My husband was a serial cheater between 2018-2020. However, there would be things that came up within the last two years that I didn’t coin as cheating but were still very weird and suspicious. But I often told myself that to work on our marriage, I needed to learn to trust him so I would ignore a lot of the negative feelings I had.

My self esteem and confidence was shot and I hated looking at pictures of myself. I believed I loved my husband and would push myself to move on from that pain. Most days, I thought I was okay. I wouldn’t even think about the cheating anymore but sometimes things would come up that would remind me and I’d be hurt all over again. I would try to vent about my feelings to my husband but he would often shut me down and say “why do I always bring it up?” knowing it “hurts him to be reminded”.

I loved Ariel so much and a lot of videos often show her not liking herself as much. It always made me sad, but I related to her a lot.

When this scandal happened, a lot of people gave Ariel so many nice messages. Then, people pointed out about how Ariel often felt insecure because of her age or because of her body after pregnancy. People made connections saying that she might feel worse about herself especially since Ned cheated with someone younger. It started making me think… is that what happened to me?

My husband cheated with women I thought were prettier than me. They were all younger or perkier or whatever. I never felt like his type. Seeing a lot of comments you guys wrote to/about Ariel made me thinking about my own marriage.

I decided I couldn’t do it anymore. So I’m stepping away from my husband and giving myself the love I deserve.

Edit- I did not think this would blow up at all! Thank you guys so much for the awards and also for all the lovely comments and support! Separation is such a foggy area and even while posting this, I was still unsure of myself. I still love my husband and so this hurts leaving someone I’ve known for so long behind, but these comments are definitely validating my choice that I made the right one. Also, to those who are going through the same thing right now, I am here for you too 💗