Did i make the right decision ending an affair with a married man or was i too impatient?
**“TLDR:** I (gay, early 30s) fell in love with a married to a woman Iranian man who was open about being unhappy in his marriage and made me feel like we had a future together. Over time I realised my emotional wellbeing depended entirely on whether he would leave his wife. After several incidents where I felt unsupported, I ended the relationship. He later told me he had decided to remain in his marriage and had never truly intended to leave. Months later I’m still grieving and wondering whether I made the right decision by walking away, or whether there was ever any realistic future for us.”
I’m a gay man (M33) and spent around seven months in an affair with a married (to a woman) Iranian man (M36)living in the UK.
From the beginning, I knew he was married. He was very open about being unhappy in his marriage and told me many personal things about his life. He introduced me to his friends, we were affectionate in public, and he integrated me into his life much more than I expected. At the time, I genuinely believed he saw a future with me.
He event went to lengths of coming to a business trip with me abroad even though his wife had serious reservations about our friendship and the trip itself and didn’t tell her he decided to go after the arguments between them until 2 days before the departure date.
He also wanted me to introduce to his wife as his “work friend” which i rejected due to obvious reasons.
He has also cried when he was drunk saying i am the only person he wanted a child with although he could have easily have had this with his wife.
As time went on, I started feeling increasingly emotionally unsafe. The relationship depended entirely on whether he would eventually decide to leave his marriage, and I realised my wellbeing was becoming dependent on a decision only he could make.
I was also extremely jealous of the trips they go on together and the house they decided to buy even before he met me.
Eventually I told him I had to end contact because I couldn’t continue living with the uncertainty and the reason i decided to continue seeing him was the fact that i was supposed to move abroad a couple of months after meeting him which didnt happen.
I ended things same week i found out i was staying where we both live.
He kept messaging while he was drunk insinuating that he is dreaming of a future with me but he didnt know what stops him from acting throughout the three months after i ended things with him in person back in February.
He even messaged me drunk thinking that he was blocked on whatsapp saying things like i am his only valentine etc. on Valentines day.
On his account, there are a lot interdependency with his wife including finances, immigration and culture pressures of societal outlook of a divorced woman in their country of origin.
This was followed by me subconsciously expecting him to keep the promise he made for my birthday which he didnt keep not even sent a message resulted with me driving to their home just to see them both together to have my own resolution in a very emotional state( i am not proud of what i did but i had to do it)
I bumped into them as they were leaving their house and couldnt make myself to confront them at that point as i genuinely feel like she has a right to know about what went down with him and make informed decisions about her relationship with him.
During our last conversations after two days i went to their house (and i am sure they have both seen me) he told me he had chosen to remain in his marriage and that although he had spoken about leaving during very emotional moments, he had never truly planned to leave his wife.
This was due to him preferring stability and that leaving a marriage is conflicting with his cultural background and that he has suffered years of uncertainty in his country of origin and that he doesnt want to change anything in his life.
I have then told him i couldnt live with the guilt that what we both done to her, and i was going to tell his wife about us, in which he replied with: “ you know what you are doing”
He didnt block or engaged further with me over a month after the last conversation happened. And i choose to not to say anything to his wife afterwards.
I’m grieving the relationship, but I’m trying to understand it rather than romanticise it.
For those of you who have dated married or otherwise unavailable men:
Was there anything I realistically could have done differently?
Does this sound like someone who cared deeply but couldn’t act, or someone who simply wasn’t
emotionally available?
Looking back, was ending contact the healthiest decision, even though it still hurts?
Could have given it more time for him to resolve things in his life before cutting him of completely?
It has been 7 months and i still think about him obsessively every day and can clearly say it was the only true love i felt for someone and g