*sigh* i can't tell anyone i know about this...so i'm throwing it out there to you guys for a little advice. My bf and i have been together on and off for 8 years, but living together and serious for the past 3 solid. We are both in our early 40s. He was a baseball player for 16 years, retired for the past 3...but you can imagine the number of women that have been in his life while he played...girl in every port so to speak. He has been fully committed to me since we moved in together 3 years ago...that i know. He moved to the small California town I live in...doesn't really have a whole lot of friends...doesn't have a car or a job (unfortunately). He HAS decided to go back to school online to better his job opportunities and i am completely supportive of that.

So here is the dilema...the other day, while i was cleaning a virus off his computer, i found, in the recycle bin, pics of a girl he used to see...naked pics...taken about 4 months ago. When i asked him about them, at first he lied and said he didn't know who it was, when i was like, "come ON"...he 'fessed up. His explanation was that she said she was "feeling fat and wanted an opinion"...(needless to say, she is 5'11 about 120 with 36DD boobs...basically perfect, and i am FAR from that). This woman lives 3000 miles away, literally on the other side of the country...so i KNOW he isn't messing around with her. He told me the only contact he had with her was when he replied and said, "that doesn't look fat to me"...i was FURIOUS!! i couldn't believe that was his response. He swears up and down that it was nothing, he doesn't talk or text with her and he loves me no matter what i look like. i explained to him that my self esteem is already in the toilet and now he just made me feel worse. He apologized profusely and said he would never have contact with her again. Needless to say, i feel like poop...i can't stop thinking about it, and now i hate myself even more. So, do i tell him to pack his bags, or do i forgive and move on?? What would you guys do??

It's really hard to say, given that no one knows him, or the real circumstances except for you.

I've been in a similar situation, and even though he wasn't "physically" cheating, it still hurts when their mind is somewhere else.

Just make sure you are not over looking the signs, because love is blind. I did, and I stayed too long because of that. I could have gotten out at least a year earlier, if I had been honest with myself and my instincts.

I'd say, just follow your heart, an keep a close eye on what's really going on. Be honest with yourself and don't trick yourself, cause it's just a waste of time. Time that you'll want back later.

If you know him well enough, and you think without doubting that he's really telling the truth, then you should move on. But only if that's true.

From an outsider's view, either 1). he was just bored (or being nice to her) and he's really not trying to be like that. or 2). this is signs of things to come, and you should be really careful.

This is not my business, and none of us can really help you. I'm just replying cause I know I've often needed a sounding board and someone to tell me what I already know. It helped me for it to sink in.

How the H*** did she have his email/contact info?
People that break up and don't fool around change those things after relationships. I find this an awful problem with some of my friends too. They keep contact info and fool around to boost self-esteem, or to feel like they are superior and cool, or to check out once in a while if mr or mrs ex is interested in some flirt.
Most times it doesn't even end up physical, but the fuss they do over ex people is both damaging to them and new relationships.
Throw old baggage away imo. New relatonships will have enough probs without them
Tell your bf clearly he should cut ties completely and that it wasn't healthy for your relationship that you had to ask him to do it 3 full years after moving in together.

He should have never replied to her. period. Who cares if he was just being nice. You're not supposed to be nice to your ex unless you have children together. She sent them for attention, and he replied for options.

I would not let strangers on the internet decide your relationship. Your decision has to come from what you know about your bf. Is he basically trustworthy and this was a dramatic error in judgement, or is he dishonest and hopelessly stupid to the core.

I don't see it as a question of whether you choose to believe him or leave him - it's deciding whether you do believe him. If you believe him, then the relationship is salvageable. If you do not believe him, then you have to decide whether the relationshp is worth salvaging. If you don't know whether or not you can believe him, if you don't already know in your gut whether he's trustworthy, then you have a bigger problem and have to decide whether the trust is worth building or rebuilding. Do you repair the relationship or move on... only you can decide (and counseling could help).

If this is an abberation, I think you can move on, if he's just an insensitive idiot, maye not.

For a somewhat different perspective, I could see my husband doing exactly this, and it would be totally innocent (after all if the pics were in his recycle bin, it would mean he had discarded them, showing how little he valued them). The one difference is that he'd probably tell me about it. He'd probably even laugh and call me over to show me how ridiculous this woman was being (and how stupid he'd think she was to send anyone nude pics over the internet). But then again, if I weren't home when he got it, he'd probably forget to tell me about it, because it wouldn't a big deal to him.

My husband is facebook friends with a couple of his ex girl friends, and the man draws women like flies. Even though I'm married to him, and love him dearly, sometimes I don't get it - On the surface he's not a great catch, he's as overweight as I am, graying, disabled, not a flashy dresser, clearly doesn't have a lot of money, and has diabetes and a genetic bone disease that is crippling him more and more, and yet he practically has to beat the women off with a stick).

He just has a very charismatic personality. He's loud, funny and friendly to everyone including women who are interested in him. Sometimes women will even flirt with him in front of me, thinking I'm no threat to them. I find it amusing because I am confident that he wants me and only me. He could work in a strip club (when he was younger, he did though that was before he met me) and I'd still be confident that he was interested only in me because he'd be a fool not to, and I wouldn't be with a fool.

