I recently wrote up a Reddit thread where people shared how they discovered their partner was cheating, and it inspired even more wild and heartbreaking responses from the BuzzFeed Community. Here are the stories that'll have your jaw on the floor:
1. "I found out my boyfriend had been cheating when I thought I was having a TERRIBLE yeast infection that wasn’t responding to medication. Nope, turns out it was actually trichomoniasis. When I asked him about it, he shrugged and said it probably came from the girl he slept with whenever I wasn’t available to visit him."
2. "I found out when the other woman showed up at my front door because he found out she was 'cheating' on him. He and I have been married for 30 years, and they were together for over three years. Her husband, who was in the Army, knew nothing, and they're still married. She tried for six months to get my husband back, and even showed up in my driveway two days later begging for him."
3. "A 'job interview' after work. My ex was a bartender and was usually home around 3 a.m. So when our 2-year-old woke me up at 3:30 a.m. and she wasn’t home and wasn’t answering her cell, I was terrified that something had happened to her (she works alone during the week). I tracked her phone to a parking lot not far from her work. We only had one car, so I was stuck and about to call the police when she abruptly walked in. When I asked what was going on, she said a customer offered her a job and she was being interviewed...at 3 a.m....in a dark parking lot."
"She said answering my calls would've been rude. She then went so far as to attack me for 'not trusting' her. After I looked into it, it became clear that there had been several 'interviews' and the man she was cheating with was married too. He had even promised to marry her when both divorces were finalized."
4. "His girlfriend of eight years and the mother of his child found texts from me on his phone. She contacted me and we told each other everything. He'd told me and all of his friends that they'd broken up a long time ago but visited on weekends so he could see his child. We had been dating for over a year. The most messed-up part was that both of us had been helping him look at houses, and both of us were planning on moving in with him."
5. "I butt-dialed her mother accidentally. They were supposed to be in Kansas City shopping, so I said, 'Well, enjoy Kansas City,' to which her mother replied, 'Why would I be in Kansas City?'"
6. "She wanted to show me the Justin Timberlake 'Single Ladies' Saturday Night Live video. While we were watching, a Facebook message popped up from him. She freaked out and closed the browser, but I'd already seen it. He was a friend we were letting stay with us for a while. We'd been married for 12 years."
7. "My friend Sandy and I were chatting with a new coworker, and they discovered they were both dating guys named Jeff. Our new coworker showed us a picture of her Jeff — not only was it Sandy's boyfriend, but the picture was taken in Sandy's apartment, which he had the keys to! They both dumped Jeff, and Sandy changed her locks."
8. "My boyfriend had just switched phones. He butt-dialed me when he was drunk and leaving a bar...with another guy. They were getting into a taxi and talking about what they were going to do to each other, and how he had to be careful because he had a boyfriend."
9. "I found out by overhearing a conversation on the bus between people I didn't know. It was around Halloween, and they were talking about a girl they'd met at a university party and had a threesome with that night. I knew it was her because of the costume they described, which was very specific."
10. "My best friend of 12 YEARS and I had a little argument, so I distanced myself. Six months later, she started hitting me up, asking to tag along on the vacation I was going on with my partner. I told her no, and she replied, ‘Well, you’re the only one who doesn’t want me there,’ and then proceeded to send me the texts between her and him. My other friend had known about it and never told me, and another friend in the group used me as tabloid fodder. People suck."
11. "She introduced me to her family at a party and then proceeded to hook up with one of her close friends in a bedroom. I found him on top of her, both naked."
12. "My boyfriend got stung by a bee while he was playing football. He was allergic and immediately got transferred to the hospital. I took all of his stuff home, including his phone. As I was sitting at home that evening, the messages started popping up on his screen."
13. "I came home from a very bad day at work to find my partner and a so-called friend on my futon together, naked. Weirdly, despite that, I still occasionally talk to that ex, and they got married about a year after it happened, so at least it wasn’t cheating for nothing! I just wish she had told me she wasn’t happy being with me. They’re still married now, 12 years later!"
14. "She went on a mission trip for disaster relief after an earthquake. She was acting strangely when she came back, but I had no clue anything was going on until she left a window open on our computer that was basically an ongoing conversation between her and some guy from the trip. The conversations were intense and explicit. She talked about giving him head on the roof of the mission building. Amid all this horrible destruction, she also started sleeping with a guy from Missouri!"
15. "I found out when my husband disappeared for several hours while going to pick up food. He'd left his phone behind, and I thought to check it to see if he'd gone to see our neighbor. He didn’t go see our neighbor, but I found lots of text messages from him and a sex worker."
"He'd even gotten her a Valentine's Day present. Apparently, he was one of her favorite clients. I was so worried about him that I almost reported him missing, and he was gone for several hours because he fell asleep in a parking lot after doing too many uppers. College sweethearts, almost 18 years married. Took a lot of therapy to get over it."
16. "My best friend caught my (obviously) ex-boyfriend cheating on me in the other girl's car, literally five minutes away from my house. I'd just texted him, and he told me he was already at home and couldn't come over. Turns out, she didn't even know I existed either. They'd broken up before he and I started dating, then got back together while we were still a couple."
17. "My wife of over 20 years was spending more time with a certain somebody, and whenever she was texting, she'd make sure to turn her phone away so I couldn't see it. But she didn't know that since the account was under my name, I could go online and see her texts shortly after she sent them. You could also download texts from the past 60 days. Needless to say, I had all the evidence I needed, and there was more than one other guy involved."
18. "I found out through my best friend's husband, who'd found out from her friend. My best friend had been sleeping with my husband for six years. Her husband and I had no idea. Then my 'best friend' was nice enough to tell me that she, the friend who'd busted her, and my husband had all had a threesome together...in my home, in my bed, while I was in the hospital recovering from surgery. Now she's married to my ex-husband, and the whistleblower is married to HER ex-husband. Hello, Jerry Springer!"
Do you have any stories about how you discovered your partner was cheating? Feel free to share them in the comments.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.