Burned by men, women vow to never love again

ANYONE who has been through heartbreak will tell you that there’s no pain that’s comparable, and while some people recover and are able to love again, others shut their hearts off for good.

Read the three stories below, and you may understand why these women were so hurt by men that they shut their hearts off forever.

Pauline, 35:

He got me and another woman pregnant at the same time, didn’t inform me until after I had his baby, and then suggested that I rent a house down the road from them, after he’d told me that he was choosing her because they were more compatible, but he wanted our daughter to know her father and wanted the kids to grow up together. All this — the confession, the suggestion, and the dumping — happened within two weeks of me giving birth. When I dared to protest, he said I was obviously suffering from post-partum depression, and later during our custody dispute, he accused me of having Munchausen syndrome by proxy, and was deliberating making my baby ill, because he didn’t want to contribute to her medical expenses. Oh, regarding the custody dispute, many months after his deception, when I regained my senses and moved in with my mother to try to gain my sanity back, he took me to court to try to get sole custody, and accused me of being a bad mother, and then presented himself, his new woman and their son as the perfect family, more capable of raising my daughter. It’s been 10 years, and I still hate him with every fibre of my being for what he did, and I will never let any man get close to me again.

Samantha, 27:

He cheated on me right throughout our relationship — it was so embarrassing when the neighbours told me that when I would go to visit my parents in the country on weekends, as soon as I left he would take other women to the house. But I stuck it out with him because I loved him. We had a son, and I thought that would make him calm down with the womanising, and it did for a while, but restarted. At one point I left with the baby and went to my parents for three months, and he begged me to come back, sat with my father and promised to honour me like a queen, bought me gifts, and promised that big things were in store for us as a couple. I moved back in and we were good for a while, and even had a second son. You know how I found out we were over? He posted his “wife” on his WhatsApp status, and thanked her for sticking with him through thick and thin. Turns out he was juggling the two of us all through our relationship, and her filing had come through, so now she could help him reach his goals. Dark is the word I’d used to describe my soul in the months after, before my friends helped me cope. Today I’m living only for my children, and I’m dating, but I’d never trust a man totally again.

Annie, 32:

We met on the hotel property where we were both vacationing — me with my girlfriends and him with some family members from overseas. We immediately hit it off, and after that weekend we started communicating, and eventually started a relationship. He said he wanted to take it slow as his last girlfriend had broken his heart, and of course I understood. He was this gorgeous man, but also had a soft, sensitive side. Premarital sex was off the table — he said we would “just get to know each other on a soul-level, and not complicate matters with lustful behaviours”. Anyway, I let him dictate the pace of things, and we courted for months, until one day he told me, out of the blue, that he wasn’t sure he wanted to be in a relationship. I was devastated, but I also understood that I was a rebound, and I respected his wishes and we both agreed to put things on pause so he could heal from his last break-up. But by the next week he was posting photos of him and my good friend on Instagram — one of the girls who had been on the trip! And to add to the pain that was consuming my heart, they had a long, happy relationship which lasted years. It still hurts to this day, even though they eventually broke up, because I’m not sure if he had liked me, or was only dating me to get close to my friend.