Many people have openly shared their experiences of knowing when it was time to divorce and why they proceeded with it. However, have you ever considered those who regret their decision? In older Reddit threads, individuals who regretted their divorces shared their stories, offering unexpected perspectives. Here are some compelling responses:
1. “Not me, but an elderly gentleman I knew divorced his first wife when their daughter was 8. He later remarried and had a son. He once confided that if given the chance to redo his life, he would have avoided that divorce. Despite loving his current wife and son, he admitted, ‘No matter the challenges in my first marriage, losing them wasn’t worth the pain it caused my daughter.'”
—u/autumn_skies
2. “I cheated on him, believing it was the end and I needed to ‘punish’ myself. Although he was willing to work through it, I thought the damage was irreparable and sought happiness elsewhere. Later, I discovered my actions stemmed from depression and regretted it immensely. I acknowledge the consequences are deserved, and living with this regret is my biggest challenge. Despite his forgiveness, I struggle to forgive myself.”
—u/CatsyKat
3. “Initially, I thought the marriage wasn’t salvageable and that I had fallen out of love. Looking back, I realize our struggles were due to similar mental health issues. Post-psychiatric treatment, I improved while she deteriorated. Following our divorce and her treatment, she reverted to the person I initially fell for. Despite attempts to reconcile, our relationship irreversibly declined due to our mental health disparities. The guilt of not being there for her haunted me, but I’ve since found happiness and learned valuable lessons from the experience.”
—Anonymous
4. “I initiated the divorce due to unhappiness; we both felt like strangers evolving into unrecognizable individuals. Regular conflicts led me to spend more time away, which made me feel better. It’s been 18 months since I left, and I miss him daily. While I’m uncertain if I regret my decision, I wish I had exerted more effort.”
—u/msmthrowaway101
5. “A friend’s ex deeply regretted the divorce. In a nutshell, she compelled him to move in with her parents under the guise of ‘financial difficulties.’ They ended up bearing the parents’ rent, and he was cut off.”
Basically, it’s like paying the entire rent for a house just to use one of its four bedrooms. It turned out that the parents were also deceiving everyone — they began going on extravagant vacations because they no longer had to pay their mortgage. As time went on, the parents started interfering in their relationship, and things took a turn for the worse. She began working long hours and essentially ignored the guy during the final two years of their relationship before serving him with divorce papers.
Around six months after the divorce was finalized, she started feeling regretful about ending things and resorted to stalking him on social media. Meanwhile, the guy, who was no longer pouring 75% of his income into someone else’s mortgage, had treated himself to a new car, a new motorcycle, was living in a relaxed house, and had found a new girlfriend. Naturally, she became envious and attempted to win him back. However, he straightforwardly told her, “I don’t engage in childish games. It’s time to move on.”
“I’ve thought about it this way: Both of us wish the circumstances were different. We regret that things have turned out this way. But I don’t believe that in the future, I will look back and consider this a mistake. Our relationship was toxic, and we couldn’t come to an agreement on what a healthy one entailed. Living in such misery was unbearable — hence the decision to divorce.”
“Not my story, but that of my cousin. He has always carried himself as holier-than-thou, and no one faulted her for wanting to leave him. He had a habit of constantly…
