ADVERTISEMENT

Infidelity strikes a relationship to the very core, and can damage it beyond repair. In fact, 60% of divorced couples cite a partner's unfaithfulness as the reason why their marriage ended.

But there's also one study that looked at unmarried adults after being betrayed by their partner, and about 45% of participants showed signs of infidelity-related PTSD. They exhibited higher levels of depressive symptoms, partially linked to negative post-traumatic thoughts.

So when Reddit user TheBaronofIbilin asked people who have caught their significant other cheating to describe how it unfolded, they received a number of heartbreaking and infuriating stories.

#1

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner Caught her several times. The last time I decided to get it on tape. So I set up a camera. I didn't catch her cheating with it, but I did catch her abusing the kids in our daycare.

And that, friends, is how you win a house in a divorce.

Educational_Dust_932 , Michael Burrows/pexels Report

#2

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner Told me that he was at his parents' and would probably be spending the night...

I was over at his parents' for dinner. They had seen me on my way home from work and invited me over. I was about to ask him when he would be finished work, so that he could meet me there, then I saw the message.

Internal_Echidna_946 , Liza Summer/pexels Report

#3

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner Not me but a coworker.

Went on a Contiki tour with his missus for his 21st birthday. Booked a 45 day tour, seeing like 15 different countries. A week or two into the trip she gets caught getting finger blasted by some random Spanish dude in a club in Barcelona. He is obviously devastated, and now he has to face the prospects of potentially travelling for another month with the girl who just stomped on his heart.

He contemplated just calling it and flying home, but other members of the tour convinced him to stay, have a good time and to get on with his life and enjoy the holiday he paid for. He organized with Contiki and the tour guides to re work the accommodation so he was no longer in a room with her.

He told me he had a marvelous time, made some great new friends and got to experience new things. She was miserable the whole time as basically the entire group shunned her for being a massive PoS, ignored her on nights out, and she was desperately hoping to get back with her (ex) bf who wanted nothing to do with her.

He changed his flights on the way home to fly home later than she was, and extended his European holiday in order to keep the party going with some of the new friends he had made.

PanzerBiscuit , MART PRODUCTION/pexels Report

Add photo comments
POST
de-snoekies avatar
Alexandra
Community Member
1 week ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's the best way: show the cheater life is good without them in it.

View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#4

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner I went to the dr for an IUD for birth control after our second child and while the dr was inserting the IUD in my cervix she informed me that I had an STD. I had only had sex with him for the past 10 years.

summerpeachxo , MART PRODUCTION/pexels Report

#5

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner I was using his laptop for my work meeting as mine was at the service center. I went to login my email and his was already logged in, first email was your flower delivery was successful. I didn't think much of it however curiosity got the best of me,

So I opened the email, and it was for some girl, scrolled a few emails down there were flight tickets, hotel reservation, car rental. He was f*****g multiple girls in the course of if our 2 years relationship.

I packed my bags, told him I forgive him for whatever he has done and I am not going to sit and blame myself or ask myself where I was wrong, because he was always the priority and left my research programme to stay with him. Cried my eyes out when driving back home and blocked him. 1 year and still devastated but good riddance.

shittytherapistofdog , Vlada Karpovich/pexels Report

Add photo comments
POST
lmm-kuiper avatar
Sanne
Community Member
1 week ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I would've emailed all those girls all those emails so they all knew about each other. Lets see how many will stay with him.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#6

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner Not me but my mother - who had stage three bladder cancer at the time, had a knock on the door from a woman who told her that she was dating my dad. She said that she had heard my mum was on death's doorstep, and that she had been taking parenting classes and watching her take her kids inside from the car to prepare for the day she could adopt them. Real class act.

Illustrious_Papaya_5 , cottonbro studio/pexels Report

Add photo comments
POST
lianbeijers avatar
LB
Community Member
1 week ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That sounds like some mental health challenges were present.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#7

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner True story (circa 1982). My Mum marched into my Dad's office at work one day and said "we need to talk" and he said "is this about Ramona?" and she said "who the f**k is Ramona?". Divorced a year later....don't think he ever found out what she wanted to talk about.

viklas76 , Yan Krukau/pexels Report

Add photo comments
POST
farmgirl_1976 avatar
Mrs.C
Community Member
1 week ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Happened to a friend of mine. Out shopping, hears something about a family member, texts her husband "we need to talk," and he spills the beans- had been planning a divorce for a long time. Friend was completely blindsided.

View more commentsArrow down menu
#8

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner She left her diary on the lounge room floor when she went to work. I debated reading it but eventually gave in.

