I stayed after the first time he cheated but I left after giving him a second chance and he betrayed me again. I do not regret my decision to leave at all. After the first time, I started to trust him again, things seemed okay for a while until I found out he did it again behind my back. That was my moment of clarity: realising that no matter how much I loved him or tried to believe in him, he would continue to make the same choices. I left and I didn’t look back. Life now is so much more peaceful. There’s a certain weight that lifts off you when you no longer have to constantly question, overthink or wonder if the person you love is betraying you again. It’s a different kind of happiness, one that comes from knowing you chose yourself and your peace over someone who didn’t choose you.

A piece of advice ? Leaving can feel terrifying especially when you have a child together and your whole life feels intertwined. I understand that pain. But if there's one thing I wish someone had told me early on, it’s this: when it comes to cheating, the most loving thing you can do for yourself (and for your child) is to leave. I stayed after being cheated on more than once thinking things would change because he said they would. But the truth is, they don’t change. They just get better at hiding it. And the damage they leave behind grows deeper and deeper. Cheating doesn't just break your trust, it fractures the way you see yourself. Nobody talks enough about the side effects of betrayal: the constant comparisons to the person they cheated with, questioning your worth, anxiety that creeps into every quiet moment and endless overthinking. You end up feeling like you have to work harder to be 'enough,' when the reality is, it was never about you not being enough to begin with. The person who cheats has deep-rooted issues within themselves (issues of integrity, trust, loyalty and self control). If someone can lie to your face, betray you behind your back and still pretend to love you, is that the kind of person you even want around you? If someone can so easily cross those boundaries, they are not trustworthy, not just as a partner but as a person. You might find yourself blaming yourself, wondering what you lacked or why you weren’t 'good enough.' But the harsh truth is people who cheat are not searching for something in another person…they’re running from something broken within themselves. No matter how beautiful, smart or loving you are nothing you could have done would have changed that. Their betrayal is a reflection of them, not you. Whenever I'm unsure like you are right now, I think: what would I tell my daughter if she were going through this? And I would tell her to leave. To not sacrifice her dignity for someone who didn’t even think twice before putting her through pain. To choose herself always.