DH having emotional affair
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Anonymous
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Emotional affairs can be very addictive if you are struggling with feeling empty. I think they say more about where you are emotionally than where your marriage is.
I had a long running emotional affair and it spanned highs and lows in my marriage. In my mind I called it a friendship but it was definitely more meaningful to me than that. My husband knew about it and ignored the whole thing and eventually I cut off contact with the guy on my own because it was just an exhausting and fraught relationship, not a healthy friendship. |
Anonymous
Him but business doing very poorly. Zero chance we could afford divorce right now |
Anonymous
He might have a different opinion. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
People divorce even when they're poor, OP. Don't think this protects you. And staying just because you want to keep a certain lifestyle is really sad. He needs to arrive, somehow, at the realization that this emotional affair is not good for him. |
Anonymous
| Do you have kids, OP? |
Anonymous
Yes how though? I don't care about lifestyle. I want to stay married |
Anonymous
Yes one starting college and one in college. Will be empty nest |
Anonymous
Oh gawd that’s not good. |
Anonymous
Your husband needs to feel the same way too. You should have a serious discussion so you know where things stand. Behaving like an ostrich isn’t going to do you any favors. |
Anonymous
We will Do therapy |
Anonymous
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You say they met on a trip. What kind of trip, and how did they meet? Were you with him? If not, I would wonder if they've already had sex. Are you just taking his word that it's "merely" emotional, not physical?
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Anonymous
NP. You have to ask him to stop, for the sake of your family and the commitment you made together. Perhaps you don't want to set an ultimatum because this may be a one foot out the door situation. But you could just say, I'd like you to pause this contact while we jointly decide how healthy our relationship is and how this will affect our family. I think a PA is worse, especially with a younger woman. It's hard to compete with because new situations are very hormonal and running on adrenaline. Mature love rarely keeps that quality. The same thing as crushes and EAs. Just worse because the moral code is totally shattered. I would act sooner rather than later. His business situation may make this EA a fun escape from real life. That is unfortunate, and that's not where you have an advantage. Don't beg. Call on why you got married in the first place, your family together, and whatever morality you believe him to possess to move this situation to a more equitable and honest place. Tell him you want to stay married but give convincing and loving reasons. This is a very ordinary situation to find yourself in. Too much despair will prevent you from moving forward. Don't doubt and blame yourself because this exact situation or worse has happened to some of the smartest, prettiest, and richest women on earth. Just start moving forward. I would also background check the other woman on the Internet to see what she may be hiding. Married? Failing business? Why did she latch onto your husband? A woman I know's husband met a married AP at church. He was a trade up for AP because the AP's husband couldn't keep a job. Both of them were apparently bored and sad and immature and professionally unsuccessful together. That was enough to burn everything down. I don't think you need evidence if you know what you saw and are sure. If you're wrong, I don't think your husband will be mad that you're jealous. I think you should talk to your husband ASAP, but not remotely unless his trip is long. That would give him uninterrupted talk time with OW. |
Anonymous
| Separate bedrooms until he cuts it off. Individual and couple counseling ASAP. Find ways to hide a little money away. No sex. Be honest about what you know. |
Anonymous
DH here: I’d take a breath before doing anything. This could be a situation of some ambiguity. Most men are unfamiliar with the concept of an “emotional affair” and so he may not see it as the level of betrayal that you do. His reaction might well be, if confronted, “what do you mean affair, we’re not having sex WTF?” And if you accuse him of an affair or betrayal, he’ll probably get defensive and the conversation won’t be very constructive at all. This could be a situation where what started out as something meant to be relatively innocent has evolved to a bad place because people get disinhibited by screens and it is easy to see even sexual texting as “harmless” given the inherent distance. Recognizing that it might be difficult, perhaps start the conversation in a more neutral place: “You’re texting Larla all the time these days and it’s making me uncomfortable. What is going on?” While ordinarily in the context of a physical affair, confrontation can be a problem because it allows the unfaithful spouse to go to ground and conceal evidence, here it sounds like you’re pretty confident there is nothing like that going on, it’s just the texts and phone calls or whatever; this to me suggests there is less down side in just raising the issue with him and seeing where it leads. |