Reddit Stories - DRAMATIC Twist Calling Off Wedding as Secret Kids APPROVED, But Not My Teen Daught

Episode Date: October 5, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #dramatic #twist #callingoffwedding #secretkids #teenageissues  Summary: A shocking twist in a relationship as secret kids are approved but a partner's ultimatum regarding the teen daughter leads to calling off the wedding. Is it right to prioritize a long-hidden family over one's own child?  Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, dramatic, twist, callingoffwedding, secretkids, teenageissues, ultimatum, familydrama, relationshipadvice, parenting, stepfamily, marriageproblems, moralquestion, difficultchoices, heartbreak, communicationissuesBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Cancelled my marriage ceremony after my partner covertly permitted children but prohibited my adolescent daughter and asserted it was due to my daughter spoiling our prenuptial celebration by falling ill. 38M was supposed to get married to Addison, 40F, earlier this week, but I cancelled it at the very last minute. We have been together for the past three years. We got engaged about six months ago and up until the engagement.

Everything was going fine. Things started going downhill when we started talking about who we wanted to be there at the wedding, and since I have a daughter, I wanted her to be there, but Addison made it very clear that she did not want any kids at the wedding. It was a weird stance, especially considering the fact that she has two children of her own from a previous marriage as well, and she also has six nieces and nephews who she is very close to. So I didn't understand why she didn't want any kids at the wedding, especially since all the people. that we had invited were also parents. We had a bunch of fights about it initially, but then, I gave in and I told her that as long as she was not going to invite any kids from her side of the

family, I was fine with keeping my daughter away from the wedding. And for the record, my daughter is not even a little kid, she is 14 years old, but that did not make any difference to Addison. She told me that she didn't want any exceptions and as much as she adored my daughter, her own kids, and even her nibblings, she wanted a stress-free wedding and she didn't want to offend anybody with kids, so she was keeping all kids out. I was quite upset about it, but if she wanted a child-free wedding so bad, I figured that I wouldn't be able to do anything about it since she had already made up her mind. Besides, the wedding itself was going to be pretty small, we were literally getting married in my parents' backyard with just a couple of our friends and family attending.

So I figured that the kids wouldn't be missing out on anything too much fun and I was fine with her decision until a couple of days before the wedding. That was when I found out that while she had told everybody else that this was going to be a child-free wedding, she was still going to have her own kids and her nibblings at the wedding. I was at work when I received an email from her younger sister Kate and it was just a bunch of photos of her two daughters dressed in wedding appropriate clothes and she was basically asking for approval. I was confused for a couple of seconds until I noticed that Kate had sent that email to our joint email address that we had created specifically for wedding-related communications so guests could RSVP and other stuff, like for vendors, and all that. I knew it must have been an accident, but it was too late, I'd already taken a screenshot. I had already seen the email since I was taking a break and they got unlucky with the timing. A couple of minutes later, after I had put two and two together and figured out, what was going on, I tried to check the email again, but of course, by then, Addison had deleted

it already. I was furious about what she was trying to do, but when I got back home that day from work, I didn't say anything. I pretended like everything was fine and initially, she was acting a bit strange, probably out of fear that I might have read that email and figured things out, but when I didn't give anything away, she got normal as well. This was about two days before the wedding and I knew that she was up to something behind my back, so I decided to speak to my daughter about how she felt regarding Addison. I had had the talk with her earlier as well, even before I had proposed, but I thought that it would be better to talk to her again because by then I was having serious second thoughts about the wedding. And I'm lucky that I did make that

decision because when I spoke to my daughter, she told me that before the engagement, Addison had always been very nice to her whenever they met, but after the engagement, something had definitely shifted. My daughter told me that she hadn't spoken about it to me because she would see that I was really happy with Addison and she did not want to ruin that, but after the engagement, Addison started behaving weirdly with her because every time that she would visit, Addison would behave very differently when I was not around. According to my custody arrangement, I'm supposed to have my daughter for half the month and that's a pretty significant chunk of time. And from what she has told me, apparently,

Addison would switch on the charm whenever I would come back home from work, but for the rest of the time, she would totally ignore my daughter and that hadn't been the case before the engagement. It was really bizarre hearing about it. And then when my daughter told me that when she was told that Addison wanted a child-free wedding, she figured that she probably didn't want her in her life that much anymore. And so she didn't even fight for it. I felt really disappointed in myself for even allowing Addison to walk all over me and talking me into my. not inviting my own daughter to my wedding. And that was when I decided to cancel this wedding. I spoke to Addison just the day before the wedding and I decided not to bother going back home that day. Addison tried to contact me several times, but I didn't respond and I knew that she would contact my parents next,

