We asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about the worst ways they've ever been dumped. We received quite an array of bad breakup stories that were equal parts infuriating and devastating. Here's what people shared:
1. "He ended it after 10 years together, four of those living together. I called him to see what he wanted to do for dinner and kept getting his voicemail. Called his secretary, and she said, 'Oh, he should be on his flight by now.' She quickly figured out I didn’t know what she was talking about, so she told me in the nicest way she could that he went to Vegas. I left work to go home immediately, and I found that the locks had been changed and there was a U-Haul truck. He had packed everything I owned up in the truck after I had left for work, then flew to Vegas with his friends for the weekend. He left me a note saying he was sorry."
2. "I spent eight years with my ex, who was my best friend in high school, but we never dated until we were 30. I had two young kids at that point. He raised them with me for those eight years. My youngest bonded more deeply with him, as their bio dad abandoned his role. He worked on a remote island the last two years of our relationship while I lived on the mainland and took care of our home, pets, and kids (I worked, too). We would take turns visiting each other. I found out he'd been seeing this bartender, proposed to her, and was living a second life on the island, all while we were trying to conceive. He didn't have the integrity to tell me himself. I had to find out through mutual friends. He'd been sleeping with both of us that entire time. The breakup was brutal, and my heart will never be the same. My kids lost a father figure, I lost my best friend, and he's now married to the bartender."
—Anonymous
3. "My husband left me one week after our 25th anniversary for his affair partner. By text. His reason? He deserved to be able to have 'romantic walks on the beach.' I am in a wheelchair."
4. "I helped him rent an apartment in a duplex owned by some friends of mine. A couple of weeks later, he moved to Florida without telling me OR them."
5. "On my birthday. We lived in different cities (only about 45 minutes apart). I requested a week of vacation time starting on my birthday. He took me out for a very nice dinner, then we went to a quiet bar for drinks. We went home at about midnight, had sex, and then he dumped me immediately after, while we were still laying in bed. I got the 'it’s not you, it’s me' speech. I drove 45 minutes back home at about 2:00 a.m. feeling emotionally shattered and used. To this day, it's still my worst birthday ever."
6. "I dated a man who was 20 years my senior while I was in my mid-20s. Needless to say, my parents were not pleased. They eventually got on board, though, and we all went on a cruise together for my birthday. The last night of the cruise was my actual birthday, and we had a big dinner, got all dressed up, and went back to our room to have private time. Afterwards, we were laying in bed and talking. He then ended up breaking up with me because we were just 'too different' and 'in different stages of our lives.' I cried all night, and the next day, we had to drive eight hours from the port in a car with my parents back home. Worst. Car. Ride. Ever. But, now it’s a funny story about how that one jerk broke up with me on my birthday on a cruise."
7. "With a note. He looked me in the eyes and told me he loved me that morning. Then, I found the note when I got back from work. He was gone. We were engaged and had been trying to conceive the previous few months. I had no idea. We had been together a long time, and he was my best friend. I never saw him again. Incredibly traumatic."
—Anonymous
8. "He moved to Arizona to move in with his mom and didn't tell me until the day after he left. Ironically, the next guy I dated moved to Texas to move in with his family and didn't tell me until the day after he left. Luckily, I am now dating a wonderful man who A) is not immature enough to have to move back in with his family, and B) informs me of all his planned inter-state movement."
9. "I was seeing a guy I actually worked in the same building with for about four months before we made our relationship official. Then, two weeks later, he started acting weird and distant. I had this week-long vacation planned, and two days before I left, I felt like something was off. The entire time I was gone, he tried to ghost me. He was not replying to any of my texts or messages and not reading them at all since the platform we used showed when messages were read. But, I could see that he was using his phone because he was watching my Instagram story. When I got back home, I finally messaged him asking what was up, and he replied that it wasn't working out and he couldn't commit to the time necessary to be in a relationship with me."
"I was not surprised since his attempt at ghosting spoke volumes, but I was still really embarrassed and hurt by it, especially since I thought we would have to see each other because we worked in the same building. I found out a week later from a coworker that this guy actually up and moved across the country for a new job, and his last day of work was three days after he broke up with me. The most hurtful thing was that this boy applied for, got offered, and accepted the job while we were dating and told me NOTHING about it."
