People Who've Been Cheated On And Forgave Their Partner Explain How Their Relationship Turned Out
What do you do when your partner cheats? Do you leave? Do you take a timeout and reassess your relationship? Do you stay and work it out? Do you come to a new agreement?
Each relationship is different, and solutions are hardly black and white. That said, it can be difficult for many people to understand why someone would stay with a partner who has strayed, especially when the concept of monogamy is largely viewed as the default for many relationships.
People shared their stories after Redditor mehrunysa asked the online community,
"Redditors who got cheated on and gave chance to their cheater partner, how did it end up?"
"Being young is no excuse..."
"She cheated on me again. Left her for good. The worst part is she was my best friend before we got together.
She was an awesome friend, but a crappy girlfriend. She was my first serious relationship, and for a long time I thought I could have done more to keep her faithful, but I eventually realized that she could have just broken up with me instead of cheating, and it wasn't my fault at all.
She is married now, and I hope for both their sakes that she cleaned up her act. Being young is no excuse, and being cheated on is one of the worst feelings ever."
The loss of trust can be soul-destroying. We're sorry to hear you went through that.
"Years later..."
"In failure. Years later I received, what felt like, a real apology for the incident and other mistreatments. But this was only after she had received poor/similar treatment from a recent partner. Hard to tell if it was sincere or just a ploy for pity."
Sounds like it was a ploy for pity. You're better off.
"But she learned..."
"She cheated again. But she learned to cover her tracks better. I wasted the last 4 years of my life with her."
"I moved out..."
"She started cheating a little before our 1 year marriage anniversary. I found out fairly quickly, gave her a second chance, and she did it again 6 months later on my birthday... with her (then) best friend's husband.
I moved out immediately. Got diagnosed with cancer about a month later, and got served with divorce papers 2 weeks after that.
Cheaters are scum."
"The only redeeming part..."
"3/10, would not recommend.
Any time we ever had a disagreement after I chose to forgive her, she accused me of only arguing with her because she cheated on me. I let her know I was capable of forgiving and forgetting more than her. When we finally broke up, she had to move back in with her family (we were in CA, they were in VT).
The only redeeming part of it was that I was able to let her family know that she cheated on me and that she wouldn't stop bringing it up."
These Conspiracy Theories Are Easy to Debunk | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
"When I finally figured out..."
"My girlfriend and I started out long-distance, and it was hard to pinpoint what our relationship actually was. I was far from honest about not being with anyone else during the beginning. For the first couple years, I was just being a ho, didn't really consider that it would pan out, and was careless of her feelings. Apathy fueled by depression and substance abuse, but that's no excuse.
When I finally figured out that she was the one I truly wanted to be with, I admitted that I had been unfaithful. She sat me down and gave me one, and only one chance to come clean about every single thing.
I figured she would end up leaving after hearing it all anyway, but it was better to do right by her, and be honest.
I've been faithful since, she moved 300km to live with me, we have 4 cats after merging our houses, and I've never been happier in my life. She's already picked out her ring, and I'm going to propose in October when we're on vacation in Mexico. I plan to spend the rest of my life with her, doing whatever I can to reciprocate the positivity, and happiness that she's given me."
It sounds like you both made it work beautifully. Her compassion allowed you both to start a new chapter honestly. Well done. Congratulations.
"It's actually..."
"It's actually worked out really well, we're happy together and have been together 19 years."
"It was a misplaced investment..."
"It was a misplaced investment of faith, love, duty, and hope.
We're divorcing."
"Battling his own issues..."
"Cheated again and again. Battling his own issues and realized it wasn't me and I wasn't able to change his horrible habit. So I left. He's cheating on his new girlfriend now. Hopefully, he works through whatever it is that makes him hurt others in such a horrendous way."
That's a more compassionate response than others might give. Hopefully you're right.
"What a winner."
"He dumped me in the middle of a pub in front of all his friends because he saw a chick walk in who he was trying to bang in the time we were broken up after he cheated on me.
What a winner."
While those who have made a relationship work out might seem to represent a minority, these experiences are just as valid as those of people who've had a bad time.
Have some stories of your own? Is it possible to come back from cheating? Can a relationship recover? Feel free to tell us in the comments below.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
People Describe The Exact Moment They Realized Their Friends Were A-Holes
Everyone has friends who you become less and less close to with each passing year.
This isn't always by choice, though, but simply by circumstance, when your lives both take different directions.
In some cases, however, we do find ourselves making a very conscious decision to stop spending time with certain friends.
Owing to the fact that these people might not be our friends after all.
In certain cases, the communication ends as the result of one specific moment.
Redditor D1Tytos was curious to hear the triggering moment when people decided to end their friendships, leading them to ask:
"What's the moment that made you realize your so called 'friends' were really just d*cks?"
Lack of Compassion
"When I got cancer and they never checked on me."- justagirlx19
Being Taken Advantage Of
"Worked with and rented a large house with my friend group after high school."
"Dumb and inexperienced with life, I didn’t know they were lying to me about bills and making me pay more/whatever they felt like until a family member asked about it."
"Eventually they all looked at moving into a new place without telling me."
