Recently, Reddit user u/Lishasquarepant asked people: "What caused your last breakup?"
Many had things end amicably, others were downright done WRONG. Here are 21 of their responses.
1. "Mine ended because of my realization that we were just very different people and that I never really lived for myself."
—u/Jedibedead
2. "I realized I prefer to stay single. Like, permanently. The ability to act without needing to take another person into account makes me incredibly happy."
—u/AuntModry
3. "He seemed to struggle with the concept of not fucking random people."
4. "He slowly got distant. I believe he lost interest and didn't dare be honest with me about that."
—u/GaiaNatur77
5. "Simply, we grew apart."
—u/catetheway
6. "He never said. Everything was fine and then it wasn’t. Knew him for twenty years, dated for three, bought a house together, planned a whole life, were in the process of living happily ever after, and then one day, 'We’d be better as friends.' Just out of the blue."
—u/theyarnllama
7. "She asked me to go to a weekend retreat aimed at dating couples to find out if they should get married. My first thought was: I don’t want to do that. It went downhill pretty quick after that."
8. "I found out he had a wife and two kids in a different country."
—u/leila_laka
9. "I lost my job and she subsequently lost interest in me (and gained interest in a guy with fuck you money). Good for me."
—u/Candi_hitter
10. "She told me that I love her too much and she can’t stay in one relationship for too long."
—u/NaiveFrog1
11. "It was my drinking. She dumped me. I deserved it."
12. "He married someone else while we lived together."
"Short version: he worked construction and stayed at the hotel he was remodeling during the week because it was almost four hours plus round trip per day because of traffic. Friday through Monday mornings he was still at our apartment.
He started acting weird, trying to flip it on me and I ended up finding proof he was cheating. He begged me not to leave, I told him I needed space think things through. While I was sorting out my feelings, his marriage certificate arrives at our apartment. Best part, it was to another girl, not even the one I caught him cheating on me with.
I confronted him, he started crying (again) and stated he did it for us and ACTUALLY meant it. Apparently this maid at the hotel caught his eye and he said he would never know if I was really the love of his life unless he got to know her because she’d always be his what if. So he started talking to her and learned she was getting deported because she was in the country illegally. So he married her…'For us' and seriously wanted me to stick around while he figured out his feelings.
Needless to say, I didn’t stick around. Also, I haven’t dated since because that REALLY fucked me up."
13. "She found out that I was younger than her by a month. As soon as she found out, she just stopped talking to me."
—u/ZealousAngel
14. "We had problems communicating. I didn’t know when he was serious or when he was angry and I took things very literally. Turns out I’m autistic and we didn’t know what was up at that time."
15. "She started dating someone else while dating me. One day she went cold and distant. I couldn’t figure it out. We slowly stopped talking. She disappeared on weekends. I confronted her slow fade from my life several times and she lashed out at me, called me crazy, and told me it was all in my head each time. One day her dad called and told me she was in a relationship with another guy who lived an hour away. We never had like a definitive 'I’m breaking up with you' conversation. But whatever."
16. "He moved to his country because he missed his family. So he only sent a WhatsApp message saying he was going to stay there. I would have preferred a call at least to break up a marriage."
—u/kattia12
17. "Not really a breakup. But, cancer ended my last relationship."
18. "It was tragic. Truly. He was (is) the love of my life and I’m his. But our separate childhood traumas were incompatible and caused so many emotional issues in our marriage. We couldn’t be what the other person needed because we didn’t even know how to find peace in our own heads. The love is still there. Pure. Maybe we’ll find our way back to each other one day. Maybe not. But for now, we can at least accept that we hurt each other less apart. I mourn what could have been daily. Hourly."
19. "She fucked the guy she told me not to worry about."
20. "I wasn't having sex near as often as she was."
21. "We were 21 and still in college. Had been dating for two years. We kinda both came to the same conclusion. What are we doing? This is going to be it? You are the one? We have whole lives to live! We’re only 21, what are we going to do get married?? So we broke up. This was my last break up. It was a couple weeks later that we got back together. Turns out she was the one. Been married for 14 years!"
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.