šŸ“ AITA for not apologising to my boyfriend after needing him to prove he wasn’t cheating

By South-Fly1602 • Score: 0 • April 12, 2025 2:19 AM


To preface I am not looking for relationship advice I just want to know if I’m in the wrong. My partner and I have been together 4 1/2 years and early on in our relationship he was consistently cheating on me on Snapchat/tinder/reddit etc through means of sending nudes and sexting. I caught him after months of finding evidence him getting defensive and argumentative and having him lie to my face. We went on a break of sorts, we came back together to work on our relationship and see if we can move on. Fast forward to now, we’ve had a few run ins with me being concerned he’d been hiding his phone or taking it to the bathroom (like he would when he was cheating) and he’s gotten very defensive and argumentative and other than finding him watching porn (which I’ve expressed violated my personal boundaries) he has not been actively talking to anyone else. However, he has been going out for hours at a time and lying about where he has been i.e. saying he is at work when really (according to his bank statements) he was at a pub having a drink. This has happened multiple times and after days of pushing he ā€˜admitted’ he wanted a bit of time to himself but he cannot account for what he was doing the entire duration of that time - for example he would be out the house for 6 hours and his bank would show he only bought two drinks in that time yet he claims he was sat there the whole time alone and cannot accurately account for what he did. As I said he gets very defensive and argues quite aggressively about it when asked. I have told him I don’t believe him as I think if he was telling the truth he wouldn’t immediately jump on the defence. I have asked him to prove things to me, such as showing me proof of where he was, receipts, bank statements etc to prove he was where he was and he refuses to. He says he is telling the truth and if he proves it to me I better say sorry for accusing him and making him show me proof for no reason. I have told him I will move on and stop asking him if he is cheating/meeting people, however I will not apologise as his entire story is riddled with lies that have gradually been uncovered and I think it is perfectly rational for me to assume that he was ultimately hiding meeting up with other people - based purely on evidence, the lies, and his history. I feel that with the way he has treated me, the fact he cheated in the past and the way that he has spoken to me and continued to lie, that I don’t feel like I need to apologise for asking for proof that he is telling the truth as the matter will be dropped once he shows me proof. I would also like to emphasise that I have not had any apology for the lies or sneaking away etc, I generally somehow get the blame. He refuses to show me proof that he hasn’t cheated/met anyone else until I give him my guarantee of an apology. So aita for saying I won’t apologise for wanting proof.

Edit for more context: - our 4 1/2 year relationship is separate and occurred after our initial relationship in which he cheated - I have always given him my full trust, it has only been as of recent when I had noticed him lying about where he was that I questioned him - I did not initially jump to the conclusion he was cheating, it didn’t actually cross my mind for a few days. I initially wanted to know where he’d been and why he was hiding things from me, more out of worry for him - our bank account is a joint account as we live together, that’s how I initially saw his spending habits/noticed the lies

Update: I have asked him exactly what proof he would have he wasn’t cheating and he has admitted he doesn’t have any and he’ll do a polygraph (which is just ridiculous imo) but I’ve literally just seen in the YouTube search history ā€œhow to lie on a polygraphā€ so I’m honestly not sure if he’s trying to wind me up or not.

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