74 Men Who Walked Away From Their Marriage Explain What Made Them Finally Give Up

Thinking of just waiting till the kids are 18 and then I'm done here.
4 years left, it's been pretty stale the last 10. Just here for my kids at this point.

Currently separated, in the process of divorce. Bunch of lies on top of lies until she admitted cheating. Multiple times, but I'm sure there were more. Have kids, she couldn't even say 100% whether one of the children were mine. She's a terrible person.

Hearing her not care about what the kids wanted after claiming to friends that I was a*****e and disregarded her and the kids needs.

This was after she filed false reports about me, cost me over a quarter million in 3 years (I make less than half that a year), picked up a*****e habits from her childhood, and so much more.

They all contributed for sure, but the hypocrisy of saying I didn’t care about the kids then blatantly ignoring some of their most important requests is the one that did it for me.

While the final straw was her taking an argument to 11 when it needn't have gone that extreme, looking back, I can see that the real break was a few months earlier.

We were engaged, but it was when we were on the way to an event for her son's 13th birthday when she stopped the car and demanded I get out. So I did, and I walked home. And it emerged she'd done it not because of something I'd done, but because of something she'd wanted me to do (preparation for the event) but hadn't discussed with me.

This was not unusual - being attacked because of discrepancies between what I did and what I should have done in her imagination, or failure to know things that she'd spoken to her mother about rather than me.

As far as I was concerned, the walking home halfway from her son's 13th was when she went from 'future wife' to 'someone I'm living with, for now' and so it was definitely the end.

Now, just over a year after I left, I'm glad I did, but in reality, I haven't regretted leaving at any time in the last 13-ish months. I'm sorta surprised I didn't leave that day, about 4 months earlier.

I told the last 3 rounds of counselors “she keeps me on a need to know basis”. Doesn’t include me in decision making and makes plans without me. The last straw was a substantial inheritance check she didn’t bother to tell me about. I didn’t want her money but, I can’t, and she couldn’t, justify how you keep that from your life partner.

After 15 yrs I couldn’t take the thought of another vacation ruined by her drunken and manipulative behavior. She had been in rehab for the third time and it had become clear to me she was just going through the motions with no clear desire to get sober long term.

Things had been building for a few years but it was easy for me to compartmentalize everything because my job was really intense at the time and I was traveling a lot. Once I finally made the decisions I had a whole bunch of other revelations. Like how long I had been hoping for her to just suddenly drop d**d or that she would win the lottery and just disappear one day. Thankfully it wasn’t a particularly long divorce, but the crazy s**t that happened during that time cemented just how f****d up my situation was.

We were married almost 8 years, I’d never really been happy and if she were being honest she probably never was either. One Halloween I bought a mask to wear to answer the door for trick or treaters. One kid cried cause it scared him. The following day she said to me “next year you can’t wear that mask” and instantly in my head I thought “there is no way I can last until next year”. I filed for divorce within 2 weeks.

My soon to be ex likes to take illicit d***s and scream for hours on end. Coming back from a music festival this weekend I was driving and she was out of her gorge. Screamed the entire 2 hour ride home. Done.

She couldn't take ownership over her actions. A lot of the criticisms and complaints she had towards me and others ended up being projection. Everything she did and said was always 100% justified in her mind. In certain aspects of life she was extremely competent and had an excellent memory, it's just she seemed to use these powers to maintain petty grudges.

She was also what I'd describe as a "stealth Karen". Unlike the Common Karen she'd delegate her grievances to someone connected to her. So if she had issues with someone, she'd go to someone close to them and pressure them into confronting the target. That way she never looked like the bad guy, it was the messenger always shot not her. When we got married, she mandated that each of us would go to our parents if the other spouse had an issue. This seemed reasonable at the time, but it turned out extremely one sided. Her parents were our landlords and helped out with childcare. I was very grateful for both. But she got to gatekeep any issues I had with either. If it wasn't worthy of their attention she'd dismiss it. But on the flip side, she had tons of little grudges against my mom, and God forbid I not jump on that immediately.

I remember having a girlfriend’s mother tell me how her daughter was plotting to get a proposal. That was the last time I saw both of them.

I realized that after 13 years, she had contributed absolutely nothing to our relationship.

It builds slowly and then it just hits a tipping point.

The "last straw" is just that. It wasn't a significant event, it was just a straw, a stupid thing, THE LAST THING.

She insisted I buy her a high-end sports car. I objected and bought her the next model down. Finished at the dealership. As she was about to drive off, she said, 'This is what I wanted all the time, but I knew you wouldn’t go for it. So I pushed for the more expensive one.'

We were together for 7 years, married for 2. She was never the most confident person and when she was pregnant with our daugter her already low self-esteem tanked.

I tried to tell and show her it didn't matter. It did not work, at all. She started getting jealous, controlling and manipulative. She even tried to set curfews for me the few times I got to go out with my mates lol. I got so used to all the b******g, moaning and controlling I kinda went on autopilot and assumed that this is what life is like.

As time went on I found myself resenting both her and myself for allowing me to be pushed around like that. Then one random day at work I met HER. Petite, blue eyed, a smile that lights up a room and oozing confidence. Got to know eachother over a month or so working side by side and I fell deeply.

I admitted my feelings toward her, she felt the same. Drove home from work and told my now ex-wife it's over. A s*******m of a divoce but worth it.

Best decision ever, my only regret is I waited too long.