Getting cheated on by a partner is one of the most horrible and hurtful offenses imaginable. It's especially awful when the unsuspecting party accidentally catches their partner in the act.
Reddit user u/DEDCMDM94 posed the question, "What is your 'accidentally caught your spouse cheating' horror story?" The thread, which is now filled with thousands of responses, is equal parts heartbreaking and infuriating. BuzzFeed Community members also had some upsetting stories of their own. Here are some of the wildest and worst:
1. "My husband had been really nasty to me recently, and we got into a huge fight the night before he went on a business trip. By morning we had sort of made up, but I was still salty. He always texts me to tell me when his plane lands and normally I respond, but I was still so mad, I decided to ignore him. I had never done that before, so he called me to ask what was wrong. I said, 'Right now, I’m as mad at you as I’ve ever been.' He mistakenly assumed I had found out about the multiple online affairs he was having and accidentally blurted everything out."
2. "I saw his mum post a picture of her new grandchild on Facebook. The kid sure as hell didn't come from my vagina."
3. "I found my wife's notebook, and written on the first page was a 10-step plan detailing how she was going to leave me for another guy. I turned it into one step."
4. "I woke up on Christmas day to my partner's alarm going off. He was the type to have 17 alarms set five minutes apart to make sure he got out of bed. I went into his phone to turn them all off and saw a message preview from his baby mama that was a bit too flirty. I checked and he'd been sleeping with her for a month, including the day before (Christmas eve), while I was at home with his parents and their child, preparing Christmas dinner and he was 'working.'"
5. "My brother discovered a condom inside his fiancé. It wasn’t the type he uses."
6. "My husband changed from our cellphone plan to hers. Verizon sent me an email confirming the change and the account his line was added to, which included her name. I asked him, and he lied. I looked her up on Facebook, and it turned out they had just celebrated their two-year dating anniversary. We had just celebrated eight years of marriage."
7. "I guess I wasn't supposed to be home. FedEx delivered two tickets to Vegas right to the house. The tickets had her name and some other dude's name."
8. "My mom's best friend went to have lunch with one of her friends from church choir to meet that woman's new boyfriend. Surprise — it was my boyfriend."
9. "My boyfriend finally convinced me to have a threesome after months of begging, so we had a mutual friend come over. Things got hot and heavy, and when he started fucking her, he moaned, 'Damn, you feel even better than usual!' Everyone froze. He tried to tell me that he was thinking about me while fucking her and that it just felt different, but she felt so guilty that she confessed on the spot and begged me to forgive her. We don’t really talk anymore, but last I heard she had been dating my ex for over a year."
10. "My husband of 15 years had seemed distant, but also had been incredibly busy with work. He was out of town a lot and frequently fielding phone calls/texts. We were on vacation with another family (my friend, her husband, and her kids who were the same age as mine). My friend (also a neighbor) hadn’t been nice to me lately either. I felt uncomfortable with her, but we’d had this trip planned for a year. She and my husband a couple times both disappeared at the same time for about an hour or two, couldn’t be reached, and coincidentally would come back within 20 minutes of each other. They were jogging, left their phone, etc. I got suspicious after the second time and went into my husband’s phone. I saw all their 'I love you' texts with each other. The trip was over Valentine’s Day, and was also to celebrate our anniversaries. Seeing their 'Happy Valentines Day' texts to each other was incredibly difficult."
"They’d been having an affair for over a year. They were even having an affair when my husband planned and booked the family trip together. A lot of the texts he received throughout the day and evening were actually her (not work). We’re all divorced now, and they’re still together."
11. "My girlfriend accidentally ran over her phone and destroyed the screen. She asked me to backup all her stuff and transfer it to her new Pixel. I used the backup tool and saw all sorts of dirty messages and nudes sent to another guy."
12. "While on family vacation, I picked up his phone because I was bored and the kids were playing on mine. I saw a message to some girl describing the sex he and I had had the night before. We spent the rest of the vacation fighting via text while trying (and failing) to act normal."
