I need help fast. My wife has been having an emotional fair for about 6 months. After a heated argument back in July, she confessed that there was another man. He leaves out of state. They started talking through facebook as friends before it got more serious. She claims that they have only meet on 4 occassions and never in a sexual manner. Some back story before I get into my questions. We have been married for 7 years now. We have two boys 6 and 3. We met through work and I was the other guy at one point. She married very young and we met. She quickly divorced and we began our relationship. Dated and lived together for almost 3 years before we married. I was a college baseball coach which lead me to be away a bunch. This was the big dagger in our marriage. She said she felt alone and not appreciated until she started talking to the OM. We have been living in the same house for the last two months with the knowledge that she is talking to another man. She claims she is not leaving because of the kids but cannot bring herself to ask me to leave. Our families and most of our friends know about the affair. We have also been in marriage counseling for several months. She has remained firm that she is in love with him and sees her future with him. However, I have slighty started to pull away and not give her attention and she said last night that she doesn't want to give me false hope but wonders if she is doing the right thing having an affair. But she still wrote to him last night. I don't want to leave because of the boys but feel I can no longer give into her. I contacted a lawyer today. To find out my rights. Looking for any help possible in an last minute effort to save my marriage.
PLEASE HELP

She is cake-eating. She is getting her needs met by both of you. This needs to stop. Tell her that you will no longer accept a third party in your M. Tell her she needs to stop contacting OM TODAY, and needs to write a no-contact letter to him in order to save your M. If she refuses to do so, tell her she will need to leave.

She began waffling when you began pulling away because she needed to get you back to where you were supplying her whatever needs she gets from you. I suspect those are financial support and the stability that comes from being with her children. BTW, tell her that the kids will stay with YOU.

And YOU don't leave. SHE does.

Thanks maritalbliss for the advice. I did tell her several weeks ago what the affair was doing to me and our marriage and asked her to abstain from talking to him. Of course she has not and usually responds that she loves him and I don't understand how much in love they are. Eventhough they only talk on the phone or online.

Let me get this right just to clarify she started to see you while she was still married, then divorced and then moved in with you?

Sounds to me you have already known her cheating past, you knew when you met her, you knew when she moved in, and you knew when you married her.

Correct me if I am wrong?

I'm confused. Did she cheat on her ex-husband with you either emotionally or physically? Or did you discover your feelings after her divorce?

aBetterMe

Unacceptable, sunshine. She is totally disrespecting you by trotting out these kinds of disgusting avowals of love for another man!

Tell her you will no longer live like this. Grow a set, sunshine. Get in the saddle and tell her to stop the A or GET OUT.

Yes that is correct. Like I said before. When we met she was married and I was the OM.

Yes aBetterMe she was with me both emotionally and physically. She has always told me he was very emotionally abusive to her and that it was going to end anyway.

Then you knew you married a cheater and that you were an enabler. My suggestion is to read all you can here, expose the affair to everyone and attempt to get her on board with MB.

Good luck.

aBetterMe

Yes I knew a married a cheater. However, the stakes are alot higher for her now that there are two young children. How to I go about getting her on board to MB.

S19, on this forum your situation is what is called an affairage. Your current marriage came out of the destruction of another marriage. Incidents of repeat adultery are very, very high in these relationships. Typically you will not get a lot of help saving that from many of the people here. Me included. I will not post on this thread again, however......

You should go directly to the Harleys as they will attempt to save affairages although even they admit there is a very, very low success rate.

Chrisner, I thank you for your honesty and thank you for the advice.

This, sir, is what is termed an Affairage. It is a marriage that begins as an affair. Affairages are notoriously difficult to sustain as they start off with two selfish, untrustworthy people.

I'm sorry, but you picked a bad mate. You picked a woman who believes that Adultery is a valid option when the going gets rough. She doesn't believe in 'for better or worse'.

Saddly, neither do you. Your needs are more important than marriage - or you never would have messed around with a married woman.

You are living the consequences of your poor choices, sad thing is that your CHILDREN will suffer way more than you ever do.


She was old enough to say I do - she wasn't too young.

