Betraying a loved one's trust has got to be one of the cruelest forms of punishment.
While couples who wish to patch things up can work through their issues in the aftermath of a significant other cheating, not all relationships can be salvaged.
That depends on how hurtful the deception was that tore former lovers apart for good.
Curious to hear examples of the worst emotional pain a person has inflicted on the people they've cared about the most, Redditor h3llofaRide asked:
"What’s the worst cheating story you’ve ever heard?"
There are no words for the way these relationships eventually tanked.
Ship Wrecked
"Couple was together for 8 years, both working at sea on the same ship for 8-11 week trips, bought the house and heading towards marriage, kids etc etc."
"Start a 11 week trip and noticed something wasn't right."
"Girl had screwed another crew member on the trip off and wanted to be with them, guy had to watch the start of the new relationship while on a floating prison and due to his qualifications couldn't leave the ship"
"Source: Me... I am that guy."
– sidewaysickness
Breaking The Bro Code
"Firefighter asked another firefighter to cover his shift by working for him. He then went and had sex with his wife that day."
– wehrmann_tx
Vanishing Girlfriend
"Former colleague of mine in his mid thirties. He was living with his long-term girlfriend, and they had been shopping for engagement rings. He comes to work one day and, in the early afternoon, receives a text from her telling him she’s seeing someone else, has packed up the house, and moved out to live with the other guy. No apology, no further explanation. She then immediately blocked him and left him to deal with the rent and other bills on his own. He was a nice guy, it was horrendous to see that happen to him."
"He’s now happily married! (to someone else of course)."
– FeaturelessFloof
Slopper Cheater
"I was an IT contractor for the Department of Defense (NMCI, for those curious)."
"We got a keyword alert on an email conversation. Then more. Some folks involved."
"So we went and checked out the email and the email thread - turns out it was a Senior Chief, who was talking to nearly a half dozen women under his chain of command that he was having affairs with, multiples of which were pregnant with his children. He, of course, was married - having four kids with his wife."
"What started out with a 'hey, you're not supposed to discuss that on regular email' investigation turned into a massive scandal, wrecking multiple marriages and turned into a whole lot of meetings with his VERY angry CO."
"Don't do stupid sh*t on company email. And REALLY don't do stupid sh*t on DOD servers."
Bad Cop
"When I was a police officer a co-worker found his wife in bed with another police officer from the same district. Wife would tell the lover about husband's week schedule and lover would have his changed in order to have sex with the wife while husband was working."
"Problem was one day husband got dismissed 3 hours early and went back home without texting his wife first (he had some suspects but could never imagine about another police officer)."
"No shots were fired that day, luckily."
–Classic-Row-2872
It's Me. Hi. I'm The Problem
"I know someone who regularly cheated on their out-of-town girlfriend. I guess he was going to cut all that out when she finished her advanced degree program out of state. She moved to his state, and they got an apartment together."
"While in the shower, his phone is buzzing with messages. She finds the girl’s username sending all these messages and decides to send her a direct message from her own account, and the other girl was completely honest with her."
“I know who you are, I hook up with your bf all the time, including last weekend at your new apartment in your bed. Etc etc.”
– Medievil_Walrus
When a family member cheats, there's no coming back from this.
Unexpected Visitors
"My friend had a massive heart attack and having sex was hard for him for a while. He worked and his wife didn’t. He feel asleep in the chair one morning while getting ready for work. He awoke to a man unlocking his door. For about a year while he was at work his wife had different men with keys to the house coming over to have sex with her."
– hamblincomics
Karma Came For The Worst Best Friend
"My bio moms best friend was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. We moved her, her husband and her daughter in. My mom slept with her husband and got pregnant so they put her in a nursing home to die all alone just so they wouldn't have to deal with the consequences. She was hours away as well so her daughter who was 10 at the time was unable to visit her.. she died alone because she went to her 'best friend' for help."
"I don't speak to bio mom anymore. After her friend's death, she showed off her brand new car with the life insurance money (she married her husband). At the time, her dead best friend also had a 19-year-old daughter who was homeless with a toddler. I felt so sick sitting in the car, listening to her brag about how nice it was and how she finally got the car she deserved..
"Some people are disgusting."
"Edit to add: more backstop that just makes this story absolutely vile."
"My bio mom is a counselor and the way she even met this best friend of hers was through the daughter who was 19 with a toddler. They met when said daughter was 13. My bio mom was her CASEWOKER for mental health support. She crossed a huge professional boundary doing this."
"On top of that, she came into this girl's life to HELP her and ended up hurting her so badly. Her mom who passed wasn't the only victim here. My bio mom was also married, there's other children involved etc. SO many people were hurt by this, it's truly sickening."
"Tbh, during my bio moms pregnancy her mom actually also got stage four lung cancer. She died within 7 weeks and never met bio moms baby. I kinda feel like it was her fault in a sense. I truly believe karma can and WILL get you through loved ones."
– concernedoldersiss
Keeping Dad's Secret
"My dad cheated on my mom with my best friend's mom who was also married. I was a teenager at the time, and unfortunately found out before my mom did. Guess who had to tell her? My dad told me I 'owed it to him' to not say anything. The massive amount of guilt I dealt with for "outing" him and destroying my mom's life haunted me for years."
– chelletastical
How can you cope with grief after discovering a loved one wasn't who you thought they were when they were alive?
Hurtful Truth After Death
"One of my wife’s cousins died of cancer after a 30 year marriage. When her husband was clearing out her home office he found a box with diaries, receipts, letters, hotel keys, etc… detailing the hundreds of times she cheated on him with random guys throughout their whole marriage, going so far as to take their daughters to meet ups and gaslighting them about what was happening."
– panachi19
Worst Way To Grieve
"Ugh. After my husband died, I was looking through his belongings to find things that our daughters might like to have in the future and I found hard proof that he had been cheating on me for years with someone I considered a good friend. It broke me."
– Planet_Ziltoidia
Grandpa's Secret
"My grandfather died of cancer and while my grandmother was going through his things she found records of child maintenance payments. Turns out he had a kid with his secretary and kept it a secret."
– Bankz92
Relationships are complicated and infidelity is unfortunately an all too common occurrence.
Cheating is often the result of an even bigger problem in all types of relationships.
But if it is not a symptom of a troubled marriage or unofficial union, that's even worse.
Serial cheaters will continue to cheat based on a high of perpetually not getting caught.
The truth eventually comes out, however.
If you slip up in a relationship and get caught, how would you make amends with the person you claimed to have loved?
And if you're the victim, how big is your heart to forgive your deceitful partner?
