'The texts are seared into my brain.' 7 women on what they found when snooping through their partner's phone.

If you want to support independent women's media, become a Mamamia subscriber. Get an all-access pass to everything we make, including exclusive podcasts, articles, videos and our exercise app, MOVE.

For some, it's a fleeting glance that confirms nothing. For others, it's a discovery that changes everything.

In a recent survey, Mamamia asked women whether they had ever looked at their partner's devices, and if so, what they found there.

Some of the stories were unsettling, some heartbreaking, some utterly shocking.

From awkward secrets to full-blown betrayals, the women charted real issues faced in their relationships.

One thing became clear from their stories: once you see something, you can't unsee it.

Here, seven women share what they found — and the aftermath.

Watch: The number one cheating sign that everyone misses. Post continues after video.

From text exchanges to naked selfies.

When one woman had a "gut feeling that something was wrong" in her relationship, she decided to take a glance at her partner's phone. What she found confirmed her worst fears.

"My former partner was arranging to meet up with another woman," she told Mamamia. "I was devastated."

At the time, they had been together for two years and were living together.

"The relationship ended, and I spent a lot of time working out who [the other woman] was and then stalking her profile," she added.

"Always trust your instincts."

A second woman found months of text exchanges between her partner and his colleague.

"What transpired was weeks of gaslighting and making me feel guilty, and him changing her name in his phone," she said.

The woman's boyfriend would even hide his phone or take it with him to the shower to continue to message the colleague, constantly telling his girlfriend that "nothing had happened."

"I still have PTSD from what I read and saw," the woman shared. "All the texts are seared into my brain. It's so upsetting and embarrassing."

For a third woman, the roles were reversed. It was her partner of eight years who snooped through the photos on her laptop "out of curiosity."

"He discovered sexually explicit photos and naked selfies," she shared.

"It made me sad. I would have shared them with consent," the woman added. "It was a missed opportunity to talk about sex, turn ons and positions and what makes me feel sexy."

Some of the images featured the woman's previous partners, and her partner struggled to move past it.

"We haven't been intimate since," she said.

From texts to sexts, what the women found were devastating. Image: Canva.

Another woman was preparing to leave for a holiday with her partner of 18 years when a text came through on his phone.

"He acted weird hiding it," she shared.

The woman found out that her husband and a woman from his work had been messaging back and forth "whinging" about their partners.

"And then teasing each other's partners," she added. "Every time I had asked for help with something, there was a correlating message updating her about how demanding and selfish I was."

The discovery was heartbreaking.

"I felt absolutely betrayed, dirty and ashamed of myself," the woman shared. "I hated seeing myself through his eyes in the way he described me."

She thought their relationship was over.

"I didn't know if I could ever trust him or ask for his help again. I shut down for a long time," she said.

But the couple managed to work through it.

"After a few counselling sessions, him moving workplaces, and a lot of convincing me that he was doing it just to make her feel seen in her bad relationship, we are still together and have a wonderful relationship," she said.

Another woman was standing next to her partner's phone when a text pinged through.

"I saw a message from a female colleague saying 'You have lovely hands, they're soft and gentle'," the woman recalled.

"Then another [that read] 'ILYSM' [I love you so much]. This was a decade ago, I had to look up what it meant."

She was devastated. They had been together for 17 years and shared a daughter.

"I later found long text exchanges between them, and confronted him. He admitted he loved her, and they'd been having an affair," the woman said.

Her husband left her and they divorced.

"I wish he had been man enough to tell me the truth rather than me stumble across it," she said.

When a sixth woman noticed her partner had a "change in attitude", walking away when taking calls or hiding his phone screen, she knew "something was off."

She decided to check his phone.

"He had been sexting with an ex from overseas for a while, full on emotional cheating to the point of saying they were 'living a fake love life' with their respective partners and should instead be together," the woman shared.

Her partner, who had just proposed to her, had also asked his ex if she was ready to come to Australia "so they could make a baby."

"We had decided to be child free," the woman said. "I felt like a fool. I was absolutely devastated as I did not see it coming at all."

After breaking up for three months, the pair managed to reconcile things. But things only got worse.

"It later proved to be a pattern where he would still continue contact with her and keep it secret from me," the woman said.

"So I am now divorcing him, partially for the deceit, but also many other reasons."

Listen: The seven signs you're living with a narcissist. Post continues below.

A final woman made shocking discoveries on the phones of not one, but two of her ex-partners.

The first time, she decided to snoop because her partner of two years was "being shady."

"He was talking to a Russian bride," the woman shared. "He lied and said he was trying to find a wife for his brother, and later that year he went 'to see his family in the UK' and came back married to said Russian bride."

The second time was an accidental discovery after finding her husband's old phone.

"I was reading texts between us and feeling sentimental," she said, adding that they had been together for five years.

"I found one I didn't write. It was from a man saying how much he missed my husband," she said.

While her husband didn't "reply in the same tone," the woman said the men "definitely seemed like more than friends."

"I felt bloody awful and puzzled," she said.

Feature Image: Getty (Stock image for illustrative purposes only).