Even when everything seems perfect to one partner in a relationship, the other might be in a completely opposite mindset. That's when a third person might step in and ruin the relationship. According to a survey by the Institute of Family Studies, 20% of men and 13% of women admit to being intimate with someone other than their spouses.
This army wife cheated on her husband while he was deployed in Iraq. After he found out, he froze her out of his bank accounts and cut all contact with her. Lo and behold, the bliss with the affair partner ends soon after she becomes pregnant and he gets violent. So, she runs back to her ex-husband, who, like a karma guru, only says that she got what she deserved.
A man got revenge on his cheating ex-wife by letting karma do its job
Image credits: Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo)
He first cut her out financially, but later the universe got even by ruining her life
Image credits: freepik (not the actual photo)
Image credits: anon
Military marriages might be more prone to divorce, but service spouses have a lot more to lose if they cheat
It might seem that spouses with a military partner are more likely to cheat. After all, the couples spend so much time thousands of miles apart, and that can't be exactly good for a relationship.
Research shows that partners experience decreased marital satisfaction when a spouse is deployed. It only seems natural: time apart can create a rift between two people in a romantic relationship. However, does that mean that cheating is more common in military families?
One study has found that the external pressures of military life can contribute to cheating. In fact, they concluded that there is a 22.6% higher risk of cheating while a spouse is actively deployed. 63 married servicemen participated in the study, and a staggering 75% later found out that their wives were cheating. What's more, they were divorced in the next nine months.
Military wives get cheated on, too. While around 70% believe that their husbands have been unfaithful while on deployment, there is no peer-reviewed research about how likely servicemen are to cheat. That percentage might be low because military servicemen would face legal repercussions for infidelity.
Under Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), adultery is included in the list of prohibited conduct. The article states that cheating brings "discredit upon the armed forces" and "is prejudicial to good order and discipline." A soldier might dishonorably discharged, receive no pay, or confinement for one year. In contrast, a military spouse faces no legal punishment if they are the unfaithful one.
Most relationships that start as affairs are doomed to fail
The ending of this story isn't that surprising. Affairs usually start off blissfully, where both partners feel a high in the beginning. However, only a small percentage of couples who stay together after starting off as cheaters stay together for good.
As affair recovery specialist Kathy Nickerson, PhD, explained to Bored Panda in a previous interview, affair relationships are almost always doomed to fail. "In my research and clinical experience, most affair relationships don't last—especially when they start in secrecy, deception, and heightened emotions."
As Nickerson explains, the cheater may believe that they're in love, but they might confuse that feeling with obsession, escape, and a distorted sense of reality. The affair partners often don't go through the normal process of checking whether they're compatible with each other. "Once the affair bubble pops and the real-world stressors come in, many realize their affair partner isn't the solution they thought they were," Nickerson told Bored Panda.
OP's story is also what happens often: a wife cheats, decides to go for it with her affair partners, but then crawls back, begging for forgiveness. But, according to Nickerson, the chances of the ex-spouse taking them back in are close to zero. "By then, the damage to the marriage may be too great to repair if they have spent too much time waffling between the two relationships."
"It's amazing how much money you have when someone else isn't spending it," the guy quipped in the comments
Commenters congratulated him on getting out of that toxic relationship and shared similar stories
