We all think we know the person we share our life with. We trust their words, their habits, their explanations. But sometimes, it takes one small detail — a locked door, a forgotten phone, a casual comment — for the illusion to crack. The people in these stories didn’t go looking for the truth. They simply stumbled upon it and realized their partner was never who they claimed to be.
1.
When my ex and I lived together, I found a box with a single set of dishes under his side of the bed. When I asked him about it, he said he was keeping them just in case he decided to break up with me so that he could leave at the drop of a hat at any given moment.
I remember the conversation—he seemed so nonchalant about it all. Turned out to be a total sociopath.
2.
I discovered that his mother was alive. He gave me a sob story about losing his mother to a heart attack in a grocery store, and of course, I was all about comforting him. We dated and eventually married, but what could he say—’I lied about my mother dying’? So he just kept her a secret.
I later found a card from her to him for his birthday, wedged in some books in the garage. I was horrified to find out I had a mother-in-law and hadn’t invited her to our wedding.
We divorced after three years. She was a lovely woman and treated me very kindly, knowing I had no idea and believing I was horrified by the circumstances. She wasn’t surprised at his duplicity and later regretted not warning me about her son, but she had hoped I’d be a ’fix’ for him. I wasn’t.
3.
My now ex-husband hid from me that he had six maxed-out credit cards and had been dodging child support for a year for the child from his previous marriage. Don’t marry someone who is bad with money.
4.
I discovered that my now ex-wife purposefully tried to get herself pregnant with our daughter before we were married because she knew her mom couldn’t pay for her health insurance anymore, and she didn’t want to work. However, she knew that having a baby could qualify her for the state’s healthcare system.
5.
My boyfriend never let me visit his workplace. “It’s boring, you wouldn’t like it,” he said.
One afternoon, I brought him lunch as a surprise. The receptionist looked confused and said, “He doesn’t work here anymore.” But I was totally shocked when I asked when he quit, she checked the system and said, “Three years ago — right after his wife had the baby.”
6.
After I divorced my ex-wife, I found out that she had given away two children when she was younger. I also discovered that her tubes had been tied the entire time we were married. We even met with a fertility doctor because she kept saying she was “messed up on the inside.”
7.
I had moved three hours to her city a few days before the wedding, leased an apartment, etc. The day before the ceremony we were at her place and we were packing up her things, when I stumble upon a shoebox hidden in her closet. I opened it to find it was a collection of notes, cards, and other trinkets from her ex she had continued to hold on to. I immediate knew what it meant and told her that I knew in my heart she had been with her ex. She refused to make eye contact and was silent, her silence confirming my fears. I stormed out of the house, sprinting past her parents, unsure where to go. I ended up going to our empty apartment and just sat in the dark. Eventually her parents came by and talked me into still marrying their daughter.
8.
I found out after filing for divorce that she was hiding $81k worth of debt…from her first marriage. That she was currently having her wages garnished at $600 per month. And that she also claimed I was responsible for half!
9.
My husband and his friend came up with a plan to catch his friend’s wife cheating. My husband had a relationship with his friend’s wife, and his friend ’caught’ them. She got pregnant and, during the divorce, found out the baby was my husband’s. I found this out after seven years and three kids.
10.
I had known and met her son from her previous relationship, but after giving birth to my daughter for about 3 months she revealed that she had 2 more sons from a more former relationship. I have 3 step sons.