If there's a case of infidelity worthy of forgiveness, this isn't it.
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Reddit user ThrowRAfmylife11 made a post on the platform about the biggest betrayal she's ever experienced, and it sounds like something you wouldn't wish even on your worst enemy.
The woman who has been married for a few years learned that her husband cheated on her with her own mother just a few days before her wedding.
The whole ordeal has left her shattered and questioning the very foundation of her most important relationships.
They say that the people who can hurt you the most are the ones closest to you
Image credits: Antoni Shkraba / Pexels (not the actual photo)
For this woman, the painful truth became shockingly apparent a few years after she got married
Image credits: Ron Lach / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Image credits: ThrowRAfmylife11
As her story went viral, the woman issued an update on her situation
Image credits: ThrowRAfmylife11
Unfortunately, secrets surrounding sex and infidelity are among the most common ones
Image credits: Odonata Wellnesscenter / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Although the circumstances make this particular instance quite unique in its devastating nature, according to Dr. Michael Slepian, author of The Secret Life Of Secrets: How Our Inner Worlds Shape Well-being, Relationships, and Who We Are, many of people's most popular secrets deal with relationships and sex, a theme he and other researchers see again and again.
"Among more than 50,000 research participants I’ve surveyed, the most common secrets include a lie we've told (69 percent), romantic desire (61 percent), sex (58 percent), and finances (58 percent)," Slepian writes.
You can draw a line between secrecy and privacy by considering secrecy an intention to hold specific information back, and privacy as a reflection of how much personal information you choose to broadcast in general.
"You may not want to discuss your sexual experiences at work out of concern for privacy (and for what is appropriate), but this is very different from wanting to keep some specific experience a secret," Slepian explains. "In both cases, you are taking control of your personal information, but for different reasons."
Clearly, the Redditor's husband knew the possible implications of his despicable act and deliberately chose not to disclose it.
"I find in my research that the more immoral we consider a personal experience or action, the more it feels like a secret, rather than something that is merely private," Slepian adds. "I also find that the more we think others would find the information relevant to their own lives, the more something unsaid feels like secrecy instead of privacy."
So the unbearable guilt the man was feeling is probably the ultimate proof of just how wrong the affair was.
People were disgusted by what happened to the woman and expressed their sympathy
