Would you have put up with a partner who behaved like this?
Some relationships end quietly, and the heartbreak lingers for months. Others end with a moment so absurd that the only sane response is to grab your things and walk out the door. These reader stories all belong firmly in the second category. Consider them proof that sometimes the best thing an ex ever did for you was leave.
The paying customer
He was messaging women on Facebook, offering to pay them for nude photos and videos. The one thing all of these women had in common? Every single one of them had a cast on some part of her body.
That's how I discovered that this, too, is a fetish. Plaster casts.
The message
It was our third date, and I was just starting to fall for him and believe this could actually turn into something good. We were at an expensive restaurant. He ordered fish, then excused himself to the bathroom.
Twenty minutes later, I got a text. He apologized, but said he'd had an accident in his pants and had to go home.
At first I thought he was joking. He wasn't. He asked for my payment details, sent over enough money to cover dinner and my taxi home, and then wrote that after a humiliation like this, he hoped I'd understand if he never contacted me again.
The shock
We'd been together eight months and I was already his fiancée when, one day, he showed up with three little girls and a little boy and announced they were his children. Their mother was in the hospital — and, by the way, that mother happened to be his wife — so the kids would be staying with us for a while.
I couldn't exactly cause a scene in front of the poor kids, so I numbly grabbed my coat and left. Two days later, once a neighbor tipped me off that the entire clan had cleared out of the apartment, I collected my things, left the house key and the ring on the kitchen table, and blocked him everywhere.
The timing
He chose to confess that he'd cheated on me the same day my mother died.
The scapegoat
We were staying at his parents' place, a huge, fancy house. This was the day he introduced me to them, and while the future in-laws were distant and unbearably snobbish, we managed to get through it fine. That evening we retreated to our room and polished off half a bottle of liqueur.
In the middle of the night, my boyfriend woke me in a panic. He'd soiled the bed, and he insisted we tell his parents that I was the one who'd done it, because "he couldn't possibly let it ruin his reputation in front of them." I felt sorry that his relationship with his parents was like that — but I wasn't about to take the blame for someone else's bathroom emergency.
In the end, he sadly slunk off with the dirty sheets and came back with clean ones. The next morning, as we were leaving, his mother hugged me and told me not to worry about the little accident, that it could happen to anyone. I informed her that it wasn't me — it was her son.
He broke up with me — because I'd "betrayed" him — but honestly, I didn't mind. I had no interest in waking up in a soiled bed ever again.
The secret stash
His downfall was that I clean very thoroughly. That's how I found his porn collection tucked away in a hiding spot. That alone wouldn't have been a problem — if it hadn't all been gay porn.
The witness
Everyone has that one person in their life who stays a permanent question mark. The "what if" category — someone you never got together with because of circumstances, or someone you just couldn't make it work with. For my fiancé, that person was a former high school classmate named Andrea.
Over our five years together, I heard about her a lot, and deep down I was always a little jealous. But I never worried, because she lived abroad and they weren't in touch. Then, two weeks before our wedding, he came up to me and casually announced that — guess what — Andrea had moved back home, and he'd asked her to be the witness at our wedding.
And he said it as though it were the most natural thing in the world. I literally got dizzy and had to sit down. Of course I objected, and he acted like I was overreacting. It exploded into an enormous fight.
Long story short: we called off the wedding, moved out, and he's been with Andrea ever since. Wishing them all the happiness in the world!
Why do people share stories like these?
Because there's something oddly reassuring in realizing you're not the only one who's lived through a jaw-dropping breakup. Reading someone else's absurd story can make your own heartbreak feel a little lighter.
How do you know it's time to walk away?
As these stories show, sometimes the deciding moment is unmistakable — a lie, a betrayal, or a demand that crosses a line you didn't even know you had. When staying would mean betraying yourself, leaving becomes the healthiest choice.
Is it normal to laugh about a painful breakup?
Absolutely. Humor is one of the ways we process shock and hurt. Being able to laugh at how ridiculous a situation was is often a sign that you've genuinely moved on.
