precious thing to her, I am perfect, Our marriage was the best thing that ever happened to her and I mean the world to her." She swore to me that nothing physical happened between her and the OM. She wasn't expecting the affair to happen but it did.
I told her that this isn't real, she's known him for a month, that we're always going to meet people in our lives that we're drawn to but you don't cross that line because you're married. I said that I believe this is a complete manic episode and that you do yoga to enhance the life you have, yoga should not become your life. She got all upset saying that it has helped her so much, she so much more herself now and completely fearless. (now a few months prior she didn't leave bed all day for weeks, watching TV with no idea what she wanted to do with herself).
I told her she is not living in reality, she created a fantasy and a completely new persona around it. She became a different person. She cut off all ties to friends that would disagree with her. I told her that what she did was the most selfish, self centered thing she could have possibly done, that she cares about nothing but herself and no amount of yoga has ever changed that. She said "You're Right".
I told her that she decided the course of our marriage, she decided how I was going to feel, she decided all of this in a bubble and I had no voice in this at all. I told her that she can tell me all these reasons why she thinks our lives are going in two different directions but essentially you're just leaving me for this other guy. She said " That's a simplistic way of looking at it" I asked her so what now? You are going to start dating him now? She said, yeah I think we will, he feels the same way and yes we will be together but why does that matter?
She kept harping on wanting a baby. I told her that she picked the one non negotiable aspect of our marriage and used it as her way out and to justify her actions.
So that was Saturday, she left Sunday morning. We spoke again Tuesday night. I thought we were going to try and work things out, I had a list of things I wanted her to do, like a NC with OM, go back to therapy etc.
She arrives, tells me that again she really wants a baby, she feels so much more herself. She has her emotions back. I told her she was completely delusional and she was doing way to much yoga and nothing else with her life, she is fanatical and low grade cult behavior. She of course did not agree, in bi-polar they are always in denial that they're going through it. She told she saw her Psychiatrist the night before, he told her that she is in a great place right now, she is doing really well, he hasn't seen her this well in a long time and "Things Just Happen".
At which point I flipped out, saying how there was no way she told him the truth, there is no way a competent psych could think that leaving me without so much as a discussion/warning was a good idea. She has no job, no idea what she is going to do with herself, Saying that things just happen is complete bullshit, that resolves you of any responsibility for your actions. Things don't just happen, we make decisions and we create the causes for all things in our life. She said, if you don't believe me here's his number, call him. She asked me if after hearing all these things from her if I really wanted to try to work it out? I told her fuck no.
I want you out of here. Of course in the middle of all this she keeps telling me how much I mean to her, how much she loves me, how great things will be for me. How perfect our marriage was and it means the world to her. We had such a beautiful like together.
I said you're not doing yoga, your missing the whole point, you think your "heart is open" but nobody with an open heart would ripped mine apart in this way. You have no compassion, no empathy, you walked away without so much as a goodbye. She told she didn't want to drag it out because it wouldn't have gotten us anywhere. I said we could have at least spent a day on it, a few hours? You made up your mind before you even told me what was going on.
So that was the end of it, 3 days after she told me it was over, she was gone. We talked about it for about 2 hours total.
We get together the following Saturday to talk about how the divorce plans will work. She comes over, completely cold and starts telling me that this is how it works according to the law, we had a short term marriage and the courts will put us back to where we were before we got together. You're only entitled to a small portion of my 401k that accrued during the time we were together, since I'm not working now you will probably owe me spousal support. She wants me to continue to pay our health insurance premium, our phone bills, and the entire rent of our apartment even though she is also on the lease. ( the apartment is very expensive btw) I told her she is out of her fucking mind if she thinks I'm paying for her to live her life with another man, pay her bills, pay for her to go to yoga, and let her just walk away like nothing happened. I told her you are leaving me for another man and you expect me to pay for it? There is no way your getting a dime from me.
She had a split second of reality flash before her eyes and completely changed her tune, never mentioned it again. I said this is how its gonna work. We're going to split the health insurance, the phone bill, I'm going to tell you what I want from your 401k, you have until the end of the month to move all your furniture and belongings out of this house and I want a divorce from you as soon as possible. She conceded. We agreed and that was that. 1 week after I found out.