This past Halloween at a Halloween party at a friend's bar, two women had to show my husband their tattoos, the second clearly trying to "outdo" the other as her tattoo was in a questionable location to flash in a bar room full of strangers. That he was dressed as a Monk was a little creepy, but supposedly some women have a thing for Santa too, who knew?

My husband does nothing to encourage or discourage these women, because they're not important enough for him to waste the effort either way.

If he wanted a bimbette, he could have one, but I'm not threatened by that. I don't share and my husband knows that. We even have a joke, because so many of our female friends are so jealous of their husbands and bf's that they practically never let them out of their sight. I don't do that. If I can't trust a person, I'd rather be alone.

I joke to hubby "No cheap whores," and he says "what qualifies as a cheap whore?"

And I say "if you can afford her, she's a cheap whore."

So he says "what about free whores," and I say "Definitely no free whores."

So he says "what if she's not a whore" and I say "if you're ever interested, have her fill out an application, and I'll review it."

It's become such a joke, that whenever I see some young, dumb chickie flirting with him, I'll joke about the "application process."



I know this seems shocking to many people (some of our most straight-laced friends are horrified by the joke), but if I didn't trust my husband I wouldn't be with him. Nor would I be with him if I didn't know that I had more to offer than any woman - whether it be a stranger or or one of his ex's (even the one who was and still is a mega-hotty, though she's also a basket case so I agree with my husband that she's might be pretty, but pretty isn't interesting for very long when there's nothing else there).

I used to find small but devastating things like this with my ex-husband. Little tidbits that were never blatantly "cheating", but things that hurt me and made me doubt that I should be trusting him. I put up with it because we had 2 small children, and I could not bring myself to take them away from their father based solely on my suspicions.

You've been with this person for a long time, I can understand your dilemma.

Is this the only time something like this has happened? If so, it may genuinely be a fluke. He can't stop people from trying to contact him, nor can he stop them from sending him inappropriate pictures.

He CAN, however, NOT respond. By responding he is willfully encouraging further flirtation on both sides.

When you're with someone for a long time, flirtation happens...usually on both sides. It can be innocent and never go anywhere, but nudity is not part of that innocent equation. Smiling at or checking out someone you think is cute, a friendly conversation...those are innocent things that can be normal and never lead to a betrayal.

If this woman genuinely wanted an opinion as to whether she was "fat", she could have asked anyone that question with her clothes on. As an adult with a functioning brain this man should have known that all by himself. He knew it was wrong and that you'd be hurt by it, which is why he did not tell you when it happened.

Relationships CAN last beyond issues like this. The real question is whether or not you believe that this is the only issue, and whether or not you think he is worth taking the chance of getting hurt again.

This one occurrence is easy to take out of context, you've been with the guy for years. Only you know the answer to those questions.

Don't settle for a jackass. If you think he is headed towards something better in life than living off of you, and that this was an isolated incident and he truly respects and loves you otherwise - then it is worth taking a risk and fixing this. Does he bring anything to the table that benefits you?

Kaplods, you basically took what I would have said almost right out of my life/mouth/typing fingers. To me, this wouldn't be cause for a serious relationship breakdown, though I do think that if he is the kind of person you can trust that maybe you guys can just have a discussion about it. If you believe him, you do. If not, you'll have to go from there. I wouldn't be with a person I didn't trust-and if this happened with my hubby, I would probably think nothing of it until I saw something that was really indicative of a loss of trust. It isn't that I don't think your concerns are unfounded, but I do think that it probably is not as bad a situation as you might be telling yourself it is.

In eight years of being together and three years of living togethers you have discovered naked pictures of an ex in the recycle bin? You have a single data point. You can't even draw a straight line with a single point of data let alone establish any kind of pattern.

My opinion is that you take the guy for his word. Granted his story is lame but that probably means he is telling the truth.

Every single shred of evidence you have provided says to me he wants to be with you. He has apologized. You need to accept it and move on.

Really? You change your contact information (even email) because you break up with somebody? NO WAY!

Kaplods, I laughed so hard about the application process.

Ahem. What can we tell from the VERY outside through the internet-colored glasses?

You've been in a long-term relationship. Everything so far has been good. Except this one minor (major) blip.

Was he dumb to even reply? You bet. He was clearly not thinking. But, as others have pointed out, he even tossed the photos in his garbage bin.

He says he feels bad and has apologized. You know what he's like when he feels bad. You know what he's like when he apologizes. Does it seem sincere to you? Do you believe him?

If you believe him, then it's your choice to forgive him and take steps to move on (making sure he realizes what's appropriate and what's not)...or to not forgive him and make steps to move away.

If you don't believe him that's a whoooole different process.

Of course I would. Interesting people will get my new one, people that do not interest me don't. Simple, clean and clear. I meet tons of people every day, I can't possibly carry old baggage around.

That said I never let down friends and people I know need me or care for me.

I just don't understand this very well. When you go through a breakup, you change your phone number, address, email, etc? That's a little excessive, to say the least.


Lovely is right on. If this incident cements something you've thought/feel or if it isn't an isolated event, it's a sign of a much bigger problem. If it's the only time you've ever really felt that he's hiding something from you, then forgive him and move on.

I've had the same email address for over 10 years. I got married last year and even though my email address has my maiden name as part of it, I'm still not changing it.

Unless it's some kind of psycho break up, changing your email every time you break up is kinda silly to me.

I agree! I am not changing a thing! That is very excessive in my opinion.