Gina Heslop
A woman decided to leave her husband after discovering that he had been referring to her by a demeaning nickname in his texts to friends. The woman, who had been married for five years, shared her story on MamaMia.
She explained that the marriage was already strained because her husband was often absent, spending most of his time out with friends without telling her where he was going. Despite being the primary breadwinner, he contributed little to their family life, and she was left feeling unsupported, even having to ask her parents for money to help with his business.
She hoped things would change after they had a child, but her husband continued his old habits. He regularly went out on Fridays for long lunches that turned into night drinks, claiming these were for “networking.”
He also played sports every Thursday night without fail, showing no sign of wanting to be more involved in their family life. The woman tolerated this for a long time, hoping for change.
One Friday morning, while her husband was in the shower, his phone started pinging with messages. She decided to check it, thinking it might be something important.
To her shock, she found a text to his friends saying, “Don’t think I can make it tonight. SWMBO will say no.” Confused, she asked her husband what “SWMBO” meant. He casually replied that it stood for “She Who Must Be Obeyed.”
The woman felt deeply hurt by this. The nickname made her feel like he saw her as a controlling figure, similar to a strict parent, rather than his partner.
What hurt even more was that none of his friends seemed surprised by the abbreviation, suggesting that he had been using it for a long time. This made her realize that their relationship had become something far from what a marriage should be.
Feeling “mortified” by how he referred to her, the woman knew she couldn’t continue in the marriage.
She felt that her husband didn’t respect her, and she could no longer imagine having any kind of intimate relationship with him. She reflected on how, after ten years together and becoming the mother of his child, she deserved better than this.
Ultimately, she made the difficult decision to take her young son and leave her husband, knowing that she and her child deserved to be in an environment where they were valued and loved.
