Long story, lot of details, I'll try to condense the backstory. So, I (39M) had a daughter with my ex-fiancee (38 now, pretty sure F) when I was 21. After our daughter's birth, discovered ex was cheating for the last few months of her pregnancy, her friends were in on it and covering for her. When our daughter was 3 months old, ex left me for the other guy. I tried to keep in touch just to try to co-parent with her, but she was always distant at best. She didn't spend maybe 2 weeks with our daughter in the first year.

When our daughter (call her Cece) was 2, I was struggling just to keep my head above water. I had a better opportunity and help a few states over, but moving state lines with a toddler could be problematic. Got in contact with a lawyer to draft up documents to try to make sure I wouldn't have any blowback moving across state lines. Ex decided she would rather terminate her parental rights.

So that's what she did. After constant back and forth about it. Some reasons that I thought were dumb, but again, trying to keep this as short as possible.

So, moved a few states over to live with my dad and step mom's family. Things got so much better for us. I had consistent help with raising her, got a night job as security babysitting an empty office building, got into school. Eventually graduated, met someone (who is great with Cece and adopted her officially a few years ago), got married and expanded our own family by 2 more little feet.

We've all made trips together back to my hometown a few times over the years. This last time however, was a bit more chaotic. My ex/Cece's egg donor still loves there, and we've seen her a couple times while we were out. Cece knows about her and what happened, that was the hardest conversation I've ever had to have. But we've ignored/avoided her every time. She's done the same. Except this last time.

Her partner/boyfriend/whatever started approaching me saying "we need to talk." I didn't want to deal with him or anything having to do with her, so I'm kinda sitting there like "we really don't, you should probably walk away", the ex was telling him I'm not worth it, I'm agreeing with her telling him "listen to her, just walk away", and eventually, homeboy grabs my shoulder and swings at me. Cue fam rolling up. I heard my son shout "leave my dad alone!" My wife cursing at him (which she never does in front of the kids) and Cece screaming at my ex. Didn't hear everything said, but Cece did scream "at least he wasn't the one that abandoned me, you selfish C**t!"

The whole immediate area in this crowd gets so quiet, you can hear a pin drop. Ex just leaves like she's the one taking the high road, homeboy just keeps taking glances at Cece (who looks more pissed off than I've ever seen her) Had to wait till the wife and son were far enough away to tell Cece how proud I was of her. Lol.

Anyway, about a month after we get back home, I get a fb message request from homeboy asking about the situation, why my daughter said my ex abandoned her, etc. Apparently his little "approach and swing at op publicly" stunt caused some issues between them. And I learned that ex has basically fabricated her entire life up to this point. I knew she was talking shit about me after we split, that I'm likely the "Voldemort" ex (he-who-must-not-be-named)(I didn't lose sleep over that. everybody is somebody's villain), but almost everything this guy knew about her was a lie. I just set the stuff between me and her straight. That yes, we had a child together yes, that child is Cece (didn't give him her name). No, he's not a stepfather because yes, ex did terminate parental rights and abandoned us. No, I was never abusive. I worked a lot before Cece was born and she probably did feel neglected, but never abusive. Etc.

Now, from what I gather, she's pissed at me for "exposing her" and reaching out to some of my family to try to convince me to take that all back. Apparently, the crowd she runs in now is starting to distance themselves from her.

So reddit, aita for shining light on my shitty ex's lies?

Edit: typos and spacing. On Mobile.