A woman ended her marriage after believing her husband was on dating apps – but was devastated when she discovered it was their neighbour’s catfishing scam
Discovering your partner has cheated is devastating – but one woman experienced an extraordinary twist regarding her husband’s alleged betrayal.
The distraught wife ended her marriage after discovering her husband was on dating apps, only to later learn their neighbour had created the fake profile using his photographs to catfish women online.
She accused her neighbour of stealing from her family “our love and happiness” and whilst she hasn’t spoken to her husband in over a year, she’s now hoping to salvage their relationship after uncovering the truth.
She turned to Reddit’s Relationship_Advice forum to share her harrowing ordeal, explaining they are currently “not on speaking terms”.
In her anonymous post, she explained receiving a Facebook message last September claiming her “husband was talking and exchanging naked photos with other women on Tinder”.
After viewing screenshots of the images showing her ‘husband’s’ exchanges with the woman, the wife downloaded Tinder herself and stumbled upon her ‘husband’s’ profile – which indicated his location was “nearby”
However, the situation took an unexpected turn when she confronted him.
She wrote: “I was convinced that he was cheating, and we had a terrible fallout that evening which led to my family coming over to calm the situation, but instead, it escalated when my brother punched and grabbed hold of my husband.
“The neighbours called the police and my husband was asked to pack a few things and stay elsewhere for a while. We separated shortly after, and he has since moved to Sydney to be closer to his ailing father but sees our kids for a weekend twice a month.
“It has now been 14 months since the woman separated from her husband and she was finally moving on, only for the neighbour’s wife to knock on the door.”
She then discovered her neighbour had been catfishing a woman online – when someone pretends to be another person online – and had been using her husband’s photos to do it.
The post went on to say: “[The neighbour] downloaded these photos from a Macbook that we lent him during COVID, and some of these photos were of intimate nature…and of me. The police are currently dealing with this.”
The shocked wife confessed she now wants to reconcile with her ex-husband but has no clue how to go about it as she’s concerned it might be too late.
She explained: “I am so scared that we might be down too far the rabbit hole and that he will likely push for a divorce, even though I know that we love each other deeply, but this took a massive toll on our mental health, finances and the wellbeing of our three kids.”
One Reddit user responded: “Your husband experienced something that you will never understand: A false accusation, an assault from your brother, spousal alienation….I am afraid there is no going back for you. You chose to not listen to him when he said it was not him.”
Whilst another addd: “You two got screwed over, not just by your neighbour, but also by your brother…being married is being part of a shared family. The fact that your family got in the middle of it and bodily hurt him would make anyone think twice about getting back in.”
The woman then returned to the same post several months later to provide an update. She revealed that following a sit-down discussion about everything, he remained determined to proceed with the divorce.
“It was decided that our marriage was beyond repair and that we should go our separate ways.
“He is currently in therapy and has requested we have a clean break with no further contact in the future – I intend to respect his wishes and will continue to communicate through his lawyer on matters that concern our kids.”
She then disclosed her brother had apologised and was “extremely remorseful” and added: “It is a series of unfortunate events that has changed many lives and robbed my family of our love and happiness.”