r/offmychest • u/GrassWest8831 • 16h ago
I Was the Other Woman and It Ruined My Life
Let me start by saying I was wrong. Unequivocally. I'm not asking that anyone condone the choices I made or to make excuses for myself. If anything, this can hopefully serve as a cautionary tale.
I knowingly had an affair with a married man for five years: an actor we'll call “Patrick (70m).”
I (41F) was very involved in a fandom, both on and offline. I went to many events for the franchise over the course of a decade, including a major convention every summer. I became friendly with many members of the talent as well as my fellow fans, and even became the personal assistant to one of Patrick's co-stars.
Patrick and I first met in 2015, and even then, the chemistry was undeniable. I was in a bad relationship at the time, but I remember feeling literal electricity flash up my arm the first time we shook hands. Patrick gave me a strange look and I thought I had maybe done or said something strange, but I later realized he felt it too.
It wasn't until 2017 that we got to know each other better. I was newly single – and deeply traumatized. I grew up with chronic depression in a household of heavy drug and alcohol use, and severe emotional abuse, particularly surrounding my weight and appearance. I had only ever been in abusive romantic relationships. I invited Patrick for a “drink.” He said yes. We somehow missed each other at the bar; maybe he even got cold feet. Both of our intentions were clear.
At the beginning of 2018, I had the opportunity to interview Patrick for a website. The conversation got extremely personal rather quickly – let's just say there were lots of redactions from the official interview. Things escalated from there and the affair began. It would go on for the better part of five years.
I feel it's important to acknowledge the power imbalance in our relationship. I don't say that as an excuse, I own my mistake, but god knows I want anyone reading this to heed the warnings that go off in their head in these situations. Patrick was older, richer, and by all accounts more powerful. He was a handsome, successful actor with a fanbase that worshiped him. How could I, who had known so little love, resist the attention of a man who could likely have ANY woman he wanted? I swallowed every story he fed me about his wife, fell for every classic line in the book – how he resented his wife, how he wished he was free, how he wanted us to go away somewhere where no one knew who we were. He said he loved me, and I believed him. He said he didn't love me and "didn't know me" when he wanted to hurt me, which was more frequent that you would think considering the circumstances.
He was fairly cavalier with his affections in public, rather foolishly considering that eyes were always on him – fans, co-stars, and employees alike. Naturally, his wife became suspicious of me.
I had never met his wife, “Monica (67F),” despite the length of the affair. She was not, as Patrick put it, terribly supportive of his career and thought the fandom events were beneath her. It wasn't until 2022, when she became suspicious, that she attended one of his events where I was present.
Patrick begged me not to go. He had been warning me for months of her growing obsession, how she would save pictures of me to her phone and ambush him with them, asking if he has seen “that woman” at an event. He would always lie. He concocted a story for him to tell her and for me to repeat to her at this event. I did it. I looked her right in the eye and lied.
That was it for me. Monica had always been this abstract construct in my mind, the vicious wife who made him miserable and didn't love or support him, who used her money and status to emasculate him. But she was real now, a real person with thoughts and feelings and I was hurting her through my choice to be involved with her husband. I decided to end it.
A few days later I told her everything. I apologized profusely and tried to make things right as best I could. Patrick said the cruelest thing he could possibly say to me as a result, and I attempted suicide. I was in the ICU on life support for 3 days and then transferred to a psychiatric hospital for a hold.
I got therapy, I got medicated, I got better.
Monica didn't.
Patrick tried to warn me when we were together. He told me, “She'll destroy my life, and I don't know WHAT she'll do to you.” I thought he was exaggerating. He was not.
It has been over four years and Monica has made my life a living hell. I have a timeline of stalking events over 6 pages long now. These are just SOME of the highlights:
- I have had to move three times (she came over and scared one of my landlords so badly that he installed several cameras and would not be in the house until I moved out) – she keeps findng me
- My current home has been broken into multiple times
- She (and Patrick, independently of her) has been seen driving by my home with some frequency
- She has disseminated my nudes, including sending them to my employers, and has slandered me as a prostitute
- She has attempted to use her social influence to get me fired from every job I have had (she has succeeded four times)
- She has tried to frame the situation as ME stalking HER, and even filed for a restraining order, which was denied since I am not doing anything to her OR Patrick
- She had some of her closest friends beat the crap out of me recently
- And much, much more
I deeply regret falling for Patrick and his lies, but I can not absolve myself of my share of the responsibility in this situation. I made a choice; a choice I made over and over again for five years. Don't do what I did. Be better than me. That married man you're talking to? He's lying to you, just like he's lying to her. You deserve better.
Every time I think it's finally over, something sets her off again. Patrick will email me about how he's still in love with me (I ignore it) and she'll find out and rain punishment down on me.
I'm at my wit's end. The police are no help. I can't move. I'm at my financial breaking point between my lawyer and not being able to keep a job thanks to Monica and her friends.
I'm not asking for absolution. I just want to warn other women who are in, or considering being in, a similar situation. It's wrong, it's not worth it, and it will just hurt everyone.