so I instructed them to tell her that I would see her on the day of the wedding itself. And instead of going back home that day, I just spent the entire day with my daughter because I felt like I really needed to make up for all this. By the end of the day, both of us felt significantly better, and after dropping her back at her mom's place, I crashed in a hotel room and went straight to my parents' place the next morning with just an hour to go before the ceremony was supposed to begin. When I showed up, I could see that a couple of people had already arrived, including my in-laws

and both of Addison's sisters, Kate and Amelia. And unsurprisingly, even their kids were with them, all six. of Kate and Amelia's children and even Addison's two kids were there, running about because all of them were under 12. When she saw me, Addison rushed to greet me at the door and started explaining that, even though she had specified it to Amelia and Kate that this was going to be a child-free wedding, they still couldn't leave the kids behind and so, we would have to accommodate them along with her children, since in spite of her instructions. Her parents believed that it would be weird to get married without her own kids. She was coming up with a bunch of

ridiculous explanations and I could tell that she thought I was mad, but I didn't even say anything until she was done talking. And then, she started asking me about why I was dressed, where I had been the previous night and stuff. I just laughed in her face, brought out my phone and showed her a screenshot of that email that Kate had accidentally sent to the joint email account and that was enough to shut her up. She knew instantly that she was caught, there was no talking her way out of this, so she just started apologizing, but it was too late. I told her that I had spent the previous day with my daughter, and I had found out that for the past couple of months, ever since we got engaged, she had been treating her differently and at this point, I didn't

even want an answer or an explanation. I just wanted to tell her that we were through, I was not getting married to her because it was obvious that she did not value my daughter and it was really sad because I had never treated her children any differently from my own daughter. But it was clear that me and my family did not hold any value in her life, and so, I didn't think it was a good idea for us to be getting married anymore. Having said that, I didn't even wait for her to say anything, I just walked off. She kept calling for me, but I didn't even turn around, I just walked back to my car. Then I drove to the hotel and then, because I had nothing else to do, I took a really long nap. I woke up around noon to thousands of

messages from everybody that I knew who had been invited to the wedding, my friends and family were all very confused and my in-laws were very upset. But I couldn't bring myself to care about any of that, I just explained the situation as briefly as I could to my friends and family and left it at that and then I went to see my daughter. I told her that I had called off the wedding and that now, I would spend more time with her because I felt like in the past couple of months, we had started disconnecting without even realizing it because I knew that earlier, if she had a problem, with anybody seeing. She would have come to me immediately and because she hadn't done that with Addison,

I knew that there was a problem. Both of us got a little emotional, but at least we were able to sort that out. Now, coming to Addison, that's what I've been struggling with. It's been five days since the day that we were supposed to get married and by now, pretty much everyone knows exactly why I cancelled the wedding. It's not just about her behavior with my daughter, it's also about the dishonesty and I think that's a huge deal breaker in any relationship. I've been cheated on twice before this and I know for a fact that it always starts with small

lies. So for me, any form of dishonesty is something that I can't tolerate and this was a pretty big lie that she told and she expected to get away with it. And that's why I don't think that I did anything wrong by breaking off the wedding at the last moment and quite frankly, I can't bring myself to pretend to care that I did it at the very last moment. It might have been very unceremoniously done, but I think it's fair enough since that's exactly how she planned to spring the whole situation with the kids onto me, at the very last moment. However, her family is very upset that I didn't even give her a chance to explain and think that I'm being unfair.

Addison, along with the rest of her family, has been texting me nonstop and all she has to say in her defense is that she couldn't outright ask me not to invite my daughter but she had her reasons and she finds it very insulting in spite. of being with her for so many years. I didn't think that our relationship deserved at least a conversation before I just ended it like that. She hasn't mentioned the reasons, she told me that she's only going to talk to me about it in person so I don't know how she could possibly explain not wanting to invite my daughter to our wedding because as far as I'm concerned. I don't think she's ever had any problems with my daughter and vice versa.

But I feel like I should have at least spoken to her maybe. I don't know why, but all of a sudden, for the past couple of days, I've been feeling very guilty. I feel like I should have just been honest with her instead of creating so much drama and pretending like everything was fine until the last minute. The day that I found out what she was planning, I should have just come back home from work and confronted her about it, but I didn't and I feel like if I had done that, a lot of the drama that's happening right now could have been avoided. I feel like a bit of a jerk because of that and it's been bothering.

me. So, Ida for not speaking to my fiancé and canceling the wedding at the last minute. Update 1. It's been three days since I posted and I'm still staying in the hotel but today, I reached out to Addison and I told her that she had to move out of the house at the earliest. After all, it used to be my house before she moved in, so I think it's only fair that now that we are done, she has to move out. I've given her until the end of the month and until then, I think I'm going to crash with a friend because I don't think staying in a hotel is a feasible long-term idea. Apart from that, I'm feeling much better about my decisions because my friends have reassured me that at the end of the day, I chose what was most important to me and that's being a father.

I don't think that I have to be sorry that my daughter is most important to me. If anybody has a problem with that, they can stay out of my life. But I'm not going to be apologetic for choosing my daughter, I really don't care what Addison's reasons were. If she can't explain it to me through text, I don't think I need to hear them at all because right now, I just don't want to see her at all. I've also blocked her parents and her sisters since they were clearly in on her plan the entire time and they didn't breathe a word of it to me. It's just really disappointing because I actually got along quite well with these people

and I had really assimilated into their family, or at least that's what I believed before all of this happened. Anyway, so far, I hadn't been responding to Addison but last night, I told her to look for a place and I also told her that whatever reason she had for not wanting to invite my daughter, she could either explain it to me through text or she could just let it go because whatever damage had to be done. It's already been done and there's no going back from this at this point. That's all I had to say to her, and after that, she hasn't replied. And for those of you who were asking, I'm sorry, but I really don't know what her reason. for suddenly becoming so different around my daughter could possibly be. I've spoken to my daughter at length about this because I am really curious, but unfortunately, she had no idea either. When I showed her the messages and spoke about the reasons, she was just as confused as I was, and she told me that when Addison started acting differently around her,

even she had been very taken aback and she had even tried to get the relationship back to normal in the initial stages after the engagement. But she just kept acting coldly and was pretty much indifferent to all the efforts that my daughter put in. So if anything, Addison was the problem here from whatever I've heard from my daughter. And I know a lot of kids find it very difficult to come to terms with the fact that their parents are moving on. But trust me, my daughter is not one of those kids and she's definitely not lying about Addison. For starters, her mom and I never had been married. We had just been dating for two years when we had her and we had her.

we broke up when our daughter was just three years old. So she barely even remembers us being together and on top of that, my ex has been married for the past five years as well. I know for a fact that my decision to move on and get married to Addison did not bother my daughter at all and like I said, they used to have a good relationship until recently. And I'm not claiming that my daughter is a perfect little angel, though in my eyes, she might be, but I know she's not a liar, and least of all about things like this. She knows how much I value honesty and transparency above all in my loved ones, so I truly don't believe that my daughter might be lying to me about Addison.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter because I don't think that Addison is going to come clean to me about whatever her reasons were because it's been several hours since I texted her, and she still hasn't replied. And usually, she's always on her phone, since she works from home and her job requires her to be active on her phone constantly. So it's probably very unlikely that she hasn't seen my message and she always replies as soon as possible, which is why I'm pretty sure that she's just choosing to ignore me right now. It doesn't make any difference to me, though, I just want her out of my house so I can go back to living comfortably in my home since this hotel arrangement is a bit awkward

and I have to go back to work in a couple of days. Update 2 so it's been three days since I texted Addison and earlier today, she finally replied to me. She told me that she could understand why I did not want to see her in person. But it was extremely important that I meet her so she could tell me her reasons as to why she did not want my daughter at the wedding, so I did not end up misunderstanding her. Regardless of the fact that we were broken up now. She told me that she didn't want me to perceive her as the bad guy in the situation because at least according to her, her reasons were completely valid and she didn't want to hurt me, so that's why she had to lie to me. That last bit was kind of stupid of her because eventually, she did end up hurting me. Anyway, I replied to her within half an hour,

and I made it very clear that I was not going to be speaking to her in person. Whatever she had to say, she had to say to me by text and that's it. About an hour ago, she finally replied to me, telling me that the reason she did not want my daughter at the wedding was because of something that happened at the engagement party. So unfortunately, on the day of the party, my daughter hadn't been feeling too well. It was my turn to have her for the month, and I already knew that she was not feeling up to it so I told her that she could just stay in her room that day, but she said that she didn't want to skip the party in spite of being in the same house and even though she was feeling kind of under the weather, she decided to attend. And a couple of minutes after I had toasted,

she decided to go back upstairs and of course, a lot of people did ask questions about whether she was fine or not. But by no means would I say that she stole our thunder, which is apparently what Addison believes my daughter did. Because Addison apparently went upstairs to check on my daughter after she went back upstairs saying that she was too sick to stay downstairs with everyone else, and she overheard my daughter talking and giggling on the phone with somebody else and at the time, she didn't seem to be sick at all. Anyway, that one incident didn't sit right with Addison and for some reason, instead of talking to me or even to my daughter about it, she decided to talk to her sisters about it and even though I did get along well with them, I can't deny that they had a

tendency to stir the pot. So that's what they did, and the whole thing became a lot bigger than it should have been, and she started pushing my daughter away after the engagement, believing that maybe somewhere deep down, my daughter was not happy about us getting married and was. probably going to start trying to create problems in the future. It was all based on that once stupid incident and I was so disgusted by her behavior that I did not even reply to Addison after that. Just for context, I did talk to my daughter about whatever Addison told me and she said that she was indeed speaking to a friend of hers after she came back upstairs that day but that didn't mean she was feeling any less sick. She was still feeling pretty unwell, but I don't understand what feeling under the weather has to do with being able to talk and laugh with a friend on the phone. It was completely bizarre and I don't think that Addison's reasons were not as valid as she thought they were.

