12 People Shared Their Most Heart-Wrenching Breakup Stories

Breakups are never easy, but some leave a mark so deep that they linger long after the relationship ends. 12 people shared their most heart-wrenching breakup stories—moments that shattered their hearts and changed their lives forever. Get ready to feel the pain, and the heartbreak, and maybe even find a little bit of healing in their words.

• "He proposed the night before he left on a 3-month work trip. Called me 2 days later from an airport to tell me he changed his mind about getting married, was extending his work contract to 7 months, and he'd never be returning to where we lived. He sent his parents to pick up all his things a week later." SpiritualCoconut8 / Reddit
• "I was in college, and she had been my girlfriend for about 4 or 5 years. I was 'taking too long' to get out of college. She wanted me to drop out and start making babies. Right now. And I wouldn't do it. I insisted on graduation first.
  We went to a party after the fight. She started it up again at the party. I told her no.
  She said, 'Well, what about that guy over there?' and pointed at the guitar player in the band. 'I'll bet he's ready to start a family.' She walked over, introduced herself, married him a few months later, and had a lot of babies." BoredBSEE / Reddit
• "Dated 4 years. Then I didn't hear from her for a few weeks. This is before mobile phones. I had moved to a new city, and we were preparing for her to come out as well. I had left a few messages on her answering machine. Then after a few weeks, the phone was answered...by her new boyfriend.
  About a year later, she called me and wanted to come back. She had moved in with her boyfriend and apparently, it wasn't working out. She wanted to move in with me in the house I had bought in the new city we were supposed to move. I told her no. I wanted to say yes to my feelings, but my brain would not let that happen." GotSeoul / Reddit

• "Didn’t happen to me but a girl I dated: she dated a dude for 5–7 years, can’t remember. She put her dude through a PhD program, paid all bills, etc… In the end, he gets a job overseas, she drops him off at the airport, and as she’s pulling out of the airport; he sends her a breakup text." 9t3n / Reddit
• "I have 2 bad ones. First, he had his mom call me. Second one, we dated for 3 years & the whole time he told me he didn't want kids. I finally got on board with the idea of never being a mother.
  Less than 2 months later, he called me to break up because he was marrying a woman he knocked up with whom he had been cheating on me. Skip ahead 30 years... he's a father of 4 and divorced, and 3 of the 4 kids have gone no contact with him." readingreddit4fun / Reddit
• "On my 40th birthday at dinner. My then-girlfriend took me out to dinner on my birthday. I was confused as to why there were no family and friends present. Then she broke it off and I understood why." deedubfry / Reddit

• "Probably being ghosted after years of a seemingly solid relationship. It's like vanishing into thin air, leaving the other person to question their reality and sanity. A particularly cruel form of emotional abandonment." drainingurbank / Reddit
• "I woke up one morning and said I had plans with a friend, and my partner said he did too and would meet me back home for a movie date later. Had a goodbye kiss and everything. Came home to all his things moved out and no response to texts. I was pregnant at the time.
  A little later on, I found out he had been married the whole time. I had to move states pregnant and start over in a basement with no windows. All the while he was sending me nasty messages and then blocking me before I could respond. It was hands down the most depressing period of my life." TopScientist9241 / Reddit
• "Suddenly he wasn’t leaving his family’s house and no one was allowed to talk to him via phone, so I showed up at their house asking to see him. Instead, his grandma sat me down at the kitchen table and broke up with me for him. He then proceeded to stop talking to all of us because his family decided we were bad for him." lilchileah77 / Reddit

• "My girlfriend and I were doing the long-distance thing, she called me and told me we were breaking up because I was taking her for granted, and not putting any effort into the future of the relationship. That night, I thought about everything she'd said and decided she was right, and that I needed to show I didn't take her for granted.
  The next morning, I dropped $5k on a diamond and drove 800 km in 7.5 hours to show up, kneeling, on her doorstep in the rain on a cold winter's night...
  She said no." Shenko-wolf / Reddit
• "Went out with her for 7.5 years, she had 3 kids, no credit, life, and health pretty much wrecked by her ex-husband. Over that time, I helped her rehabilitate her health, restored her credit scores, helped her refinance and redecorate her house, even helped her raise her kids, and helped her eldest cover a tuition overage in his freshman year.
  She walks in one night and says, 'We are incompatible' and dumps me. Keeps everything, cuts me off from the kids, and 6 weeks after begging me to stay friends (with tears in her eyes, the quote was 'I can't imagine you not in my life') writes in an email that she is seeing someone new.
  Three years later, she posts an entry on her Facebook page celebrating her three-year anniversary dinner with the new guy... except the anniversary date is 2 weeks before she dumped me." gjallard / Reddit
• "We both turned 17 in the 2 months we were together. He dumped me a week before prom after I had paid for his ticket because he realized he only said yes to going out with me so he could say he had a girlfriend. I can't believe I still went to prom with him." Belle0516 / Reddit

As these stories show, breakups can be some of the most painful experiences we go through. But they also teach us about resilience, self-discovery, and the power of moving forward.