“You’re trying to break up my marriage”: 38-year-old woman accuses husband’s ex of ruining her opportunity to mother her stepchildren, despite them not liking her

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Briana Viser • Writer and Editor
Mar 8, 2025 3:00 PM EST

Jealousy can drive someone mad. It's one of the worst feelings in the world. It's a horrible mixture of pain, anger, fear, and insecurity. For people who marry and divorce, it's natural that most would want to remarry and find love again. This could create some tense situations at times, considering most people have children and therefore have to have some semblance of a relationship with their ex husband or wife. 

For the jealous type, this may not bode well for them. Having to see their partner's ex at functions, holidays, or know that they have to work things out together either face to face, on the phone, or in therapy can be painful. Some people are fine with it, and feel it's beautiful and exploratory to find out about their partner's past. I for one love to know everything about them. It makes me feel closer to them, and I absolutely don't mind the idea that they loved before me. I did too, and it makes me happy that they had that experience. 

In the story below, the protagonist is a woman in the middle of a situation with her ex-husband's current wife. But you'll have to read the full story below for all the juicy details.

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  • 01

    AITA getting my ex in trouble during therapy with me and his current wife?

    Cheezburger Image 10476745728
    via Prostock-Studio from Getty Images / Canva

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    My ex-husband (40m) and I (36f) share three kids (12f, 11f and 9m). Since our divorce my ex has remarried. His wife Janie (38f) has two of her own kids (13m, 7m) who she has full custody of. So they've made a very blended family. I have a partner (43m) myself now but we don't live together or anything so he's not directly involved here.
    via u/Quirky_Ad4132
  • 03
    The problem is my kids dislike Janie, my girls more so, and they feel like she tries to play their mom and push me out. They have mentioned specific incidents which led me to address the concerns with my ex and after a while of this it strained things between me and them (ex and Janie). They told me they didn't believe me and said I must be the
    via u/Quirky_Ad4132
  • 04
    reason the kids were causing trouble at their house. They never specified what this trouble was. At one point after things got bad my ex admitted to me that the kids had complained about the same things to him regarding Janie and he wasn't telling her.
    via u/Quirky_Ad4132
  • 05
    This landed us back in court and into therapy together for co- parenting.
    via u/Quirky_Ad4132
  • 06
    In our therapy sessions Janie complained about me and said she feels like I refuse to accept she's also now a mom to my kids and wants to ruin it by making up complaints. She said anything the kids say isn't real and is just kids trying to stir sh with the adults. During the discussion about this I brought up my ex and how the kids complained to him also and
    via u/Quirky_Ad4132

  • Why does the new mother always want to take over motherhood? Stepsiblings can stay in the realm of being stepsiblings, and it doesn't mean you can't form a close bond or connection. Take this woman for example. She also has children of her own from another marriage. Would she like if her ex-husband married a woman who was nearly trying to take her children from her?

  • 07
    he told me as much. This started a fight off between my ex and Janie. It derailed the session because they walked out to deal with their marital issues.
    via u/Quirky_Ad4132
  • 08
    My ex is ped at me for throwing him under the bus like that. I defended myself but he said I could have approached the rebuttal differently. Janie accused me of trying to break up her marriage and being a part of stirring sh between everyone. AITA?
    via u/Quirky_Ad4132
  • 09
    timorouscapp • 10h ago NTA. Your kids' feelings should be the priority here, and if they are consistently expressing discomfort about Janie, that deserves to be taken seriously. It's concerning that your ex dismissed their concerns until it became a bigger issue.
    via u/timorouscapp
  • 10
    Cheezburger Image 10476744704
    via Kaspars Grinvalds / Canva

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 11
    Janie seems more focused on claiming a "mom" role rather than listening to how the kids actually feel. A stepparent should earn that place through respect and trust, not force it. The fact that your ex finally admitted the kids were telling him the same things but hid it from
    via u/timorouscapp
  • 12
    Janie says a lot he likely knew she wouldn't take it well, which is exactly what happened in therapy.
    via u/timorouscapp
  • 13
    You didn't "ruin" anything. You just told the truth, and it's not your fault that it exposed cracks in their marriage. Keep advocating for your kids, and hopefully, therapy will help them realize they need to actually listen instead of dismissing their feelings.
    via u/timorouscapp
  • 14
    Glittering Vamp • 10h ago Sounds like your ex- husband and his new wife need their own therapy sessions, yikes. And here I thought my in-laws were the only ones who needed constant mediation.
    via u/GlitteringVamp
  • 15
    SignificantOrange... • 9h ago She said anything the kids say isn't real, and is just trying to stir sh with the adults. My aunties ex-wife used to say sh like this all the time.
    via u/SignificantOrange139
  • 16
    She was never wrong because all children but especially teenagers are psychotic narcissists. From the mouth of the bipolar drug addict nurse who lost her job stealing meds from patients. Why? Because I had the audacity to hide an unopened chocolate bar in
    via u/SignificantOrange139
  • 17
    my room when her youngest (sweet kid despite his mom) was going through a sticky fingers phase.
    via u/SignificantOrange139
  • 18
    Cheezburger Image 10476746752
    via Yuganov Konstantin / Canva

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 19
    NTA. People like this do not care for reality. Only their perception. You did not get him in trouble. He lied to his wife through intentional omission and you did not owe him secrecy. In fact, given the court ordered therapy, it was important that the truth came out.
    via u/SignificantOrange139
  • 20
    You only owe your children your support and advocacy. Not your ex.
    via u/SignificantOrange139
  • 21
    III... 10h ago • Edited 7h ago Absolutely not. F that chick, she doesn't get to demand placement in your children's lives. Shes not mom, she's dad's wife. He can be p ed all he wants. but it's reality and he can put his Chihuahua on a leash before she gets hung by it
    via u/IllustriousKey4322

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family drama marriage drama family feud relationships jealousy lol exes love family reddit thread Reddit funny dating
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