A woman who had always been close to her dad has shared the moment she discovered he had been lying to her since she was a child.
In a post on Reddit's Am I The A**hole forum, the unnamed woman explained how she'd been staying with her father ahead of her wedding when she found out the real reason her parents had split up.
She claimed she overheard her dad and stepmum discussing how their relationship had started out as an affair, while he had still been with his first wife - the woman's mum.
Horrified by what she had heard, the woman banned her father from attending her wedding - despite the fact that he had paid for it.
She told the people of Reddit that she paid him back the money he'd spent on her wedding and asked if she were in the wrong for wanting nothing to do with him anymore.
She wrote: "Right before my wedding, I was staying at my dad's. One night, I overheard my dad and stepmom reminiscing about how they met. Now they always told us that they met six months after the divorce at a library. Turns out, they lied.
"They were talking about how my father couldn't take his eyes off her the moment she walked into his office and how he wanted her from that moment on, and how he didn't care that he had a pregnant wife at home.
"Apparently their first kiss was a few days after I was born, and the first time they had sex was on my parents' third anniversary. I was only a few months old back then. They were talking about how difficult it was for them to continue their relationship after they got caught when I was five. This was extremely shocking to me because my parents got divorced when I was 10. They were also making fun of my mom's weight.
"This meant that they carried on an affair throughout my parents' marriage."
She continued: "My mom always knew and she never told me. I broke down crying that night and I felt really guilty because of the way I acted towards my mom growing up. I had no idea she went through so much.
"The next morning, I packed my s**t up and transferred the amount he had spent on my wedding. I didn't want his money. I told him I heard everything and asked him to stay away from my wedding.
"I left their house and drove to my mom's. I hugged her really hard and we both cried."
The woman went on to say that she had her mum walk her down the aisle.
She added: "I've heard from the grapevine that my dad is on anti depressants nowadays. My grandma blames me for his depression. Did I overreact? I still don't want anything to do with him. My dad's family think I was and I am being cruel to him."
More than 1,000 people responded to her post, sharing their thoughts on the difficult situation.
One person replied: "So your views of who your dad is were suddenly changed overnight, and it was revealed that your dad is a d**k who messed your mom up mentally? Yeah, no, I don't think you're overreacting. Those actions are unforgivable for a lot of people. You're especially not the a**hole because you gave back the money."
Someone else said: "I was tearing up reading your post, and I feel so much for you and your mother. You handled the sudden revelation of this betrayal with dignity and respect for yourself and mum."
A third pointed out: "He wasn’t even remorseful he LAUGHED about the affair, LAUGHED about the mum’s weight etc... if he genuinely get awful and disgusted with himself it would be a different story. But that is gross."
A different user added: "That’s a lot of news to process right before your wedding. I’m surprised they talked about that (and so cruelly and guilt-free) while you were in the house. Your mother showed a lot of restraint keeping quiet all those years even when you were showing preference for your father."