Was then I found out about her f*****g my brother multiple times when I was working night shift.

When I confronted her about it, I was called a prick for reading her diary and for working night shift, therefore not being home when she got horny.

I tried to explain the difference in levels of the bad things we did, but she didn't see any.

For some reason, we didn't last after that...

Bucephalus307 , Pixabay /pexels Report

Add photo comments
POST
ppepworth avatar
Peppy
Community Member
1 week ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hoping the brother got some ire for his actions, I think I would find that a bigger betrayal

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#9

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner She was having too many “girls night out”. I was skeptical. I checked her location on FindMy and saw she was at the neighbor's house. He’s single. A betrayal like that is devastating.

platypus5309 , Анастасия Быкова/pexels Report

Add photo comments
POST
veronica-almasry avatar
Charlie
Community Member
1 week ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Don't you have to go into someone else's Find My/Apple account to find that person's phone?

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#10

Our seven-year-old, from the back seat of the car as I was driving her to school: “Mummy and me have had a really grown-up conversation about going to live with Mummy’s friend…”

It’d be going on for six months. We worked in the same place and she’d been taking him to work functions all that time whilst I was home with my daughter. I really was the last to know.

She left work but told everyone that she only cheated because I did first. Blatant lie. I had three months of work with people treating me like s**t because I got what I deserved - and then someone confronted me and told me what they all “knew”.

From my reaction, they worked out I was actually probably innocent. Was a rough time though.

repairmanjack_51 Report

#11

Ex-wife (married 10 years) needed an emergency shot of Imetrex for a migraine. Fumbling though her purse looking for it and found a tear in the fabric. Lo and behold she had condoms stashed in there along with some m*th. It was rough but I did end up with full custody of my two boys. Happily married to a wonderful woman now and everyone is ok. Even the ex, she eventually kicked her habit.

jugglerdude Report

Add photo comments
POST
philjones2 avatar
Penguin Panda Pop
Community Member
1 week ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's always the same, starts with some simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Next thing you know, she's using letters and solving for 'x'. Math addiction - it's dangerous, and will lead to migraines if you don't know what you're doing.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#12

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner Found her SmartWatch which she left at home when she was heading out to New Years Eve with "The Girls."

I thought it was going to be funny to "spy" on her texts as they watch was buzzing like crazy and I figured her and her friends were discussing meet up spots and the like....

Only to see kissy faces and hearts from a mutual online friend whom she was apparently meeting...

...yeah wasn't a great new year. Luckily that was Jan 2020 so that HAD to be the worst thing that would happen to me that year. Get it all out of the way at the start, right?

....right?

Alexandratta , freestocks.org/flickr Report

#13

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner Was driving our son around to get him to go to sleep. Ended up in the neighborhood of her office. Knowing she'd been working late a lot recently, I drove over there to see if she wanted me to bring her dinner. Ended up catching her with a redneck co-worker in the parking lot in his 70's hippy van. Went home and changed the locks.

Wuddntme , nappy/pexels Report

#14

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner My ex used to run a construction business with a childhood friend. They were very close and his friend was in our wedding. Ex started stealing money from the business and lying about jobs. I didn’t know this until his friend showed up at our home demanding we pay him back. My ex refused and told him he was going solo in the business. The friend looked me dead in the eye and told me the woman's name. No other info but just the name. I immediately knew what he meant by the look in his eye. He then gave me the address. The house was built by my husband, four years prior.

tarabletara , Antoni Shkraba/pexels Report

Add photo comments
POST
lianbeijers avatar
LB
Community Member
1 week ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The friend made a bad call by not telling her earlier, imo.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#15

She said she was at a friend's studying. I had suspicions about a guy she was working with so I drove about 30 minutes to his house and found her car there. I parked out front and called her. She picked up and I just let her bury herself as hard as I could. Asked her what she was studying, what the girls name was she was studying with, where she lived, everything I could think of to make her fumble about. Then I told her to look out front of the house she was in. When I saw her peek through a blind, I waved and told her to find a new place to live and to come get her things. I know things hadn’t been great for a while, but it was still a bummer to end like that.

earic23 Report

#16

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner I got let go from work early because we were overstaffed. She had ironically taken the day off for a "mental health day." I pulled up into the driveway and when I walked in the door I immediately heard moaning upstairs. I'm assuming she's m*sturbating. I go up there and open the bedroom door... And my wife is on her back. Except there's another woman straddling her face at the head of our bed whom she's eating out. It's another mom of one of the kids our kid goes to school with. I had no idea my wife was even into women at all.