"I felt guilty and confessed they would basically steal my money to shop with and planned on moving out while I was visiting family so I came back to an empty place and responsible for everything."- dylandbloom
"I found myself getting irritated whenever they called/hit me up."
"Because every time they'd only ask for something , never just to talk to hang out."- ybbetter_ratio
Happy Birthday Indeed...
"The last time I tried throwing a birthday party for myself."
"It always seemed like the ratio of people who said they'd come to people who actually showed was...lacking."
"But my final attempt."
"I had 20+ people say they'd show."
"Exactly one actually came."
"I've never had a birthday party since."
"But I'm still good friends with the one guy who showed."- Lachwen
Unkind Exclusion
"They asked to not have one of the people in our group over."
"They didn't want to tell him there was no game, they just wanted him to knock and pretend no one was there."
"I wasn't very cool with this but they didn't want to be 'confrontational' with said person."
"Before the next week rolled around they were saying 'there wasn't going to be anything going on' that Saturday."
"I knew they were full of sh*t, but went by to confirm they were all there that Saturday, and sure enough they all were."
"Just dropped them like a sack of potatoes and never spoke to them again, no reason to."- MickCollins
True Colors
"Had 3 friends."
"2 I liked and 1 I didn't really like at all."
"Turns out they had a secret group chat where they just called me slurs and talked about me behind my back."
"The guy I didn't like sent me screenshots of this and me and him have been friends 3 years now."- c_a_t2·
Blurred Perceptions
"When I stopped drinking and realized that’s all we had holding our friendship together."- BillieBoJangers·
Unreliable
"I remember I was severely depressed and I called someone I thought was my friend."
"When he realized I wanted to talk about real sh*t he made up an excuse to hang up."
"After that he kept ignoring my calls."
"What's crazy is I was there for that dude when his wife left him for another guy."
"There were times where I wanted to escape his depressing stories, but sat there and listened because he was my friend."- horsetoothjack@ss119
Ungrateful
"Couples retreat of 3 pairs, other 2 girlfriends flaked last minute, leaving mine."
"They still came, then had the nerve to tell mine the trip would’ve been better without her right to her face when I was out surfing."
"This was never established as a guys trip at any point."
"She fed them, organized the trip as a whole, etc."
"Losers."- SwingmanSealegz
Provoking Others
"Guy lies about his well-being being bad cus he loves how worried someone reacts."
"I called him out on it when he lied to someone else and he literally said 'I enjoy winding people up, I love how they react when I say x'."
"That's gross to me."- PastaNotFound
Ending a friendship is never pleasant.
But time heals everything, and over the course of a couple months, it might become evidently clear how much better off your life is without certain people in it.
We all have songs that we can't get out of our heads, resulting in our randomly humming them while walking down the street.
Among the most infectious songs are theme songs to TV shows.
Be it from tuning in every week to catch up with Friends who will always" be there for [us]", or being "stuck in the middle" of a Grace And Frankie binge, we often find ourselves humming the theme songs of our favorite shows more often than we find ourselves quoting the best lines.
Even if it means humming an infectious melody to a wordless piece of music (Will & Grace or Seinfeld anyone?)
Redditor LinksOtherUncle was curious to hear what people considered the all time greatest theme song to a TV show, leading them to ask:
"What is the greatest TV Show theme song of all-time?"
"Whoo-oo"...
"Duck Tales, of course."- Beautiful-Stranger20
"Believe It Or Not It's Just Me!"
"Greatest American Hero!"- GayHole
"Bum Bum BUM bum...bum bum BUM BUM bum bum bum..."
"Sanford and Son"- jkulpa
The Original MCU
"90s X-Men."- Ourobius
"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale..."
"Gilligan's Island"- Cantbetoobad1953
"It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights..."
"The Muppet Show theme song!"- Poorkiddonegood8541
"A World Of Criminals Who Operate Above The Law"
"Knight Rider!"- BladeBronson
"Heroes in a half-shell, TURTLE POWER!"
"The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon theme."- Petulant_Platypus
"You want to go where everybody knows your name."
"Cheers."- Big-Significance3604
The only thing more comforting than turning on our TVs to revisit a familiar town with familiar characters, is the comforting familiar music which greets us on our return.
People Explain Which Bits Of Common Knowledge They Learned Way Too Late In Life
Who hasn't had a moment when they learned what they thought was a revelatory piece of information, ran to share it with their friends, and were then greeted by a barrage of stone faces?
Owing to the fact that what we only just learned a few minutes ago, was apparently common knowledge.
These include your favorite movie star was in fact the offspring of another movie star, what gelatin is actually made of, or little tricks and strategies which make certain experiences so much more pleasurable.
For no particular reason, some people learn these things far later than just about everyone else.
Redditor Big_Piccolo_8369 was curious to learn which bits of common knowledge people were late to the party in knowing, leading them to ask:
"What is common knowledge that you found out way too late?"
Strategic Planning
"Always eat before shopping at Costco."- mtl_jim
Sometimes Silence Is Golden
"Just because I hold an opinion on something doesn't mean that I need to share it."
