1. This woman felt like her boyfriend was just too controlling.
“I had a very controlling boyfriend. But for a while, I let him get away with it because he was supporting me and he was bringing home the big bucks. However, one night, he decided to throw a party and he invited his friends over for dinner. So I slaved away at the kitchen and prepared a really big meal for everyone. After dinner was over, we were all lounging around the living room and having wine.
Out of the blue, my boyfriend tells me that I need to get out and start on cleaning the dishes. And in my mind, I thought that I had done enough work for that night – and the least he could do was help me with the dishes. However, I still told him that I wanted to rest for a bit and that I would get to it later on. He snapped and he told me to get on them RIGHT AWAY. And that’s when I had enough. I realized that I deserved to be treated better. That night, I moved out and tried to find my own way. I haven’t seen him since.” – Anna, 35
2. She felt betrayed when he didn’t want to have sex with her anymore after she gave birth.
“Of course, I was very happy with him at the start. And one thing leads to another and boom, I was pregnant with his child. And at first, we thought that it was only one child. But nope. Life surprised us with twins. And I was bearing his children. He was very supportive of me throughout the pregnancy. And I felt incredibly lucky to have him. He was always there for me whenever I needed him. And I was fairly sure that my future children would have a great father. Eventually, I gave birth and we took the twins home. We lived fairly stressful lives at that time – as any new parents would.
But we still tried to make the best out of it. However, I felt like I was losing him a little bit. I felt like he was becoming more and more distant. And so one night, I decided to try to get intimate with him. And then he tells me that he wasn’t in the mood. He didn’t want to say why at first but I kept on prodding until he let the truth out. And it was ugly. He told me that he didn’t want to have sex with me because my body changed so much during pregnancy that he found me unattractive. It broke my heart, but I knew that I needed to end it there. It turns out he was only in the relationship for the way I looked. And when all that changed, he didn’t want to be with me anymore.” – Elsa, 41
3. This girl wanted to have children but her boyfriend didn’t.
“When we were first dating, I was totally taken aback by him. I was a schoolgirl with a helpless crush. And I knew that he was the man I wanted to be spending the rest of my life with. Fortunately enough, he was interested in me too. And so we dated and we fell in love. We went through all the basic stages that couples go through. We talked about ourselves and the plans that we had for our futures.
And we also broached the topic of family and children. He said that he didn’t want to have any kids. I was unsure how I felt about that and I really didn’t make a big fuss about it because of how in love I was with him. But then, a few years down the line. I started looking at all of my friends and they were starting to have kids in their relationships. I asked him if he wanted to try it with me, but he says that his position was still the same. And that’s when I knew that we just weren’t meant to be together after all.” – Jamie, 29
4. This guy just rubbed her family the wrong way.
“I was completely naïve to think that I would be able to make a relationship work without getting my family’s approval first. Of course, I was young and in love. I had a boyfriend and I was desperate to spend the rest of my life with him. I was sure of it. I was sure that I would put him above anything else in my life. I didn’t want anything to get in the way of our relationship. But then he met my side of the family and there seemed to have been a mutual disliking. And I later went on to realize that it was so stressful having to take sides and I needed to cut ties with one of them – and it wasn’t my family.” – Charmaine, 25
