Exes Share the Exact Moment They Realized Their Marriage Was a Mistake

Realizing the Mistake: Personal Stories of Divorce

Many people have shared their experiences about realizing that their marriages were not the right choice. These stories often highlight moments of realization, emotional pain, and eventual decisions to leave. Here are some of the most impactful accounts:

1. “I was dreadfully sick with food poisoning, dehydrated, and dry heaving. Should have gone to the ER. I asked him to hold my hand because I felt afraid. He didn’t and left to go to Walmart. A couple of weeks later, he had the gall to tell me his hairdresser had terminal cancer and that he wanted ‘to hold her as she breathed her last.’ Spoiler alert: She lied. I left, and she took him for a bunch of money. Big, fat, f*cking ‘aww.'”

1. “When he left me for another woman, I was pregnant with our daughter. She is our third child together, and after eight years of marriage. Now, after 44 years of marriage (yes, we got back together), I’m finally trying to get back the self-esteem that I allowed to be stolen many years ago. If you are wondering what happened in the last 36 years… It’s really too much to tell, not to mention too embarrassing. Let’s just say ‘secrets make you sick.'”

1. “I married my dude buddy because my grandma didn’t like it that we were living together (it was 1986). We had fun together in the beginning, riding motorcycles and fishing, but by 1999, he treated me like sh*t because I wasn’t making bucks and driving a Porsche anymore. He left me between my second and third breast cancer surgery in 2021. I was alone when I needed him the most. When I got home from my third surgery, I was alone, and I couldn’t get the lid off my water bottle. He sent me a picture of himself partying with his friends in Mexico that night. Good riddance.”

1. “For me, it was realizing I felt loneliest in his company. I think there were lots of small moments, but the fact that I felt relieved when alone spoke volumes.”

2. “When I realized she used me as a trophy husband after marriage. She brags about me to all her friends but mentally manipulates me every day.”

1. “I tricked myself into thinking things would get better. Once he slept over my house, got up in the morning, and made himself breakfast with my groceries. He didn’t make me anything.”

2. “He gave up. He stopped helping around the house and became totally unreliable. After 10 months of my begging him to see a doctor for a potential health issue, it all came to a head when I had to call an ambulance for him, but even that wasn’t a wake-up call. I finally realized he was never going to try for our son or me.”

1. “Two months after being married, when I was spending time with my mom, who was in the hospital, he claimed he ‘found’ wedding pics from my first marriage, which was not a secret… He accused me of still wanting to be with the ex six years later and was really jealous. I explained the pics were being kept for my 8-year-old daughter. I immediately knew I had made a mistake…and was trapped. Almost nine years later, when I was in nursing school, he never asked me a single question about my program…another huge sign (one of many). A year later, I was forced to pack a small bag and sneak out of my home in the middle of the night because I was threatened. I am blessed to be alive and living my dream as an RN. This guy is the biggest narcissist a** ever. Can’t wait until he meets karma…she doesn’t play.”

1. “When I realized I was in love with a man. When I made that realization, I told her I was gay and couldn’t pretend anymore. I never cheated.”

2. “When his mother insulted me and told me I needed to give her a grandchild because I ‘wasn’t getting any younger.’ That was the last straw after of years of being disrespected without him so much as saying a word to defend me. This was on top of a multitude of other red flags I ignored because I was young and naive.”

1. “I knew when he threw his grandmother’s engagement ring at me across the table, and that was his proposal. I had gotten pregnant at 22, and my parents pretty much forced me into it with the whole ‘you’re living and sin, and you’re gonna have a child out of wedlock’ crap. We ended up having another baby after that. He traveled for his job, probably about 300 days a year, and when he was home, he spent his time playing computer games. I took care of the kids, their homework, the house, and the bills, everything. There was a few-year period where I was so sick I could barely even get out of bed, and he still left to go on his work trips without a care in the world. Then, the physical abuse started. But I knew right away and stupidly, I still married him.”

1. “When she left me and our kids at Disney World to go home — later I found out her ‘boyfriend’ was there.”

2. “When my dad had a heart attack and the first thing my now-ex said to me was, ‘Well, I can’t take any time off of work.’ My dad survived, but that was the beginning of the end for my first marriage.”

1. “When, after 14 years of a childless marriage, I finally became pregnant, and our daughter was born, he said to me, ‘Where do I fit into this picture?’ My baby was born in October, and I was gone before Easter.”

