How to forgive a husband who visited prostitution?

It didn't occur to me that it would happen to me but it did. I’ll try to summarise as much as I could else it’ll turn this into a novel. For almost 10 years we’ve been together, he had been nothing but faithful until this year. He is a respectable man and doted on me. However, after our first child, we starting growing apart. I spent all my energy on our child but we still had sex regularly until our child co-sleep with us. That was the beginning of the end. I got pregnant again quite unexpectedly, we wanted to wait another year initially. Being pregnant and taking full-time care of a toddler made me physically exhausted by the end of the day and caused my sex drive to be on an all-time low. Subsequently, we started to communicate lesser because I felt like he couldn't understand my sacrifices and vice-versa. We only spoke when necessary else we’ll quarrel and I tried to give him sex 1-2 a month but he stopped demanding for it after a while. I did ask him before why isn't he asking for sex (before I found out) and he just casually said it's because I didn't feel like it and didn't want to pressure me into giving. Soon enough, I reached the 7th month of my pregnancy and that was when I found out he went behind my back to visit prostitution. My whole world honestly collapsed and the trust that was there for all these years gone in an instant. He was the last man I believed would ever do that to me but I was wrong. He came clean. He answered everything that I asked on the spot and begged me not to leave him. He admitted he visited the brothel a total of three times and the first time he visited was when I was 2-3 months into pregnancy. He cried and told me there was no excuse for what he did, he just fucked up. He also told me he planned to go once more before I deliver the child and wasn't expecting me to find out. (too honest?) I talked to him a bit more while I was crying nonstop, he claims his friends some attached some married also did the same and they make it sound like it's socially acceptable to do it. It was really daunting because all these while, I never thought we had a problem in our marriage. After the incident, we ironically became closer than before. We communicated more, voluntarily spending more time with each other and became more transparent about our feelings towards each other. He also made his location known to me by letting me track him on the ”find my friends” app so I can feel more at ease but I try not to look at it much else it makes me feel like I'm crazy. However, the wound is still very fresh and I often wonder if I should ever trust him again? Until now, I haven't told him I forgive him but I will strive in that path of forgiving. I hope no mummies here ever have to experience this kind of a pain but if there is, I would be very glad to hear your advice, opinion, and story about it. ??

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I feel your pain - no one should ever go through what you go through. I was once betrayed by my then-boyfriend (who is now my husband), so I totally can resonate with you. We’ve been together for more than 10 years at that time too. He cheated on me with his colleague for a few months before I found out. Long story short, I decided to forgive him and we both agreed to move past it. I have to admit that it wasn’t easy at first. Forgiving him took everything I had. There were moments where I doubted my forgiveness and felt like I wanted to simply end the relationship. It wasn’t easy at first in the relationship post-cheating because I was reminded of his cheating every now and then. As cliche as this sounds, time will really heal everything. It took me a couple of years to finally move on from it. The wound was very fresh especially in the beginning - I just had to go through with it because I told myself that was my decision to stay with him. Over time, the cheating episode seemed so distant that it didn’t matter anymore - the wound no longer hurt. I told myself I have control over my thoughts and emotions and I wasn’t going to let my ex-boyfriend and the girl he cheated with have power over me. Karma will eventually get them. They will get a taste of their own medicine. My advice is, to get over it, find your spiritual side - turn to your religion, turn to God. I don’t mean to sound preachy but this worldly life is temporary. Know that you have God with you.

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