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updated 9 Jun 2012, 18:47
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Mon, May 07, 2012
Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network
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Should he forgive his wife's infidelity and trust her again?
by Emily A. Marcelo

DEAR EMILY

I am a married man with four kids. The youngest is now four months old, and I am not even 100-per cent sure that I am the father.

The problem started two years ago when my wife reacquainted with her first boyfriend through Facebook.

The guy is an OFW. At first, she said they were just excited to connect with each other again.

I warned her about their too frequent texting and chats but she just ignored me, until I accidentally read their intimate conversations in YM. She promised to stop it and be just friends with him.

Then one time, without my knowledge, they met and he allegedly forced himself on her despite her protests.

I found this out again through her messages, and I nearly broke up with her.

By then, she was already pregnant with our last child. I forgave her after she promised to stop all communications with him.

Since then, I've been a good husband to her and father to our youngest.

I didn't question the paternity of this baby or if she is still in touch with him.

She is now very careful with her FB, Yahoo Messenger and texting activities.

I don't go through her personal accounts anymore, but she knows my Internet passwords and has access to my gadgets. I don't want her to assume that I am hiding anything from her.

I want to think we are now okay, but I am questioning why she has to have all these passwords for her laptop and cell phone.

She is making me doubt that she really is over him. Should I be worried or just forget all about it and trust her?

Worried Man

You can do two things. First, if you want total peace, have the DNA of the child taken.

You will never be happy unless you get to the bottom of who this baby's father is.

You may deny it, you may say you don't really care, but there will always be this pebble in your shoe, this nagging, incessant suspicion of "what if?"

A thousand and one unanswered questions churning your mind into mush.

The DNA exam will solve this problem once and for all.

Or, second, if you truly believe you're a good man, accept your wife's alleged indiscretions as well as this baby - whoever the real father is.

Wave the past as you would a pesky fly, and move on, and make a go of this marriage.

The heavens will bless you for your magnanimity and generosity with your acceptance of this baby as your own, without rancor.

After all, the child was just the innocent "collateral damage" to all these.

And for that wife of yours who is behaving like a lovesick teenage-wannabe, scheming and paranoid enough to put locks and bolts in her laptop and mobile phone-stop already this song-and-dance you're having with her!

Ask her point blank what she expects from this former boyfriend. Are they or aren't they involved?

Will they or won't they fly the coop?

This confrontation will certainly hurt big-time, but so does the removal of a cancerous tumour.

The invasive operation does the body good as it's rid of the rotting mass inside.

Stop acting lost, pretending that everything will be all right just by sweeping your apprehensions under the rug.

Don't prolong your agony anymore. As the Buddha said, "three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon and the truth."

E-mail [email protected] or [email protected]

readers' comments
Once used by someone else, no choice but divorce. Give her hell if divorce is not consider.
Posted by oscar475 on Sat, 19 May 2012 at 10:53 AM


Agreed.
Stay faithful.
Occassionally one can be abit flirt..but one must know where to draw a line.
Posted by hfourhappy on Sat, 19 May 2012 at 09:48 AM
The 36th strategy "走为上" - Run away to fight another day
Posted by sukhoi27 on Sat, 19 May 2012 at 09:46 AM


Supposing go for divorce, I am sure the hubby will get to have kids custody and assets wont be split to his wife. In the first place, his wife was already caught red handed and in the wrong. Not the hubby.
Posted by hfourhappy on Sat, 19 May 2012 at 09:34 AM


Brothers, this is exactly why its important not to play around with women once you married. You know its hard to repair trust after its destroyed. Same in this case.

Gone case leow. Must divorce if heart keeps being dug at over suspicions of wife cheating.

Posted by tlukay59 on Sat, 19 May 2012 at 09:27 AM
It takes years to build the trust but that trust can be destroyed in minutes.

Once the trust is no more there, it is as good as over.

Like they always say...can forgive but can never forget. This incident will continue to haunt the man everytime they have a quarrel, or even as simple as when she is not by his side.
Posted by johnnykwek on Sat, 19 May 2012 at 08:37 AM
Applies to men too.
Posted by mystrawberry on Sat, 19 May 2012 at 08:28 AM
make her pay for it....
Use her name to take as many loan as possible.
make her in paper debt ...then u stop work......
why u need to feed someone who is unfaithful ....
make sure she use up all her time to earn money to upkeep the family.
if she cant, ask her loan from her BF......
only when her BF know that she is deeping in debt ...everything will end.
then you start to sit down and talk to her....... if she agree in her wrong doing , then u start to plan to resolve the money matter.....otherwise take the kids and u ask her go fly kite
Posted by dinofande on Sat, 19 May 2012 at 08:23 AM
Cherish your wife with all your might but no point saving the relationship once her heart is changed.
Posted by MonkeyBusters on Sat, 19 May 2012 at 08:21 AM

Talk is cheap. Seek a divorce, you say.

The man has to pay alimony till she dies or remarries. Before that, half of his assets will be ordered by the court to be transferred to her.

Please note that division of matrimonial assets is a separate thing from alimony, which is to be paid from his future earnings. Whether or not the chabor works and whether or not she earns more than the man is irrelevant.

In a lot of cases, the only way the flat can be split is to have it sold or else, transferred to the ex-wife. Where does the man live after that? In cases where the man was uinfaithful, chabors yell 'Serve him right! while clapping in unison. But this time, it is the chabor who was unfaithful, but the man is still being .....
Posted by smickno on Sat, 19 May 2012 at 08:19 AM

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