More craziness ensues: She calls me a week later to schedule our tax appointment and starts telling me how great I am, how perfect our life was together, it means so much to her. She isn't going to get married again. She is still going to wear her wedding ring and she wants to keep my name because it means so much to her.
Again I tell that what she is saying is extremely hurtful, I'm already on the floor yet you keep kicking me. How can you think that I would want to hear any of this from you while you're out fucking this OM? She another brief flash of reality and apologized realized what she was doing and decided to double the amount of money she was giving me.
A few days later my Birthday roles around, In my head I just want her to have the sense to leave it alone, not even acknowledge it. Yet I get to work and low and behold an email from her arrives. She writes me the craziest love poem about how a beautiful person was born on this day and how much she cares for me, how I'm going to do so many great things, how beautiful I am, how much I've touched her life, etc. etc. I reply telling her that she has no right to send this and I wish would take her head out of her ass for one second and realize that she is doing this not for me but to help her feel better about her awful actions. I told her If you loved me the way you say you do you would never have treated me in this way. There are many many ways to go about doing what you did but you chose the worst way possible. You just vanished from my life like we never existed. I said I want nothing to do with you, you will not keep my name, and I want a divorce as soon as possible. You wanted a new life you got it.
We are out of contact for days/week. Work finally calms down for me and I have some downtime and all it hits me like a truck. I was totally distraught, curled up in a ball on the floor every night of the week crying my eyes out. I was so lost, confused, trying to make sense of something that has none.
I don't know what to do but I knew I had to see her again, it's been 2 weeks. I felt that she moved on to her new life and flipped the switched off on ours like it never happened. One day we were spending everyday of our lilies together and the next she was gone. The most horrible disorienting feeling in the world. I felt like someone ripped my arm off and I was trying to find out where it went.
She agrees to meet me out at a cafe. I immediately break down, trying to figure out how she could do this, especially in the way that she did. (She was married once before and her ex husband did this exact same thing to her, he just got up from the table, said I can't do this anymore and walked out the door). She said I know how you feel, I said how could you do this to another human being, knowing how devastating it is. She said her doctor told her to do it quickly and cleanly. She said she got over her ex quickly, in a year. Which I know from the stories she told me and from her friends that is a lie. She couldn't even function in the world, speak, catatonic for years. I told her I will never understand how you can do this to me and I probably never will but I wanted to see you so you can face the reality of what you're doing, I feel you got off easy and left. You didn't even give me chance to say goodbye. Again she told me that she would always be there for me, she loved me so much, she would do anything for me. All this crazy shit. The meeting helped me make the situation a little less surreal. Though I was still a wreck.
I tell her I need to see her again this past saturday. She agrees and comes over. At this point I have not been able to stop thinking about her and him together, walking up in the middle of the night dreaming about it, 24/7 thinking about what is really happening here.
I tell her I need to know if your with him now, if your dating. She wouldn't tell me, she kept asking why it mattered? I told her because its the only reason you left me that makes any sense at all. You left me for another man and you won't admit it. So she eventually tells me that they are in fact together.
I tell her thats why its been so easy for you to walk away of which she denied that it was easy. She told me she would have rather been hit by a bus and killed than tell me she did this to me. It would have been easier.
I told her again that she is in denial, there is no way your psychiatrist knows the truth, there is no way he told you this was going to work out for you. You are making really bad choices with your life right now and its going to crash and burn, don't expect me to pick up the pieces.
You did the worst thing you can possibly do in a marriage and you did in the absolute worst way, total evil. you just turned off the switch of our life like it never even happened. She whole heartedly believes that she is in the best place and that the universe will provide. That all of sudden she doesn't care about money and she is doing great. I asked her if this how she wanted her life to be, if she thought she was making good, healthy choices and if this is truly what she wanted. She said Yes. After that I knew there was no way in. I tried everything I could, told her the reality of the situation, she got so visibly upset with what I was saying that she had to leave, she told me she was going to throw up all over my floor. That she is running out on me but she can't stay because she is so sick.
And that as they say, was that. I have an appointment on Tuesday to fill out the divorce paperwork.