13. "I came back from a trip four hours early. My wife was supposed to be at work still. I opened the front door to see her sitting topless on the couch making out with a coworker. He ran out the door and she ran into a bathroom and locked the door."
14. "My girlfriend of four years cheated on me with several people, and then TOLD all our mutual acquaintances she did it. But she told them she and I were in an open relationship and that I knew about everything and was fine with it. I found out months after the fact when a friend mentioned my 'open relationship' that I had no memory of entering."
15. "On Christmas Eve, I got onto the computer to find a photo for a last-minute gift — an ornament with a family photo. Instead, I found a love letter to her from some guy at the gym. I kept looking and found tons more."
16. "I caught my ex thanks to Pokémon Go, of all things. She mentioned that Pokémon Go was using a lot of her data. I explained that she could go to her settings to see how much data apps were using. I proceeded to show her how to check and then proved to her that Pokémon Go wasn't the problem by pointing out Tinder was using way more data."
17. "One day, I received an anonymous letter that stated my boyfriend of seven years was seeing another woman. The letter claimed to be sent by a different woman that he was also seeing. I confronted him, and of course, he denied. I checked his emails and found Google messages from a third woman. I found out he was cheating with three different women for five years."
18. "I had a long-distance boyfriend. We saw each other when we could and we were waiting for things to align so we could move in together. This last Valentine's Day, he made a big list announcement on Facebook, and part of it mentioned that he had gotten engaged the previous March. I cut off all communication then and there."
19. "My ex-wife was FaceTiming her boyfriend while topless and took a screenshot to send to him as a keepsake. Problem was, she accidentally sent it to me."
20. "It's so classic and pathetic, but I found long blonde hairs in our bed. I'm a short-haired brunette, and he had a buzzcut. When confronted, he shrugged and said, 'Well, what are you gonna do about it, anyway? Dump me? You can't. We have a shared lease, so suck it up.' Guess who got dumped the very same day with the help of a very understanding and outraged landlord who rescinded the lease?"
21. "I was dating this guy and I noticed he wasn't following me back on Instagram. I was initially like, 'Wow, that's rude,' but then thought nothing else of it. Well, then I looked through his tagged photos. Less than 24 hours prior, his girlfriend had posted how much she loved him and how great he was. Such a sinking feeling."
22. "A friend of mine was watching an NBA game on TV and saw her (now) ex in the stands. He was supposedly attending with a male colleague, but had his arm wrapped around a woman."
23. "She fell asleep drunk with the secret phone he gave her in her hand. I went to bed, saw her holding some strange phone that looked nothing like the one she had at the time. I grabbed it and saw all the messages."
24. "It was July 4th and we had been dating on and off for over a year and he promised me I’d get to spend the day with him. His roommate didn’t like me very much, so I waited all day for the 'all clear' so I could come join him at his house. We texted back and fourth all day but 'his roommate wasn’t leaving the house like he planned.' 9:00 p.m. rolled around and he still hadn’t gotten back to me. I was scrolling through Instagram out of boredom and accidentally found a photo his roommate posted. In the picture, the guy was sensually hugging the girl I suspected he might be cheating on me with. The photo was taken THAT DAY in their back yard. So, I pretended I hadn't seen the picture when he changed plans on me and invited himself over to my apartment at almost midnight. When he got there, I confronted him and locked him out."
"Later, his cousins confirmed the girl was there all day at their house and he only left to see me after she had finally gone home."
25. Finally: "I gave my ex-fiancé (we were together for a decade) my old cellphone and we ended up needing to swap SIM cards for some reason. We were literally about to hop in the car to move back to Texas from California. Suddenly, I was logged into all his accounts and saw 10 years of proof of cheating. It was like being hit with a frying pan. It was an awkward 30-hour drive home, to say the very least. But holy shit, I dodged a bullet. We were trying for kids and everything."
People are the WORST! Ugh. If you've ever been cheated on, I am SO sorry. I sincerely hope you're doing better now, and you've gotten away from that cheating scumbag!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.