14 Messy Breakup Stories No One Could Ever Predict

Breakups can be tough, but some are downright ugly. These 15 people went through incredibly messy breakups that left them shattered. From betrayals to heartbreaks, they’ve faced it all. Yet, through the pain, they found the strength to move forward, learning that even the worst breakups can eventually lead to healing and growth.

• Aunt and uncle go through fertility treatment for years. Aunt finally gets pregnant and has the baby. My uncle brings them home from the hospital to my grandparents’ house. Says ’Well I don’t want to hang around and get attached to this new baby, Bye.’ and leaves them both on the front porch. Aunt is dumbfounded. Apparently, my uncle had 3 young daughters in another state with another woman. © jdoe74 / Reddit
• I know someone who wanted to marry a guy and gave him an ultimatum. He countered, ’On New Year’s Eve I’ll flip a coin, heads we marry, tails we break up.’ Fast forward to NYE... he just breaks up with her, no coin toss. © Fait_Divers / Reddit
• Came back from a girls’ weekend with my sister and cousin to find the entire apartment empty. Everything was gone including most of my stuff. No note, no phone call, nothing. This was 8 months after getting married; turned out he wanted a divorce. © tashke / Reddit

• We dated for over a year and in the last couple months, he started texting less and he had this rule where I had to text first and get his “permission” to call him so if he wasn’t responding to texts, I couldn’t call at all. We were long(ish) distance and visiting was feasible, but it was about a two-hour drive plus I had to get his permission to visit first too, no surprise visits At All. We went from having a steady conversation throughout the day to a “good morning” text and small talk for a few minutes at night. Then one day, I texted “good morning” with no response. I messaged a couple times throughout the day with no response. I sent a “good morning” text the next day with no response at all. The next day, I asked if he was ok with no response. I waited to hear back but never did.
  Someone pointed out to me a few months later that, with all the rules and “permission” I needed, I was “the other woman” in his life. I’d never met his friends or family and we didn’t go on many public dates, maybe three total. That sucked to come to terms with but it was still easier to move on from than my ex-husband having another woman. © McSmashley / Reddit
• He proposed the night before he left on a 3-month work trip. Called me 2 days later from an airport to tell me he changed his mind about getting married, was extending his work contract to 7 months, and he’d never be returning to where we lived. He sent his parents to pick up all his things a week later. © SpiritualCoconut8 / Reddit
• Friend of mine broke up with his gf of 2.5 years, while on a plane, to a wedding, in which she only knew him. They shared the hotel room for 3 days and sat next to each other on the flight back. © Unknown author / Reddit

• Didn’t happen to me but a girl I dated: she dated a dude for 5–7 years, can’t remember. She put her dude through a PhD program, paid all bills, etc... In the end, he gets a job overseas, she drops him off at the airport, and as she’s pulling out of the airport; he sends her a breakup text. © 9t3n / Reddit
• I have 2 bad ones. First, he had his mom call me. Second one, we dated for 3 years & the whole time he told me he didn’t want kids. I finally got on board with the idea of never being a mother.
  Less than 2 months later, he called me to break up because he was marrying a woman he knocked up with whom he had been cheating on me. Skip ahead 30 years... he’s a father of 4 and divorced, and 3 of the 4 kids have gone no contact with him. © readingreddit4fun / Reddit
• On my 40th birthday at dinner. My then-girlfriend took me out to dinner on my birthday. I was confused as to why there were no family and friends present. Then she broke it off and I understood why. © deedubfry / Reddit

• Suddenly he wasn’t leaving his family’s house and no one was allowed to talk to him via phone, so I showed up at their house asking to see him. Instead, his grandma sat me down at the kitchen table and broke up with me for him. He then proceeded to stop talking to all of us because his family decided we were bad for him. © lilchileah77 / Reddit
• My boyfriend and I were long-distance. I paid for him to fly down and visit me for two weeks. On the second or third day of his visit, my grandfather passed away. I was an absolute emotional wreck. The next day he broke up with me on account of being an emotional rollercoaster, then got angry when I said he couldn’t stay with me the rest of the visit. He then claimed he didn’t mean what he’d said about breaking up, then promptly broke up with me again as soon as he was back home. © here4theladies / Reddit
• When my ex-fiancee broke up with me, the actual break-up was just fine. It was the $1000 she demanded I put down on the reception hall a few days earlier that pissed me off. © macgabhain / Reddit

• Not me but a friend’s girlfriend “accidently” texted me a message breaking up with him. She was too big of a coward to do it in person or call him or even text him. So, she messaged me. That was a fun conversation to have with one of my best friends. Does that count? Technically she broke up with me but with him, right? © KingBrave1 / Reddit
• My brother’s girlfriend changed her relationship status to “in a relationship” with a different guy and I called him because I was shocked they had broken up and the same day she had moved on so quickly and I asked why they broke up and he replied with “we didn’t break up?” After he called her asking whats up she had the other guy answer the phone and tell my brother she was with him now and to back off. © shannonious / Reddit

Breakups can cost a lot of nerves and leave deep emotional scars that take time to heal. These wounds shape how we love and trust again. It’s okay to feel hurt, but every step forward — no matter how small — helps in healing and finding yourself again.