Whoever said marriage is a holy union was terribly, terribly wrong.

Note: Some stories were pulled from this thread by user u/tippytoes1216.

Note: Some stories include topics of domestic abuse. Please proceed with caution.

"[We got divorced], but not before forgiving and having two children with her. I then got 'traded in' after 13 years of marriage for someone 10 years younger and had to dig myself out from tremendous debt. Truth be told, I should have never married her and did so after suffering the unexpected death of my father. I had a bit of a dysfunctional upbringing and kind of normalized emotional abuse. 

I remarried five years after my divorce and have now been married 26 years to a wonderful woman. I had to own my situation before I could recover my life, so that is the silver lining to my story."

"The final straw was that they had planned a trip to see said friend. The day before they left, our 1-year-old and I both got significant fevers and flus (over 104). I couldn’t function as a human, and our kid couldn’t keep food down or sleep. They said to 'figure it out.' We both ended up in the ER, and my family had to bring me back to the apartment. I cut off all emotion from that moment on until it ended a few months later.

I found out from their friend later on that they cheated with some random guy on their trip."

"I handled everything for both of us, but I thought, 'Maybe I'm being unfair, maybe I'm just bad at asking for help.' So I gave it a shot and asked him to please get us food because I was genuinely scared by how bad I felt, and I didn't know if I could stand up. Without looking up from his phone, he said, 'No, I wouldn't know where to go.'

We were in a hotel with a café in the lobby, directly facing a Starbucks. The phone in his face could have ordered delivery from basically anywhere. It would have been the easiest thing in the world. In that moment, I fully understood that he just didn't have any interest in caring for me as I did for him. He moved out a month later. We were together for 12 years, and it involved a lot of grieving, but I've never regretted leaving."

"My current husband? Whenever it happens, he just takes care of me without my asking. When we were dating, he dropped everything, sprinted into my house, carefully got me up, drove me to my appointment, and took care of me until my back went back into place. I only had to ask once."

"I made the mistake of asking her, 'Do you even find me attractive?' and she flatly said, 'No.' I asked, 'Why did you marry me, then?' and she said, 'I didn’t think it was important at the time.'

I never felt so ugly and unloved, and it hurt even more when I had been feeling so good about myself for once in my life, 30 seconds earlier."

"She told me she knew this most recent guy she was cheating with was 'the love of her life' after three weeks. They had a kid together less than a year after we got divorced and split up within two years."

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger as a result of domestic violence, call 911. For anonymous, confidential help, you can call the 24/7 National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or chat with an advocate via the website.