2. “After 10 years, he still didn’t have a full time job. Then he said, ‘Let’s have a baby to save the marriage.’ Nope.”

1. “I realized I’d married the wrong man when he told me I couldn’t take a job because he wouldn’t babysit our kids.”

2. “I was taking classes at a college. Our marriage counselor asked him why he didn’t want me to continue with college, and he said ‘I don’t want her to be disappointed when she fails.'”

1. “When he spent $2,000 on Facebook games instead of making the car payment and our car was repossessed.”

2. “When I was 26 years old, and after feeling awful for a few weeks, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I needed to start insulin injections and check my blood sugar multiple times a day. I came home and told my husband. His response, ‘I need to mow the lawn.’ Never mentioned it again. Broke my heart, again.”

1. “While I was in the hospital, in labor, he left to go wash the car.”

2. “When he got jealous and mad over the fact that our new kitten preferred to sleep on me instead of him.”

1. “When I had divorce paperwork delivered to me and realized he filed for divorce on my birthday…after he sent me flowers. My birthday has never been the same.”

2. “After our son was born. I realized I will die without ever having a happy, loving life. I knew anything important to me, such as my career or hobbies, was gone. I was right. I’m 59 and have never felt like an individual since marrying him, and I hate his family.”

1. “Whenever an event was about my friends or family, he would throw a fit and make me pay for the discretion. We went to the wedding of my best friend from high school, where he called my mom a c*nt and left me there. He then disabled my car for three days (he was a mechanic at the time) with a newborn and a 2-year-old at home. That made me pursue therapy and find a way out. I thought it was what I deserved. I found out I was pregnant again, and he said the sight of me disgusted him because I was carrying a girl rather than a boy.”

1. “When he threw down a game controller then threw himself down to the floor, pounding the floor, kicking, and crying in frustration — for real.”

2. “I realized I married the wrong person during the ceremony. The butterflies and bees even warned me; it was on the video. Cut to coming home, I got a taste of the demonic voice she’d later use on me when I escaped. I can’t believe that I wasted money going to a very nice lesbian resort in New Hampshire only to be forced to eat nothing but breakfast the whole time; she wouldn’t let me take her to a pizza/craft beer joint to celebrate.”

1. “When I had an affair and didn’t feel bad about it. I was so desperate for love that a random stranger giving me attention was all it took. If you’re reading this and you feel anything remotely similar, this is your sign, get out now.”

2. “Sometimes it is too late to walk out of a marriage. My spouse definitely has Narcissistic Personality disorder. He has a high ego that always puts me down, but I won’t give him the satisfaction of getting a divorce.”

3. “I became pregnant three months after we were married thanks to a birth control malfunction. We had just moved on a whim (his big idea) to a new city and were about to interview for a new job (at the same office). I wasn’t ready to have a baby at 22 — and perhaps the deep dread I felt upon finding out I was pregnant should have been a red flag. He seemed to fully support me in my decision not to keep the pregnancy…” (The husband then told their whole office she was getting an abortion. Read the full story below.)

“During his interview with our eventual new boss — unbeknownst to me — he told her I was pregnant, that we were ‘expecting,’ even though I had asked him not to say anything to anyone. I only found this out after we were both hired, and our boss took the (entire) office to lunch and she congratulated me on my pregnancy in front of everyone, and before I could even comprehend what she was saying, my (then) husband blurted out ‘actually, she decided it wasn’t the right time for us.’ You could have heard a pin drop in that moment.

“What’s worse — later, when I told him how hurt and embarrassed I was, he became angry and said that it was just as much his business as it was mine. He then gave me the silent treatment for an entire day.

“I left him within a year.”

1. “After 16 years of marriage, I kicked him out when I saw an email pop up on his phone that said, ‘(Girl’s name) responded to your Ashley Madison profile and wants to meet you.’ I found the email and a bunch more from other girls.

“I also found bottles of viagra in his car (not used with me because sex stopped with us months before) and a shitload of weed and wads of cash. Oh, and to top it off, he’s also a criminal defense attorney.”

1. “My first marriage ended after I came home from work and he was sitting on the front step with a drink to tell me he had gotten fired again. And that it was my fault for not waking him up when the alarm went off. You are a grown adult. You got fired because of your actions. I went on to marry the most amazing man and have been together almost 20 years.”