10. "My ex-fiancé and I were supposed to be trying to work things out, and I had moved out 'temporarily.' I was going out with his/our roomie one evening and had to stop back by the house. He obviously wasn't expecting me to walk in, or he wouldn't have had the next-door neighbor's sister in his lap."
11. "We were doing long distance for a few months while I was getting ready to move to where he lived. I had friends and family there, too, so the move wasn't solely based on him. He was pretty religious, whereas I'm not religious at all, and I had looked past our differences because I was young (stupid) and he was unreasonably hot. Him being religious also made me think he'd have strong morals and that I could trust him (again, I was 18 and stupid). A couple months before I was set to move, I paid to fly across the country to spend my birthday with him. He took me out for a romantic dinner where he proceeded to tell me that he had slept with a friend of his and needed space to 'get right with god.' Me, him, and Jesus had a really awkward drive back to where I was staying, then he and I obviously broke up."
"We were catching up over Facebook a couple years ago, and I learned he'd lost all his hair, was working in a medicine job, and was stuck an unhappy marriage. Hearing that honestly made me believe in god a little bit."
12. "Called me at work, on my office phone, in the middle of the day, knowing I shared an office with several colleagues. We had been together for over two years."
13. "He was the most popular boy in high school, and one summer, he asked me to be the stage manager for a play he was directing. We spent all summer flirting with each other, going on dates, staying up all night talking, and watching the sunrise together. Then, one night, he asked me if I wanted to have sex. I did, and after he was done, he just got up, got dressed, and left. Without a word. I followed him to the door covered in a sheet, asking him where he was going. He literally never spoke to me again, and I still cringe thinking about it."
14. "He was supposed to come over for Christmas. I called and texted, and he wasn’t answering. I checked his Facebook, and his 'ex' had tagged him in photos in their house. They never broke up. Stupidly, I went back. We broke up after he flipped out over an old text message on my phone. Now I'm with the love of my life and our two dogs in our new home."
15. "When I was a teenager, my boyfriend and I were hanging out with my best friend on my birthday. He got weirdly distant, and all day he wouldn’t show me any affection and barely talked to me. After he left, he added my best friend on Facebook, and then texted me that he didn’t want to be with me anymore. The NEXT DAY, he asked my best friend to hang out (I was still with her), and SHE DID! They hung out a few times but never started dating, but I guess two people broke up with me that day."
16. "He texted me 'I think we need to break up' while I was visiting my grandpa in hospice care while he was dying of bone cancer. We had been together for about three and a half years at this point, so safe to say I wasn’t expecting it to end that way."
17. "He changed his Facebook status to 'single.' I didn’t even know until my best friend called to ask me about it. He did it, like, nine days before my birthday, too. At least when I asked him about it, he didn’t make any excuses, and we just ended things."
18. "He disappeared with the car we bought together. He stole money from my house and my parents' place and completely ghosted me. I later learned he did eight years in prison for drug sales and possession, so I consider myself lucky that he left and ruined somebody else’s life."
—Anonymous
19. "He (21M at the time) was supposed to come to my place to spend the weekend. A big storm was about to hit us with lots of rain and wind. He was late, so I (23F at the time) called him to check that everything was okay. He was a little weird, saying he was thinking about stuff. Very vague. Then, he told me to call his mother to know more. I was so worried, thinking something might've happened to a family member of his. I called his mother in panic. She then informed me that the relationship was over and not to call her son again. He didn’t have the guts to tell me himself!!!! After two years of a relationship! I had one of the worst nights ever, as the storm hit us and left us without electricity for three days. Three days to process the breakup without internet, Spotify, or cell service. That one was rough!!"
—Anonymous
20. "I was a high school junior dating a guy I’d had a crush on for forever. We were several months in, and it was my birthday. He told me he had a gift for me and to meet him by my locker. I was excited! I got there with a big smile on my face, and he was standing there with his friends. He then said, 'Here’s your gift: I want to break up,' then they all walked off laughing."
—Anonymous
21. "A Google doc. After a year and a half together, living together, and having just gotten a kitten together. We had just gotten back to their dorm after a day together (I was under the impression that everything was going well since we'd had such a good day). We sat on the bed, and by the time I stood up, we were on a break. Five days later, I received a Google doc ending things."
