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There's the gut feeling. The red flags. And then, the moment it all comes crashing down.
From unexpected text messages from golf partners, to shaved pubic hair and a literal car crash, these are the plot twists that upended eight relationships.
Earlier this year, Mamamia readers courageously told us their cheating stories.
Not only did they chart in painful detail the red flags that emerged leading up to the discovery, they shared the exact moment they discovered they were being cheated on.
Listen: The results of Mamamia's cheating survey. Post continues below
And honestly, we're still picking our jaws up off the floor.
Below you can read eight women's stories.
The phone investigation.
"I found out my partner was sexting with his golf partner," one woman wrote, adding she then "found information through (the) phone bill and (from) further investigation in his mobile phone."
The discovery turned her world upside down, but she vowed to fight through it.
"I was devastated and shocked, but we are still together and working through it now."
A tale of pubic hair and lollies.
Another reader shared that "the moment" came after several red flags.
"He shaved his pubic hair, which he'd never done before," she wrote.
But that was only the start of the surprising finds.
"There were lolly wrappers under his bed. He was not known for eating lollies in bed. This was the moment I started to think he was cheating on me.
"I didn't say anything at first, just weighing up all the red flags. I confronted him soon after and he admitted it. They've now been married 17 years and have two kids. I guess it was meant to be for them."
A best friend's ultimate betrayal.
One woman received a shocking text from someone close to her.
"My best friend's husband sent me a text to say my husband and her were having an affair. He had had suspicions, (and) he eventually found text messages to confirm," she wrote.
"My husband had admitted to being emotionally involved with other women in the past. However, now I believe it to have been more, so I asked him to leave. It was a domestically violent, coercive relationship, so the public nature of the exposure in my community gave me some power to get out of the marriage safely."
The handwritten note.
One woman shared that she was completely blindsided after finding a handwritten note from her then-husband.
"My ex-husband was having an affair with a workmate. They worked (the) afternoon shift and after one shift ended, they 'disappeared' and went to Queensland. He left me a note saying he was a 'black sheep' and I should forget him," she wrote.
"I thought he had had a breakdown and searched everywhere for him over the next few days. I rang his work colleagues, who refused to talk to me. Then one of them told me the whole truth.
"Six weeks went by, and they came back to Sydney, because one of her young sons was sick. Eventually, he came back to me, and we carried on for about five years, having our son together. But then he left again. I remarried eventually and have been married to my second husband for 30 years."
Caught red-handed on the couch.
Another reader explained how she discovered the affair in action — the result was a broken home, a lost best friend and boyfriend.
"(I) caught them together on the couch. I had a full mental breakdown over the next few months as I came to terms with the fact that I lost him and my best friend."
The persistent DMs from a stranger.
Another woman said she was left blindsided after receiving several direct messages across various social media apps from a stranger who worked with her then partner.
"I got a random follow request from a guy on Instagram. I declined. They then tried on Facebook and again I declined. He sent me a message request on Messenger saying that he had incriminating information on my then partner and that he worked with him," she wrote, adding the stranger attached a photo of his work card to prove the connection.
"He said he wanted to meet me in person and not tell me in text. I agreed and took my brother to meet this random (person) at a café, where he told me that his girlfriend (a 23-year-old) and my ex (a 38-year-old) were seeing each other secretly (him, the girlfriend and my ex all worked together) and that he wanted me to know as he knew we had a two-year-old and a house together. I confronted my ex when I got home."
The confrontation did not proceed as expected, she added.
"He hid under his doona and cried. He said he wasn't going to apologise because I wouldn't accept his apology anyway. He also gave me s**t reasons like 'you never loved me anyway.'
"We broke up, and I was actually relieved rather than heartbroken. He has been on and off with the girl this whole time. She had to quit her job, and he was encouraged to leave the company also. Feels like a bad nightmare, but my son and I are thriving on our own 1.5 years later. We co-parent well. "
How a photo unearthed a years-long affair.
"I was taking a photo of him with his phone when a weird message popped up; later that night I took his phone to see what it said, and it had been deleted," one reader shared.
"I went to deleted messages and the whole thread was there of him organising a date with a sex worker for a threesome. I confronted him and, after lots of questioning and digging, discovered it had been going on for seven years of our 12-year marriage.
"(We're) still together."
The car crash.
And finally, for another woman, it started with a car crash.
"We had witnessed a car crash that afternoon, and then he was going out with some friends. He was super anxious after car crash. He had text me earlier in the night, but then I didn't hear from him," she wrote.
The takeaway.
These stories are raw and real.
But they don't capture the full extent of the betrayal each woman experienced. Nor, does it capture their resilience of the women who had to navigate a relationship marred by cheating.
Some stayed. Some left. Some found clarity. Some didn't. But all faced a moment, they'll never be able to forget.
Feature image: Getty. (Stock image used for illustrative purposes only).
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