I also should add that I contacted the OM's ex girlfriend whom I know. He broke up with her a few months before this happened. I told her my wife left me for him and I thought it was unethical as a yoga teacher to be involved with your students, befriend your students especially a married one that is emotionally unstable.
She emailed the OM and ripped into him about how this is going to ruin his reputation as a yoga teacher and what the hell was he doing? My wife finds out about this and now she and the OM are starting to worry that I am going to do something. Tell the leader of they're yoga organization what they are actually doing and cause a great stir in the closed off community that it is. I have no plans at this time to do that. I feel that with or without me getting involved they are going crash and burn, that bomb is gonna blow, I don't need to light the fuse here. If I feel that telling the teacher is going to help me heal, I will do it, if it won't I will not. I would also do it in confidence and only ask the he listen and do whatever he see's fit, which may mean nothing but at least you know what is happening in your studio.
I have been getting very angry the past few days. I left a voicemail for my wife telling how pissed I was at her and how disappointed I am in how she treated our relationship, in her actions, her words, and her new boyfriend as well. That I didn't know how she slept at night and I will never understand why she did this.
She than emailed me saying we should only speak with a therapist involved, I told her I wouldn't talk to hers because I feel he is incompetent. So after more thought I decided this would do nothing to heal me and it would only give her an outlet. She is in a completely irrational state right now. I don't want to be in the same room with her. She will turn everything around on me and I will become even more upset. I will not put myself through that.
I will not call her again or express my anger to her because I know her and the OM are now worried I will do something to them. And really I can't decide if I should be mad at the OM or warn him. He has no idea what he is getting himself into and if he doesn't realize that by now, well then he deserves what he gets.
Today WS emails me again saying she has a favor to ask me... Obviously I can do whatever I want, she says. Also, She knows I want to hurt her. She knows I want to hurt the OM. However She asks that I please don't bring innocent ppl like the OM's EX into this. To Direct my anger at her. She is the one I should be angry with. This is between her and I. She ended the marriage, she made the decision. She says that she knows I would like the yoga community to know what a horrible person She is. But she asks that I refrain from calling her employers and future employers until after we meet with my Therapist.
That I can do whatever I want but please try to see that causing her pain and hurting her chances of working is not going to ease mine.
Then she says, I know you hate living in our apartment, I will help you take on the financial burden of staying there or moving out. I want us to stop causing each other more pain.
Now what I see in this email is, don't tell anyone the truth about my actions and I'll give you money (what money is what I would like to know). I also never told her I wanted to hurt either her or the OM. I also never told her I was going to call any of her employers/yoga teachers. She is projecting her fears onto me. There is not one hint in here that she is sorry, or even feels bad. All she is worried about now is that her fantasy world is going to come crashing down because people will know the truth of her actions. All she is caring about still, is herself and the fantasy she is trying to live. She is still trying to control how I act and manipulate the situation to fit her own needs. All of sudden when she is feeling pain and suffering we need to "stop hurting each other". Such bullshit.
I think my best course of action right now is to completely ignore any attempts she makes to contact me, ignore all emails. Meet with the divorce place on Tuesday, fill out the paperwork and have her served. Cut all ties and send a Do Not Contact letter to her. Whenever she opens her mouth it hurts me, I need to be far away from her. I need to live my life free of this madness.
The crazy part is all this occurred within 1 month.
So that's the story. I'm pissed, I'm sad, I'm disappointed, I'm a lot of things. I did get some great advice from my support network. One guy told me his crazy story and how it affected him for year. He said the only thing that saved him from driving himself insane was to "Stop trying to figure it out" There is no way to logically figure out an illogical situation and it makes your mind spin and spin because there's no sense to it. You can't make sense of it, so just stop trying to figure it out. I put signs up all over my apartment that read " Stop Trying to Figure It Out" I believe the next step/sign will read "Just Let it Go"
This entire situation is crazy and I truly believe my wife at her best is mentally ill. I just wish she could see what she's become now but she truly believes she is living her truth right now. It's ashame because I don't think she knows herself at all and she creates fantasies about what she thinks her true self is and stops at nothing to become just that. Leaving her past persona and all the collateral damage in its wake.
Life always has ways of reminding you that the only thing you can count on is change.
Thanks for listening.