—Anonymous
22. "My fiancé was supposed to come over on New Year's Eve, and the last text I got from him said 'on my way.' He never showed up. The next day, I saw that he went to a bonfire held by a mutual friend instead and invited his ex-girlfriend. They got back together that night. I found out we were NOT getting married via an Instagram post."
—Anonymous
23. "My soon-to-be ex-husband and I were long distance while he was a traveling surgical tech. I visited him one weekend, and four days later, he TEXTED me that it hit him that he 'doesn’t really know me,' and it pretty much ended there. The next day, I asked if we could at least talk on the phone or FaceTime. He said we couldn’t talk because he was at Disneyland with his ex-wife and child. I filed for divorce, and now that the divorce is coming to a close, he’s been calling/texting/emailing me to 'explain.' Haven’t looked back since."
24. "There was the ex in college, pre-cellphone/social media days, who told me she loved me, then completely ghosted me. I never heard from her again. There was also an ex of four years who, about 12 years ago, while we lived together, decided I was cheating on her (I hadn’t and wasn’t) because her bitter friend fueled her insecurities. So, she came to my job, yelled at me, then, while I was working, changed the locks and had her friends put all of my stuff on the lawn in garbage bags. She followed it up by dumping our couples therapist and sobbing at me that I 'made it public' by making a Facebook post saying I was heartbroken and needed help moving my stuff."
"Then, there's the single mom ex who dumped me via text message at 7:46 a.m. by simply saying, 'I believe we have irreconcilable differences and should part ways at this time.' We’d never fought, and I found out later that she’d cheated on me and gotten pregnant, then married that dude four months later. She’d apparently dumped that guy for me with an identical text message.
There's also the girl next-door neighbor ex who basically lived with and off of me during the pandemic who dumped me on Christmas Eve morning by saying we should go to brunch, driving us about 20 miles away, and dumping me as we waited for the table. I had an ominous feeling, like a mob movie before a hit, and as we rode there, I kept asking if she was breaking up with me, and if so, could we just turn around. I’m a non-driver, and definitely didn’t want to stick around for food or the ride back to our neighboring addresses."
25. "I was with a guy through high school and part of college. We were together for nearly three and a half years. We had just hung out during our winter breaks, but shortly after I got back to my college, he asked to Skype with me. He broke up with me VIA SKYPE. I asked him why he just didn't do it in person, and he just hung up on me."
26. "We were together for four years, and he dumped me the night I graduated from college. We were literally putting on our coats to go celebrate with my friends when he decided it was time. I found out from a mutual friend he'd been planning it for weeks. The worst part: I thought he was proposing."
—Anonymous
27. "I was with him for four years. He got married when I was on vacation and arranged for someone to call my parents and tell them so they would have to tell me. He was dating both of us the entire time. Honestly, he did me the biggest favor. He treated me like crap, but I didn’t think I deserved any better. He called me a month later crying that he loved me and was getting a divorce. Six horrible months later, I discovered he was lying. It finally got through to me what a creep he was. Told him to get lost."
—Anonymous
28. "I had been dating a guy for about five months when he went home for Christmas break. He invited me to visit and meet his family in January, and then we would drive back together. The trip was amazing. I loved his family, they loved me, and he and I spent a lot of time together. Everything was great until we started the drive back, and then he was weirdly quiet and distant. After about five hours, I finally asked him what was wrong, and he told me he wasn’t romantically interested in me, that he'd felt that way for over a month, and that he just wanted to be friends. I was so shocked and confused."
"We got to Mississippi that night to stay with two of his friends, and he proceeded to pretend in front of them that we were still together, which was even more shocking and confusing. The next morning, we got back on the road, and I made him listen to every sad song I’ve ever heard because yes, I am that petty. It ends on a good note, though. Almost exactly a year later, I got engaged to the best guy. We’ve been married for almost five years, and I’m so glad I didn’t end up with that other guy."
—Anonymous
29. "I started dating a guy who recently broke it off with his long-time girlfriend. We dated for a couple of months before I got blasted with Facebook messages from an anonymous account saying my boyfriend was cheating on me and I should break up with him. Turns out this anonymous person was correct. After I told my boyfriend I kept getting weird messages on Facebook from an unknown person, he broke up with me saying, 'It’s just not working out.' The very next day, he proposed to his ex-girlfriend, and she said yes. Then, they broke off the engagement a week later, and he came crawling back. Obviously I did NOT take him back. I’ve never figured out who the anonymous person/account was. Maybe it was her? Or, maybe it was him?"