SlipperyPickle6969 , Ketut Subiyanto/pexels Report

#17

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner Had a suspicion he was on Grindr, downloaded it and took screenshots of his (faceless but very obviously him) profile. I held onto it for a few weeks because I was honestly in shock, but one day he made a joke about how seedy gay guys can be and I just went "oh like this?" And showed him the screenshots. It was a very satisfying feeling watching him squirm!

cheezgrator , Karolina Grabowska/pexels Report

Add photo comments
POST
rahb1 avatar
Rahb in Oz
Community Member
1 week ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is why it is sad that gay guys feel they have to marry a woman to be OK. It doesn't work! It just means heartache for both of you later on when the guy has to come out.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#18

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner My wife announced at a holiday dinner that she was pregnant, I had a vasectomy 15 years before. Retested to make sure that no magic had reconnected. The next weekend at a large family picnic, I told everyone about my zero sperm count.

Longjumping-Skill80 , Katerina Holmes/pexels Report

#19

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner She was in the ICU on a ventilator and life support for 30 days. Docs had no answers and she was almost out of options. Gave her “significantly less than 50% chance” to live and told me to consider all possible explanations for her condition including hard d**g use. Decided to go through her phone in an attempt to find anything that might help. No d***s found but I did find an 18 month affair.

Katniss_is_a_bitch , Tony Schnagl/pexels Report

#20

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner She had done some unexpected personal grooming and packed lingerie to take to work with her. When we got home at the end of day and she went off to get ready for bed (clearly not intending to sleep with me), I pulled the very used lingerie out of her bag and confronted her. She evaded initially, but ended up confessing it was some guy from her work she had only met a couple of days earlier.


That was 3 weeks ago. She's still sleeping with the new guy while I've moved out and am trying to figure out how we sell the house we bought together 7 months ago. So, fun times.

cedricsexypants , Наталья Масик/pexels Report

Add photo comments
POST
rahb1 avatar
Rahb in Oz
Community Member
1 week ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Always a fun time, not. I was inveigled into the same scenario. Selling the house and dividing the spoils when you have been cheated on both financially and emotionally is very hard.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#21

The, at the time, 22F AP sent me an email to clarify if my ex (39M then) and I (35F then) were truly divorced (we didn't). She and I immediately met that day and I found out that my ex was actively cheating on me for the past 2 years of my marriage, and that he was with her when he left me with no words for one entire month, among many other lies he had been feeding me and the AP from the get go. Needless to say I immediately processed the divorce -should've done that sooner when I noticed all the red flags, but it was easier to live in constant denial.

Fun fact: he called me out of the blue 4 years after the divorce to see how I was faring. I suppose he wanted to see me being miserable, but I was truly living my best life -still am :).

theorgasmorator Report

#22

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner Mine had a fictitious job which she was claiming she started early and had accepted an unpaid hand over period and was going to get paid from January the following year.
By February she still wasn’t getting paid and my best mate was strangely busy every time she was working. I waited for definite proof before breaking up with her as she had an illness which although real she exaggerated.
Lots of suspicious behaviour later I was really struggling.
In May she claimed to have been paid and I without snooping saw a letter about a bank loan on the bin.
That night was bin day I stood outside waiting for her to get home with the bin in my hand and saw his car show up down the road. They didn’t see me and I walked up to the car to see them kissing passionately.
Despite that she still denied anything was going on 😂.

Kooky_Weird4238 , Lara Jameson by giving them a small donation/pexels Report

Add photo comments
POST
libstak avatar
Libstak
Community Member
1 week ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No, it's not what you think the car swerved and hit a bump, next thing I know our faces coĺlided and we couldn't get them apart...suction, ya know?

View more commentsArrow down menu
#23

My friend rang me up. Turns out she had been sleeping with guys at work. One of her coworkers didn’t like her and told my friend who promptly passed it onto me. I sent her a text saying we were done and then ghosted her. It’s the reason I don’t have any social media except reddit. From her perspective I essentially disappeared overnight. Hearing her freaking out for months from friends was satisfying. Haven’t seen her in over 10 years now.

If anyone is cheated on don’t do anything stupid. Just remove yourself from them completely. It’s the best revenge you can get.

ashbash272 Report

Add photo comments
POST
katokatt avatar
Aboredpanda
Community Member
1 week ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"One pf her coworkers didn't like her" ... could just as easily have been a fake story to ruin her life. In which case it worked. Trust me, there are some real unhinged people put there...