"I spent WAY too much of my early adulthood inserting my viewpoint into discussions that I wasn't really a part of."- xjuggernaughtx
How To Keep Friendships Strong
"Simply asking 'how are you' once in awhile is all it takes to not fall apart from old friends."- a_burdie_from_hell
Know Your Worth
"Hard work isn’t always the answer."
"When I worked a minimum wage job, I would work hard and not take breaks, so a great job, and always finish early."
"I just then got told to pick up the slack for the employees who spent their time goofing off."
"Never got a promotion, raise, or even a 'hey, good job'."- Disco-Onion
Think Twice Before Lending Money
"That when people ask to borrow money especially if it's a friend or family just expect to never see it again."- Different-Chest-5716
Spotting Charlatans
Being well-educated in one area doesn't mean that a person can't be a total idiot in other areas."- Red-belliedOrator
Never Make Decisions When Angry
"'Every action made in anger ends in sorrow'."
"An attorney, when I was 24."- yours121110
"Don't make permanent decisions based on temporary feelings."- Yoschnitzel
The Importance Of Sleep
"Going too long without sleep can impair your ability to drive the same way as drinking too much alcohol."- SuvenPan
We're all bound to be looked down upon every now and then for just learning something everyone else already knows.
Though always remember, the wisest ones are those who never want to stop learning.
I'm a simple person when it comes to video games.
I prefer to go with nostalgia.
All of these fancy deals put me on sensory overload.
But my goodness the technology really has come a long way.
And there are actual storylines and drama.
Good for y'all gamers.
Redditor TolisKoutrowanted everyone to list their thoughts on the greatest of the great.
"What video game do you consider a masterpiece?"
I love you Ms. Pac-Man. Always and forever.
It's a Ride
"Roller Coaster Tycoon 2."
Icy_Entrepreneur_859
"Loved RCT2. The canned child laughing sound and the chain lifts noise are permanently burned into my brain."
Career-Known
my whole childhood...
"Man I miss Valve... Their games were designed in a way many developers could only dream of, they were revolutionary in almost everything they laid their hands on."
johnbacosta
"Yeah that’s my whole childhood, still some of the best games… and actually playing HL- alyx for my very first VR experience was nuts. Loved it."
dub3ra
"They made a new game based in the Portal universe. It’s really short but it’s free and funny."
Advanced_Position_25
Better than Perfect
"Portal 2."
Natural-School5690
For real. The first one was absolutely perfect and then they somehow managed to make the second one even better."
Jack_Mackerel
"Portal 1's only fault is that it's very short. I just replayed it a decade since I last touched it and I cleared it in under 2 hours. Portal 2 had so much more room to add more mechanics, more puzzles, and more story. It's the perfect sequel."
YossarianWWII
Classic
"Half Life 2 was brilliant. After that I'd call out WoW Classic. It's hated now, but the first couple of years it was magic. It was a completely new experience exploring such a massive open world and nobody knew anything. So much fun on Ventrilo. Will remember forever. Championship manager in the early 90s. Maybe what I have played the most. I'll mention Fallout series, Witcher and Skyrim as well."
Joppe84
Simply the Best
"Star Wars knights of the old Republic. KOTOR. Surprised it hasn’t been said."
gerbs650
"Absolutely! I played it as a kid and it practically taught me life lessons. KOTOR 2 is a little darker but quite good also."
Lensk
How can you even tell any of the Star Wars games apart?
FAVE!!
"Super Mario World. It’s perfect. I don’t think there’s a single thing about it that I would change."
AdevilSboyU
"That game is awesome. That and Mario 64. But I love the soundtrack from Yoshi’s Island."
HmGrwnSnc1984
Options
"Deus Ex the first one."
Funkyouup82
"At the time the open ended options and story presentation were both really impressive. You could really appreciate that the developer committed to that (e.g. you could physically destroy most locked doors). I think a lot of games stop short of doing that because they don’t want to allow brute force solutions in addition to more elegant ones."
NewKitchenFixtures
"Journey. Not as long and vast as many games here but an artistic masterpiece in my books. It’ll age much better than most games too because of the simplicity."
justthisones
"I absolutely love journey; the music mixed with the visual story telling is absolutely stunning. Also it has, imo, one of the most interesting multiplayer experiences of any game."
"It’s def one of my top three games, but Gris’ artwork and music are peak for me. Also if you really enjoyed the exploration of Journey, you’ll probably love Outer Wilds. Great game, it’ll leave you wishing you could forget it and play it all again."
SynnamonSunset
Play NOW!
"Chrono Trigger, if you know you know, and if you don't, go play it immediately."
sketchypoutine
"Definitely, I feel like some of the best RPGs came from the SNES and Sega era. Chrono Trigger, FF 6, Secret of Mana, super Mario RPG, Earthbound, shining force 2, Phantasy Star 4. Still some of my favorites that i try to revisit every year or so."
chrono_bound20xx
"Came here for Chrono. Time travel just makes for amazing stories, and I love how you can make the game different each play through."
anna1781
i can see your...
"Halo 3. Incredible story and thrilling gameplay. Hilariously fun multiplayer. Fantastic community. Nostalgia."
Current-Ad1250
Video games have surely come a long way from Atari.
What would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments below.