real life

Seven people who cheated on their significant other reveal why they did it.

Anyone who gets cheated on by a partner is ultimately left pondering one soul-destroying question: WHY?

Thankfully, there are now answers.

Seasoned swindlers have flocked to Reddit (bless their cotton socks!) to save you long nights spent rambling a string of expletives at the wall. And their reasons for infidelity are, well, interesting.

1. Thinking free zone.

According to GenitalDiddler (really? I mean… really?), cheating wasn’t something that involved much thinking.

“No logic here,” he wrote. “I was 17 there was a girl naked on a bed saying ‘come f*ck me’. So I did. Wasn’t right, but I wasn’t thinking either.”

It hurts my soul to tell you this, but more than 3000 people agreed; their decision to cheat was simply impulsive, too.

If you’re in a relationship, is it okay to get a drink alone with a member of the opposite sex without telling your partner? The Mamamia Out Loud team discuss. Post continues after audio.

2. Wasn’t ready.

According to Damien_neimad, people cheat because they’ve committed to a relationship they’re not ready for.

“I shouldn’t have been in a relationship in the first place as I wanted to f*ck every decent looking girl I met,” he wrote, continuing: “And if they were up for it, then we went at it.”

Don’t fret, though, because good ol’ Damo says he’s “done with all that now.”

3. Vanilla sex life.

A boring bedroom repertoire is the reason SombraBianca says he cheated.

“We had been slowly falling out of love and turning into roommates that occasionally rubbed privates together,” he said.

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“There was a lot of talk about spicing it up in the bedroom but by her own admission, she’s pretty vanilla and didn’t want to wrap her head around the idea of other positions besides missionary and her being on top.”

Frustrated by the lack of action he was getting from his girlfriend, this Redditor says an attractive coworker came along at the worst possible time. (Poor him.)

“I had been training a very attractive and smart woman at work who noticed I was having a hard time one day and I spilled everything out to her at lunch. A few more weeks of shameless flirting between the both of us culminated in an incredible night in a hotel room.”

While he broke up with his girlfriend the next day, SombraBianca decided to never tell her what really went down the night before.

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"A few more weeks of shameless flirting between the both of us culminated in an incredible night in a hotel room." (Image: Universal Pictures)

4. A lack of attention.

One Redditor cheated after 16 years of marriage. Why? Because her husband refused to be intimate with her.

"Every night I would beg him for sex, every night he would make some excuse not to," she wrote. "He would then masturbate to pornography, while I lay in our room trying to figure out why I wasn't enough."

The best way she can put it, is this: "I was starving."

"Every 10-12 months he would give in and we would have sex. Other than these times there was so physical touching. No hugs. No kisses, no hand holding."

After years of rejection in bed, she looked elsewhere for affection.

"It only happened once, but it taught me some really valuable lessons, and gave me the courage to leave this sexually, financially and physically abusive marriage." (Post continues after gallery.)

5. Long distance took its toll.

ThrownAway says the geographical space between her and her boyfriend made them grow apart emotionally.

"He moved for his career, I was supposed to follow once I figured my shit out," she explained.

"I hadn't seen him in six months, he rarely wanted to Skype or talk on the phone, he didn't want to come back to visit me, and I'd always be the one to text him first."

Becoming frustrated by the lack of communication, ThrownAway struck up a friendship with a new guy she had feelings for.

"There was so much mental and physical chemistry. We'd communicate a lot, he always wanted to hang out but I'd tell him no. It wasn't until I reached my breaking point, where I hadn't heard from my boyfriend in a week, that I went over to hang out with him. That's when we ended up hooking up.

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"Do I regret cheating? Yeah. I broke off our relationship the next week out of guilt, but I never told him why. I should've ended it well before that point, considering I was falling out of love."

6. It was a cycle.

Gilga-Mosh had a marriage where cheating was featured on the menu, he says.

"The was a cycle we followed for years," he said. "Cheat, get caught, make amends, be happy, dead bedroom, cheat."

A disparity in sex drives meant Gilga-Mosh cheated on his spouse in any way he could - "park sex, car sex, elevator machinery closet, bathrooms" - which drove them even further apart.

"I got selfish. I got desperate. I would flirt and sell myself to other desperate lonely people. Anything to just feel desired."

Surprisingly, the husband and wife are still together today, but they're doing things very differently.

"We went non-monogamous some years back and it's been a real boon overall."

7. I don't know why...

"There wasn't any logic," said one Redditor.

"I was drunk and didn't stop the advances of another girl. I had never been so happy than in my prior relationship. Never felt so loved and loved someone so much.

"I gave up everything in a split second..."

Ouch.

Have you cheated on a S.O.? Let us know why in the comments...