—Anonymous
30. "I had a really serious conversation with my boyfriend where I came out to him as bisexual. I did not want to change anything because I loved him and didn't want to explore other relationships. I just wanted to be open about who I am. He took it well at first, if a bit hesitant, but was loving and told me that he loved all of me. Over the next couple of weeks, I started to get some weird vibes from our friends. Finally, his best friend told me that my boyfriend had been telling everyone that I was 'struggling with temptation to cheat,' and that he was worried I was going to 'leave him or start having an affair.' Unfortunately, since he sowed those seeds in our friend group before they even knew I was bi, a lot of them believed him and didn't trust me. I lost most of my friend group, but it did have a happy ending. His ex-best friend and I just had our two-year anniversary, and, plot twist: My new boyfriend is also bi!"
—Anonymous
31. "My last breakup came from the guy I was dating in law school. I was just about to go into my final exams for my 3L year and then take the bar exam two months later. For our anniversary weekend, I went up to see him, and after we had spent an entire day together doing all the things we loved, he said, 'We don’t have anything in common, and you’ve put on too much weight this last year, so I think I’m done here.' It was midnight, I was drunk, and it was a two-hour drive back to school. So, I had to sleep in the same bed, crying, until I was sober enough to drive."
—Anonymous
32. "This was back in 2007. We were in our early 30s and had been dating for almost a year. We were going through a rough patch, but I didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t anything horrible, and I just thought we were still figuring things out and would get through it. I truly loved him and thought he loved me, too, and I knew relationships had ups and downs. The Monday after Mother’s Day, I received an email from him stating, 'I’ve come to the realization that you are no longer the person I want to spend the rest of my life with, and it’s over.' That’s it. One sentence. Never heard or saw him again. I was devastated. It wasn’t just because he ended the relationship, but also the fact that he couldn’t even face me. He had to hide behind a computer screen. It took me a while to accept what happened and move on."
—Anonymous
33. "A few months after moving in with my boyfriend, my mother was killed in an auto accident. She was hit by a drunk driver at 10:00 a.m. 18 months later, my father died of multi-organ failure after a botched GI surgery. The day following his death, my boyfriend told me he wanted me moved out by the end of the month, as he had no intention of putting up with a significant other who was in mourning again. I was given 12 days to find another place to live and move out."
—Anonymous
34. "I was a senior in high school, and I was SO excited to finally have a boyfriend for senior prom. We had been dating for about six months, and I was convinced he was the one (LOL). Prom was a truly magical evening with him and my friends. We all went back to my parents' house to watch a movie, so it was about 3:00 a.m. before most people went home. He was staying overnight because he lived about an hour away and didn't drive. As we kissed goodnight, I blurted out that I loved him. He responded, 'Look, I'm sorry, but I could never love you. Like, ever.' We broke up, but he still was sleeping at my house, and I spent the morning crying with my parents. I still had to make him breakfast, and then I was supposed to drive him to school."
"I sobbed to my dad so much that he told me he'd drive him instead, and thank god. But yeah, he broke up with me on prom night while staying at my house when he couldn't drive. Oof. And no, I don't know what my dad said to him on the drive. LOL."
—Anonymous
35. "We were together for about two years. Then, the day after Christmas, he suddenly stopped talking to me. He was supposed to come over on New Year’s Eve after a gig. Didn’t call, text, or respond to my messages. Acted like I didn’t exist."
—Anonymous
36. And: "My first-ever boyfriend (sixth and seventh grade) broke up with me the day before Valentine’s Day during study hall when the teacher walked out of the room for a minute. He whispered something to his friend, who walked right over to me and said, 'Kevin is breaking up with you.' I was so embarrassed and heartbroken at the same time. The teacher walked back in, and I had to hold back tears. Obviously, it was just puppy love, and I’m totally over it. I love bringing it up to my sixth-grade students when they talk about relationship drama. It’s cool working with kids around the same age as I was when experiencing love for the first time and seeing how head-over-heels the couples are for each other. It’s so innocent."
I'm both heartbroken and FURIOUS. I truly hope everyone who submitted is healed and much happier now! If you've ever been dumped in a god-awful way and want to share your story, leave a comment!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.