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#24

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner She didn’t come home after dropping our youngest off at preschool 2 miles away for the afternoon session. I noticed she had makeup on and showered early, on her day off, which never happened. Watched her location and she was in a rural area she never goes to and it wouldn’t zoom in. Finally zoomed in and I screenshot it. Drove down and walked in on her, butt naked, in his trailer waiting for round 2. He was outside smoking a cigarette and when I walked up he looked like he thought I was about to [unalive] him.

gingerviking_ , Pixabay/pexels Report

See Also on Bored Panda
#25

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner Parked outside his house and asked him what he’s doing. He said “just relaxing at home” but he wasn’t home. Went through his phone that night and found everything. He was cheating with at least four other women.

Conscious-Bass7653 , mikoto.raw Photographer/pexels Report

Add photo comments
POST
emmastowe1986 avatar
Emma S
Community Member
1 week ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When it gets to the point that you are spying on them or going through their phone to trust them, it's time to walk away.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#26

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner Not my spouse (girlfriend), but I literally had a prophetic dream about it. I dreamed that she had taken me to a Mexican restaurant and told me that she cheated on me with one of our mutual friends a week prior to me actually finding out, and I wrote it in my dream journal because it had me really shaken up, (you know, those super hyperrealistic nightmare type dreams) but I dismissed it as paranoia.

Exactly a week later we went to go eat at a Mexican restaurant and she was acting a little bit strange… and my heart just dropped to my a*s and I felt my whole body start shaking. I knew I was right. And she looked at me and said “I have something to tell you” and I didn’t even let her finish, I just said “was it *****?” And her face went white as a f*****g ghost and I stormed out of the restaurant. She followed and I said some very mean things to her and dumped my leftovers in the back of her car… not my finest moment but hey, I’d never been cheated on before and it was a moment of extreme anger. If I could go back in time I would have held my head higher- I think that would have hurt her worse.

Listen to your gut, people!! The subconscious has a way of telling you what you need to know!!

Acrobatic_Top7174 , Lucas Andrade/pexels Report

#27

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner My then 3 yr daughter told her grandma about noises she heard from mom's room. then her grandma told me, ended it soon after, no explanation, just packed and left.

Effective_Fish_3402 , Juan Pablo Serrano/pexels Report

Add photo comments
POST
lafoffi avatar
Sofia
Community Member
1 week ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I just wonder how someone can do that with children awake and around

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#28

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner I was suspicious, Spider Sense was tingling. She left her laptop open logged into her work email. Her lover was a coworker. Nothing was in the inbox. Dummy deleted all the emails but didn't delete her trash.

It was all there. Cool cool cool.

SnatchAddict , Andrea Piacquadio/pexels Report

Add photo comments
POST
rahb1 avatar
Rahb in Oz
Community Member
1 week ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Same here. Arsehole ex-partner (still sharing the same house) asked me to access his laptop to forward an email because he was trying to cheat his employer. Saw all the emails consoling him because I was so horrible. He had conspired to cheat me into paying for the house, the same as he had done with his previous partner. Good riddance, if too late.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#29

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner I was rubbing her stomach in bed and she made a joke about not being pregnant assuring me she'd had a pregnancy test 2 weeks before. We hadn't seen each other in 3 months because she was studying in Scotland...

Conscious_Reading_16 , Los Muertos Crew/pexels Report

Add photo comments
POST
emmastowe1986 avatar
Emma S
Community Member
1 week ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't get this one. Is he saying because they hadn't had sex in three months, she couldn't have thought she was pregnant because that's not true. Not all women find out they're pregnant in the early stages. Some women can continue to have periods or light bleeding in pregnancy. Some contraceptives also make periods irregular or stop them completely. Although the chances of getting pregnant are small, it's not zero if the contraceptive was to fail she wouldn't have a missed period to think to do a test and probably wouldn't consider the possibility until she started experiencing other symptoms later on. Also, it says she had a test, not she did a test so maybe it was a routine test that was done at a doctors appointment as they often test women of a child bearing age even if you tell them you're definitely not pregnant.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#30

“I’ll Never Be Able To Forget”: 30 People Reveal How They Exposed Their Cheating Partner The wife of the guy that she cheated on me with spray painted a message on the side of her car in his driveway to stop f***ing her husband. It was apparently OK because she hadn’t told me that she aborted our child until 3 months after she disappeared out of my life through text. I was worried for nothing apparently.

Stimbes , cottonbro studio/pexels Report

Add photo comments
POST
cambria-dobson_1 avatar
Salem
Community Member
1 week ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I’ve read this five times over and still can’t decipher it

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu

Note: this post originally had 88 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.

Poll icon

Poll Question

Thanks! Check out the results: