Reddit Stories - Spouse engaged in a ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP and became PREGNANT but declined a genetic

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #relationships #pregnancy #genetictesting #familydrama #conflictresolutionSummary: A spouse engaged in a romantic relationship became pregnant but declined genetic testing, causing family drama and conflict. The situation raises questions about relationships, boundaries, and ethical dilemmas in handling sensitive family matters.Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, relationships, pregnancy, genetic, familydrama, conflictresolution, ethics, boundaries, sensitive, familymatters, romanticrelationship, spousalissues, personalchoices, moralquandary, communication, decisionmaking, socialdynamicsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Spouse engaged in a romantic relationship and became pregnant but declined a genetic test because her gut feeling revealed the identity of the father so she departed from me, until he expelled them. When DNA proved the baby wasn't his. So this whole mess started about two years ago when my wife Leslie and I were having some rough patches in our marriage. We'd been married for six years at that point and things had gotten pretty routine, you know how it is when you're both working full time, and just going through the motions. Leslie worked as a marketing coordinator and I'm an electrician, so our schedules were pretty different and we weren't spending much time together anyway.

I should probably mention that Leslie and I had been trying to have kids for about three years with no luck. We'd done some basic fertility testing and everything came back normal for both of us, so the doctors just said to keep trying and maybe consider IVF down the line. It was putting a lot of stress on our relationship because Leslie really wanted to be a mom and I could see how much it was eating at her every month when we'd get disappointed again. Around this time Leslie started going out more with her co-workers after work, which honestly I was fine with because she seemed happier and more social. Her company had hired this new guy Russell who was some kind of consultant or something, and Leslie would mention him sometimes when

she talked about work stuff. He was apparently really successful and had worked for some big companies in California before moving to our city. I didn't think much of it at first because Leslie had always been friendly with her co-workers. But then Leslie started working late more often and going to these company events that seemed to happen every other week. She'd come home talking about how Russell had such interesting stories about his travels and his business ventures and how he was thinking about starting his own company soon. I started noticing she was dressing up more for work too, like she was putting extra effort into how she looked, but when I'd compliment her she'd just shrug it off. The first real red flag was when Leslie came home

from one of these work events and she was acting really weird and giggly. She kept checking her phone and smiling at it, and when I asked what was so funny she said it was just some inside joke from work that I wouldn't understand. That rubbed me the wrong way because Leslie had never been secretive about her phone before, we'd always been pretty open about that stuff. Over the next few months, Leslie became more and more distant. She'd come home from work and go straight to her laptop or her phone instead of talking to me about our days like we used to. When I try to plan date nights or suggest we do something together on weekends, she'd always

have some excuse about being tired or having plans with coworkers. The worst part was that our bedroom life basically disappeared completely, and when I try to initiate anything she'd say she was stressed about work or not feeling well. I confronted her about it a few times, but she'd just say I was being paranoid and that she was going through a lot with work pressure and the whole fertility thing. She'd flip it around and say I wasn't being supportive enough and that maybe if I showed more interest in her career and her friendship she wouldn't feel like she had to keep everything separate. So I backed off, but I could feel something was really wrong. Then about 18 months ago, Leslie came home from work one day.

and she looked different, like she was glowing or something. She seemed excited and nervous at the same time, and she kept fidgeting with her hands. Finally she sat me down and said she had something important to tell me. My first thought was that maybe she'd gotten a promotion or something because of how she was acting. But instead she told me she was pregnant. I was shocked because we hadn't been intimate in weeks, but my first reaction was pure joy because this was what we've been trying for so long. I jumped up to hug her and started talking about how amazing this was

and how we needed to call our families and start planning. But Leslie didn't hug me back and she had this weird expression on her face that I couldn't read. That's when she said the baby might not be mine. I just stood there staring at her because I couldn't process what she was saying. She started talking really fast about how she'd made a mistake and had been seeing someone from work and how she was sorry but she needed to be honest with me now that she was pregnant. She said she'd been having an affair with Russell for about four months and they've been careless a few times. I asked her if she wanted to work things out and if we could get a paternity test to figure out what was going on.

Because despite everything I still loved her and wanted to try to save our marriage. But then she said something that just completely blindsided me. She said she didn't think we needed a paternity test because she had a strong, feeling the baby was Russell's. When I asked her what that meant, she said she just had this intuition about it. Like she could feel that the baby belonged to Russell because their connection was so much deeper than what she and I had. She said when they were together she felt this spiritual and emotional bond that she'd never experienced before, and that she just knew in her heart that this baby was meant to be his. I told her that was completely insane and that

intuition doesn't determine paternity, but she got really defensive and said I wouldn't understand because Russell and I were completely different types of men. She said Russell was more emotionally intelligent and spiritually aware, and that when you have that kind of connection with someone you just know things on a deeper level. At this point I was getting angry because she was talking about this other guy like he was some kind of enlightened being while basically telling me I was too simple to understand their cosmic connection. I told her we were getting a paternity test whether she liked it or not because I had a right to know if I was going to be a father. But Leslie refused. She said she didn't want to put the baby through unnecessary stress and that she was confident

about who the father was. She said Russell had agreed to step up and take responsibility, and that they were planning to be together as a family. She said she hoped we could divorce emicably and that maybe someday I'd understand that this was all meant to happen this way. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My wife, of six years was sitting there telling me she was leaving me for another man, that she was pregnant with his baby, and that she was basing all of this on some kind of mystical feeling she had. When I pointed out that she could be wrong and that I might actually be the father, she just shook her head and said her intuition was never wrong about important things.

So that's how my marriage ended. Leslie moved out the next week to live with Russell, who apparently had this really nice apartment. She filed for divorce right away and refused to discuss anything about paternity testing. Her lawyer sent me papers saying she was waiving any claim to child support from me, which I guess was supposed to prove how confident she was that the baby wasn't mine. The divorce went through pretty quickly since we didn't have kids together and could split our assets without too much drama. Leslie kept posting on social media about how happy she was and how excited she was to start this new chapter of her life. She'd post pictures of her growing belly with captions about trusting the universe and following your heart, that kind of stuff.

Russell seemed to be playing along with the whole thing. From what I could see on social media he was treating Leslie like a queen, taking her on weekend trips and to fancy restaurants, buying her expensive maternity clothes. Leslie would post about how grateful she was to have found someone who truly understood her and supported her dreams. I tried to move on with my life. I focused on work and started dating again after a few months. It was hard because I kept wondering about the baby and whether it might actually be mine, but Leslie had made her choice and I had to respect that even though I thought she was being

completely irrational about the whole paternity thing. The baby was born about seven months ago, a little girl they named Luna. Leslie posted all the typical new mom pictures and seemed really happy. Russell was in all the photos acting like the proud dad, and they looked like the perfect little family. I'll admit it was hard to see because part of me still wondered what if, but I tried not to dwell on it. But then about three months ago I got a phone call from Leslie and she was crying hysterically. At first I could barely understand what she was saying because she was sobbing so hard. When she finally calmed down enough to talk, she told me that Russell had gotten a paternity test done without telling her.

her. Apparently Russell had started having doubts about whether he was really the father, especially since the baby didn't look much like him. Leslie said he'd taken some of the baby's hair while she was sleeping one day and sent it off to one of those DNA testing companies along with his own sample. When the results came back, they showed that Russell was definitely not the father. Leslie said Russell confronted her about it and demanded to know who else she'd been sleeping with. She swore to him that it had only been him and me, so the baby had to be mine after all. But then Russell said if that was true, then she needed to contact me and get a paternity test to prove it, because he wasn't going to raise another man's child. But here's the crazy

part. Leslie still refused to contact me about getting a paternity test. She said her intuition was telling her that something wasn't right and that maybe the test Russell got was wrong. She said she still felt like Luna was meant to be Russell's daughter and that if they just waited and trusted the universe, everything would work out. Russell apparently did not appreciate this response. He told Leslie she had one week to figure out who the real father was and get proof, or he was done with both of them. Leslie spent that week trying to convince him that the test was wrong and that they should just ignore it and continue being a family, but Russell wasn't having it. So he kicked them out. Leslie called me that day crying,

and asking if she could come over to talk. I told her no because I wasn't going to get dragged back into her drama, especially when she'd refused to give me any information about whether I might be the father when it actually mattered. She begged me to just let her explain the situation, but I said she'd had plenty of chances to be honest with me and she'd chosen to trust her intuition instead. Over the next few weeks, Leslie kept calling and texting me asking for help. She said she was staying with a friend but couldn't afford her own place without Russell's financial support. She said she was overwhelmed trying to take care of Luna by herself and that she just needed someone to help her figure things out. I ignored most of her messages

because I figured this was the consequence of her choices. She'd been so confident that Russell was the father and that their spiritual connection meant more than actual facts, so now she could deal with reality on her own. But then she started to be a lot of. But then she started showing up at my house. The first time she came over she looked terrible. She was carrying Luna and had this huge diaper bag and looked like she hadn't slept in days. She said she just needed to talk to me and explain everything, and that she realized she'd made some mistakes but we could work through them together. I told her through the door that there was nothing to work through because she'd made her choice 18 months ago when she decided her intuition was more reliable

than a paternity test. She started crying and saying she'd been confused and scared, and that Russell had pressured her to choose between him and me. But I wasn't buying it because nobody had pressured her to refuse a paternity test. That was her decision based on her mystical feelings about who the father was. I told her she needed to leave and figure out her own problems. She kept coming back, though. Sometimes she'd bring Luna and sometimes she'd come alone. She'd sit on my porch and call my phone begging me to just open the door and talk to her. She said she was desperate and didn't know where else to turn, and that even if Luna wasn't my biological daughter, we'd been trying to have a baby for so long that maybe this was the

universe's way of giving us a family. That really pissed me off because now suddenly she wanted to talk about the universe's plan when it was convenient for her. When she thought Russell was the father, the universe had brought them together and their connection was so deep and spiritual. But now that he'd abandoned them, suddenly the universe wanted her to come back to me with another man's baby. I told her she needed to stop coming to my house or I'd call the police for harassment. She said she understood I was angry but that Luna was an innocent baby who needed stability, and couldn't I at least consider helping for the

baby's sake even if I didn't want to help her. The thing is, I did feel bad for the baby because none of this was Luna's fault. But I also wasn't going to reward Leslie's terrible decision-making by swooping in to rescue her when her plan fell apart. She'd been so sure about everything when she was leaving me for Russell, so confident that her intuition was guiding her to the right choice. Now she could live with the consequences. After I threatened to call the police, Leslie stopped coming to my house for a few weeks. But then she started calling me from different numbers when I blocked her usual one. She'd leave voicemails about how sorry she was

and how she realized she'd been wrong about everything. She said she'd been doing some soul-searching and realized that her feelings for Russell had clouded her judgment, and that she should have handled the whole situation differently. In one of her voicemails, she admitted that she'd been scared to get a paternity test because deep down she was worried that the baby might actually be mine,

and that would have complicated her fantasy about running off with Russell to live this perfect life. She said she'd convinced herself that her intuition was real because it was easier than facing the possibility that she was making a huge mistake. But even with that admission, she still hadn't actually gotten a paternity test to find out whose baby Luna really was. When I called her back to ask about that, she said she was afraid to know the truth because what if Luna wasn't mine either, and then she'd be completely alone with no one to help her. I told her that was exactly why she should have gotten the test in the first place instead of making decisions based on her feelings. But she said she couldn't afford the test right now and was hoping we could just try to work things out without needing to know for sure. That's when I realized Leslie hadn't learned anything from this whole experience.

She was still trying to avoid taking responsibility and still wanted other people to make decisions based on incomplete information. She wanted me to potentially raise another man's child without even knowing if it was mine, just because her other plan hadn't worked out. Update 1. After my original post Leslie kept harassing me for another month, calling from different numbers and even having her sister contact me to try to convince me to help her out. Her sister called me and said Leslie was really struggling financially and emotionally, and that Luna was such a sweet baby who deserved to have a stable father figure in her life. She said I should consider that maybe this was all happening for a reason and that I could still have the family I'd always wanted, even if the circumstances weren't ideal.

I told her sister the same thing I'd been telling Leslie, which was that I wasn't going to make any decisions about helping raise a child without knowing if it was actually mine. If Leslie wanted my help, she needed to get a paternity test first, and if Luna turned out to be my daughter, then we could figure out how to co-parent responsibly. But Leslie's sister said that Leslie was afraid the test would come back negative and then she'd lose any chance of reconciling with me. She said Leslie had realized that I was the stable, reliable partner she should have chosen all along, and that she was hoping we could rebuild our relationship based on trust instead of requiring scientific proof. I almost laughed because it was the same delusional thinking that had gotten Leslie into this mess in the first place. She'd trusted her intuition over facts when it came to Russell. being the father, and now she wanted me to trust her feelings over facts when it came to getting back

together. She hadn't learned anything. So I told her sister that I was done discussing it and that Leslie needed to stop using other people to try to manipulate me into helping her. I said if Leslie wanted to have an adult conversation about getting a paternity test and figuring out the real situation, she could call me herself, but I wasn't going to keep playing these games. That seemed to work for a while because the calls and visits stopped. I figured Leslie had finally gotten a message and was dealing with her problems on her own. I heard through mutual friends that she'd moved back in with her parents temporarily and was looking for a job, so it seemed like she was at least trying to get her life together. But then about two months ago I got a call from a number I didn't

recognize, and when I answered it was a man's voice asking if I was Leslie's ex-husband. I said yes and asked who was calling. He said his name was David and he was calling about the paternity situation with Luna. My first thought was that maybe Leslie had finally gotten a paternity test and this was someone from the testing company or a lawyer or something. But then David said he was calling because he'd recently found out that he might be Luna's father. I was completely confused because Leslie had sworn that she'd only been with Russell and me during the time when Luna would have been conceived. David explained that he'd been casually seeing Leslie for a few weeks around that same time period, and that she told him she was separated from her husband and figuring out her next steps.

Apparently Leslie had met David on some dating app and they'd hooked up a few times, but then she'd suddenly stopped responding to his messages. He said he'd assumed she'd gotten back together with her husband or found someone else, so he'd moved on and hadn't thought about her again until recently. But then a friend had shown him some of Leslie. these social media posts about Luna, and when he saw the baby's birth date he realized the timing lined up with when they'd been seeing each other. He said Luna had some distinctive features that reminded him of his own baby pictures, so he'd started wondering if there was a

possibility he could be the father. David said he'd tried to contact Leslie directly, but she wasn't responding to his messages, and he'd gotten my number from someone who knew about our situation. He wanted to know if I could help him get in touch with Leslie about getting a paternity test, because he was a responsible guy and if Luna was his daughter he wanted to step up and do the right thing. This meant Leslie had been lying to me about only being with Russell and me. She'd been seeing at least three different men during that time period, maybe more, and she'd been playing all of us. The whole story about her deep spiritual connection with Russell and her intuition about him being the father was complete bullshit. I gave David Leslie's current phone number

and told him he could try to contact her directly, but that she'd been avoiding taking responsibility for this whole mess from the beginning. I warned him that she probably tried to convince him that a paternity test wasn't necessary and that he should just trust her feelings about the situation. David seemed like a decent guy and said he appreciated the heads up. He said he had a good job in his own place, and if Luna was his daughter he wanted to provide for her properly instead of letting her grow up in an unstable situation. A few days later Leslie called me absolutely furious. She said I had no right to give out her contact information to some random man,

and that I was trying to sabotage her life because I was bitter. She said David was harassing her and demanding a paternity test, and that she didn't even remember him that clearly because it had only been a casual thing. I told her that was exactly the problem. She'd been casual with multiple men during the same. time period and then made life-changing decisions based on her intuition about which one was the father. Now there was a third possibility and she was still trying to avoid getting actual facts about the situation. Leslie said she'd looked David up on social media and he seemed like a nice

enough guy, but she didn't want to complicate things even more by adding another potential father to the mix. She said she was already overwhelmed trying to figure out how to co-parent with either Russell or me, and involving David would make everything more confusing. But I pointed out that she wasn't co-parenting with Russell because he'd kicked her out, and she wasn't co-parenting with me because she'd refused to get a paternity test to find out if Luna was mine. She was just drifting around avoiding responsibility while other people tried to do the right thing. That conversation ended with Leslie hanging up on me, but apparently she did eventually agree to meet with David. From what I heard later, David convinced her that getting a paternity test was the fair thing to do for everyone involved, including Luna who deserved to know who her real father was.

So they got the test done, and guess what? David was Luna's biological father. Leslie called me after she got the results and she sounded completely defeated. She said she couldn't believe her intuition had been so wrong about everything, and that she'd destroyed her marriage and put Luna through all this instability. for nothing. I told her that her intuition hadn't been wrong, she'd just been lying to herself because she wanted to believe what was most convenient at the time. When she wanted to justify leaving me for Russell, she convinced herself that their spiritual connection meant he was the father. When Russell kicked her out and she wanted me to take her back, she tried to convince herself

that maybe the universe wanted us to be together after all. But the whole time she'd known there were other possibilities she was ignoring because they didn't fit the story she wanted to tell herself. David stepped up like he'd promised and took financial responsibility for Luna. He got his own paternity test to make it official, and he started paying Leslie child support and taking Luna for visits. From what I can see on social media, he seems like a good dad and Luna looks happy and healthy. Leslie moved into her own apartment with David's help and got a part-time job so she could take care of Luna while still having some income. She stopped trying to contact me, which was a relief because I was tired of being dragged into her drama. Update too