Dumb - maybe, hence why she crawled into a relationship with you with a ring still on her finger.

But she was old enough to know right from wrong, and selfish enough to pick wrong. And so were you.


This was your second mistake.

Living together for marriage is a sure fire way to lower your chances at a happy marriage. That taken with your justification for an adulterous lifestyle and this is where you wind up - with a cheating wife.


This may have helped, but your problems began WAY before the travel. The travel just provided the opportunity for the inevitable.


Doesn't matter why - she would have cheated on you eventually. That's what adulterers do. When things get bad, they go outside their marriage.


Time to man up, take responsibility for your mistakes and stand up for your family. You are allowing an abusive adulteress to cake eat - and it is damaging to you and your children. You need to show her the door, my friend. You need to give her consequences for her bad behavior.


As they accepted YOU, despite the adulterous nature of your relationship with your wife, I imagine they won't be much help to you now. They accepted you then, they will probably accept OM in time. I don't think exposure is going to help you much. Which is unfortunate as that is the BEST tool to end an affair.


You are wasting your time and money. Marriage counselors can't save marriages with normal problems, they have no hope at saving an Affairage.

All you are doing is further enabling your wife.


Much as she saw you when she was 'very young'.

Right now your best bet is to make your wife look undesirable to the OM so HE can't see a future with HER. I'd expose him to his family and wife if he has one.


This is the OPPOSITE of what you must do. If you want her to stay with you you have to CONVINCE her you can be a good husband, by being loving, attentive and striving to meet her needs.


OMGosh...I'm sorry I can't help but laugh. THIS is the woman you married. The woman who WONDERS if having an affair is the right thing? Do you see how morally deficient she is??

Is an affair the right thing?

Seriously?

This is a question for her?


Your marriage will never survive as long as she is in contact with him.



Not many here will help an Affairage. You made your bed, now you get to lie in it.

However, I will give you this advice: if you want to save your marriage do a search of the forum for Plan A and Plan B. Those are the plans you need to follow if you want a chance. Expose and make your wife unattractive to OM. Call the Harley's - they'll give you the help you need.

Fixed that for you.

As for getting her on board, realize that you are starting off in a much worse position than most here. You need professional counseling from the Harleys.

A cheater is a liar. They lie.

You helped it end.

Regardless, this is not an acceptable justification for adultery.

Well...what do you think she is telling her current OM about you? Undoubtedly the same crap. That's what wayward wives do. Ditch this serial cheater and learn from your own past mistakes. Never...ever again insert yourself into somebody else's marriage. What you are experiencing right now is the big old Karma bus and it just flattened you....

Vibrissa

Thank you. I never thought of our marriage in that way (affairiage). and through this whole process have many times wondered if I was just getting what I deserved and probably am. However, I feel my boys need a loving mother and father. That is why I am reaching out for advice. I really appreciate your honesty.

This is typical wayward-speak. I wish I had a nickel for every wayward who told their lover that their H was abusive. And I'm glad I don't lose a nickel for every wayward who was nothing of the kind.

This will be a harder climb for you, sunshine. Your M began in deception. Your WW learned in her A with you that it was acceptable to check out of a commitment like marriage when something better came along. That better thing was you at the time. Now there's another better thing - the OM.

Dr Harley wrote a very good post a while back to another person's thread who was in a similar situation as yourself.

He said although he did try to help save marriages that started as an affair, it was very difficult and he had very little success at it. He outlines his theory of why this is. (If you want to read this, lmk and I will post it for you.)

Big picture, the affair she is in right now is a small part of a much larger problem that you are facing.

To be honest, while I am not interested in helping people who are in an affairage, I like to share Dr. Harley's post about the subject because I think people such as yourself should know what they are up against...

Other than that I don't have much help for you.

I think the problem you have right off the bat is that "she WONDERS if having an AFFAIR is the RIGHT thing"

Someone who has so little sense of right and wrong, and no moral compass is not going to suddenly gain insight into character and integrity.

Sadly, she has none. She is not good marriage material. She is probably not good mother material either if she's willing to teach your young children that this is appropriate behavior.