I honestly feel like she might have been insecure right from the beginning and that incident probably just gave her an excuse to stop pretending to be nice to my daughter. I'm lucky that I did not end up marrying her because I'm sure that if I did, she would probably create a lot of problems. Now that I think back on it, there were a lot of instances where she would complain about me never paying her enough attention and not spending enough time with her, mostly when my daughter was around, even though she was the same way with her kids and I never complained about it because I did not think that was worth complaining about. I thought it was a good thing that she was being a good parent and I never thought that she would be insecure about something like this. Even in my previous posts, I had mentioned that I hadn't been able to devote enough time to my daughter, and one of the major reasons for that was Addison. I never really noticed it because she was so subtle about it, but she was constantly finding ways to keep me so busy, both emotionally and with tasks, that I didn't even realize what she was doing. I guess I just never connected the dots myself because I was too invested in our relationship and the red flags just don't show up until it's too late. But I'm glad that finally, I was able to get out of that relationship because if we were going to be together at the cost of my relationship with my daughter, then I didn't want it.

Especially after that stupid message that she sent today, I don't even know what to make of it. For a while, I really did think about responding to her and reading her the riot act because I couldn't believe that she had ruined our relationship or something as silly as this, which could have been resolved by just talking it out. but then I decided against it because it's really not worth the trouble. I would much rather just ignore her until it's time to finally see her again and it's probably going to be pretty soon because I need to get back to work and for that, I need my work close so I'm going to have to go back home to collect that. I just hope that she finds a place to stay soon because even though I've spoken to a couple of my friends and all of them are more than willing to let me stay with them, quite frankly,

I just want to move back home and I really want her out now. Update 3, 2 days ago, I posted here, and earlier today, I went back home to collect my clothes and stuff. I've moved out of the hotel room, it was getting too expensive and I was on my way to a friend's place so I thought I would just stop by and collect everything that I need. I didn't reply to Addison after that message that she sent me, and I just blocked her. So I had no way of finding out whether she was home or not, but I just decided to take the risk and I showed up in the afternoon and unfortunately, she did. did happen to be home. She seemed very upset to see me and I could tell that she really wanted to talk to me, but I just started hurrying through everything that I needed to do because I thought that the quicker I could finish this, the quicker I would get to leave. So she made it for me to get

done collecting my things, and right before I was about to walk out of the door, I told her that I really wanted her to look for a place so I could move back in at the earliest and then, I just started walking back to my car, but she started following me. She kept talking throughout, she told me that she really did feel sorry for everything that she had done. She told me that she shouldn't have lied to me, and she should have just been honest with me instead of making such a huge deal out of that incident on the day of the engagement party. She acknowledged the fact that she had been very immature about the whole thing and made a big deal out of nothing but the way her sister had put it to her. It sounded like a huge thing and she had even had a fight with them recently because of that

because she had realized that she had inadvertently ruined her relationship by listening to their advice. She was practically begging me for a second chance and she told me that this time, she was going to make it work with both me and my daughter and I felt really sad hearing it because it was too little and too late. So as soon as I was near my car, I told her that I could understand how she felt. It wasn't easy for me to give up on us either, but it had to be. to be done because for me, there was nothing more important than my daughter and I owed it to her to do what was right. I could tell that she was about to start crying and I really did not want to

deal with that, so I just quickly said goodbye to her, reminded her to find a new place, and drove away. I felt like a bit of a jerk doing that to her because seeing her in person was a lot more difficult than just speaking to her in text or whatever, but it had to be done, so I don't have any regrets. Anyway, I'm crashing with a friend right now and hopefully, by the next couple of weeks, Addison will have found another place and I can resume my normal life. Or whatever normal is going to be from now onwards because I'm pretty sure that this is going to take a long time to recover from. The one good thing that has come out of all of this, though, is that my bond with my daughter has become stronger than ever, and we've gone back to how we used to be before the engagement and everything.

She's telling me everything about her life once again, and there are no secrets between us. It feels nice, and when I spoke to her on FaceTime today and I could see her talking about her day at school, it felt like everything was worth it. We are even planning a getaway to the beach in a couple of weeks and I've also asked a couple of my friends with kids around her age to join in because I think I could really do with a break and just have some fun myself. Since the past couple of weeks have been pretty rough for me.