well, I was wrong about being done with this situation. Last month Leslie showed up at my house again, but this time it was different from her previous visits. She looked put together and calm, not desperate and crying like before. She said she'd been in therapy and had something she wanted to say to me, and asked if I'd be willing to give her 10 minutes to talk. Against my better judgment I let her in, Leslie sat down and said she'd been working with a therapist to understand why she'd made such poor decisions during our marriage and the whole affair situation. She said her therapist had helped her recognize that she'd been struggling with some deep

insecurities about not being able to get pregnant, and that she'd been looking for validation and excitement outside our marriage instead of dealing with those feelings directly. She admitted that she'd been selfish and had justified her behavior by convincing herself that our marriage was already over. Leslie also acknowledged that refusing to get a paternity test had been completely irrational and unfair to everyone involved. She said she'd been so caught up in the fantasy of her relationship with Russell that she'd ignored obvious red flags and made decisions based on wishful thinking instead of reality. I'll admit this was more self-awareness than Leslie had ever shown before, and it was nice to hear her take actual responsibility for her actions instead of blaming circumstances or other people. But I also knew that Leslie was smart and manipulative, so I was waiting to see what she actually wanted from me. She said she wasn't trying to get back together or asking me to help raise Luna, because she understood that I'd moved on and that she burned those bridges with her behavior.

But she wanted to make amends for the pain she'd caused me, and she was hoping we could eventually have some kind of civil relationship since we'd been such a big part of each other's lives. That seemed reasonable enough, and I appreciated that she wasn't asking for anything concrete from me. I told her I was glad she was getting help and taking responsibility, and that I hoped she could build a good life for herself and Luna going forward. But then Leslie said there was one more thing she needed to tell me, and this is where things got weird again. She said that during her therapy sessions, she'd been exploring her feelings

about the whole paternity situation, and she'd realized that part of her had been hoping Luna would turn out to be my daughter after all. Leslie said that even though she'd convinced herself Russell was the father, there had been a part of her that was secretly relieved when his DNA test came back negative, because it meant there was still a chance Luna could be mine and we could potentially work things out. She said she'd been disappointed when David turned out to be the real father, not because David wasn't a good guy, but because it meant she'd lost any connection to me permanently. She said she'd realized that I'd been the best partner she'd ever had, and that leaving me had been the biggest mistake of her life. I could see where this was going

and I cut her off before she could keep talking. I told her that I appreciated her honesty, but that it didn't change anything between us. She'd made her choices based on what she wanted at the time, and now she had to live with the consequences. Leslie said she understood that, but she wanted me to know that if I ever decided I wanted to be part of Luna's life as a friend or uncle figure, she'd welcome that. She said Luna was a great kid who could benefit from having positive male role models, and that David was supportive of Luna having other caring adults in her life. This felt like another manipulation, honestly. Leslie was presenting it as being generous and thinking about Luna's best interests, but really she was trying to create a way for us to

stay connected. If I started spending time with Luna as an uncle, it would be natural for Leslie and me to end up talking regularly and potentially developing feelings again. I told Leslie I wasn't interested in that kind of arrangement because it would be confusing for everyone involved, especially Luna. If Luna needed positive male role models, she had David as her father and could develop relationships with other family members and friends naturally. Leslie looked disappointed, but said she understood. She thanked me for letting her apologize and said she hoped someday I could forgive her for all the pain she'd caused.

Then she left without any drama or begging, which was honestly a relief after all her previous emotional manipulation. But a few days later I got a text from David asking if we could talk. He said Leslie had told him about our conversation, and he said, Leslie had told him about our conversation, and he had some concerns about the whole situation that he wanted to discuss with me. When I called David back, he said he was worried that Leslie was still not being completely honest about her motivations and feelings. He said she'd been pushing for him to have a more romantic relationship with her,

and when he'd made it clear he wasn't interested, she'd started talking about how she wished things had worked out differently with me. David said he was concerned that Leslie was using Luna as a way to try to reconnect with me, and he didn't want his daughter to be caught in the middle of adult drama. He said he'd been very clear with Leslie that Luna's relationship with him was separate from many feelings Leslie might have about other men, and he didn't want me to feel pressure to get involved just because Leslie was suggesting it. I appreciated David looking out for both Luna and me, and I assured him that I had no intention

of getting drawn back into Leslie's orbit. I said I thought it was best if Leslie, Luna, and I all stayed in our separate lanes going forward. David agreed and said he was glad we were on the same page. He said Leslie was a good mom to Luna but she seemed to have trouble accepting that some bridges couldn't be rebuilt, and he was trying to help her focus on moving forward instead of looking backward.