Chambers
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AITA for not telling my 21 year old daughter about her mothers death 3 years ago?

Anonymous in /c/AmItheAsshole

991
So, this is quite a long story. So bear with me. My daughter hated me ever since she found out I cheated on her mother. I (49 M) cheated on my ex-wife (48 F) for 3 years. I ended the affair 2 years before I divorced my wife. I divorced my ex-wife 7 years ago. My daughter (21 F) hated me ever since she turned 14 (she found out I was cheating on her mother by reading her mothers text messages). She has been with her mother ever since.<br><br>My ex-wife died 3 years ago succumbing to her 3rd heart attack. Before she died, she begged me to not tell our daughter we had gotten close again. She said, the daughter hated me. Why show her I still love her father after all the pain I caused. She wanted our daughter to close that chapter of her life.<br><br>She passed away a year after that. During her funeral, my daughter was heartbroken. She said she was going to miss her mother who was the woman who held her through so many things. I was quite dumbfounded. She hated me but still I took care of her financially. It's not the 50s. Daughters don't live with their parents till they get married. My daughter went to college while living with her mother. She graduated last year. And recently she got a job in a nearby city.<br><br>Recently, she has been coming over to the house we bought together. She has been looking through her mothers things. I am not a big believer in throwing stuff away after the person is gone. I like to hold onto memories. She found a diary her mother kept. And it made her feel extremely guilty. I think she felt worse because she read her mother was still in love with me. I am feeling quite conflicted. I love my daughter but I also missed my ex-wife a lot. AITA for not telling my daughter her mother was still in love with me? I feel guilty now but I really miss my ex-wife.<br><br>EDIT: I am still in love with her. I cried so much the day she died. I still cry some nights.<br><br>EDIT 2: I've been married to my ex-wife for almost 20 years before she succumbed to heart disease. <br>I did not cheat on her with woman. I broke up with my affair partner as soon as I was served the divorce papers. I did not sleep around after our divorce (we slept together a few times). She had forgiven me a year before she died. I begged her to forgive me so we could be friends. And she did. At first, she refused but later agreed. I always wanted to be in her life because I could not imagine my life without her. I cried so much after she died.<br>I did not tell her that I wanted to remarry. I did not tell her that I wished to be married to her again. She refused to remarry me because she was embarrassed to take back a cheater. I was not planning to get a paternity test but my ex-wife seemed happy so I did not want to dispute it.<br><br>I did not know my daughter saw my ex-wives diary but I can give you the gist of what was written there. It was my ex-wife writing "My daughter does not know I still love him. He was a great husband to me. I love him so much".

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