15+ Ex Stories That Will Make You Want to Stay Single Forever

Exes can leave a mark—sometimes funny, sometimes unsettling, but always unforgettable. From bizarre breakups to strange encounters long after the dust has settled, these stories might just make you rethink the idea of dating altogether.

• I made my husband’s friends. They go hunting and fishing together — in short, they are good friends. Recently I came home and heard them talking. My current husband complains to my ex, “It’s so hard to live with her!” And the ex suddenly says, “I know, I lived with her!” Then they hugged. © Overheard / Ideer

• My ex-boyfriend gave me a toy bear that held a bouquet in one paw and a box in the other. He knew how I felt about these dust collectors. I said he’d have rather bought me burgers than this rubbish. We broke up, it’s been 3 years.
  My nephew’s playing with this bear and says, “Why is a ring here?” There was a ring in the box! Oh man, this quest was too complicated for me! © Overheard / Ideer
• My son is 8 years old, finishing 2nd grade. Since 1st grade he has been friends with a boy from his class, they go to the wrestling section together. And now they started to visit each other.
  At first sight, the boy reminded me of someone. His surname didn’t tell me anything, though. I asked him what his mum and dad’s names were.
  It turned out that this was the son of my ex-husband and once best friend, who 11 years ago stole him from me. It turns out that he changed his surname after the divorce to the maiden name of his mother. I decided that there was nothing wrong with the boys’ friendship and left things as they were. © Overheard / Ideer
• My high school “girlfriend” told me she had cancer after our first date. She asked me not to tell anyone and that her parents got really upset if it was mentioned so to not talk about it with anyone. I dated her for six months. Once I started making friends, no one understood why I was with her and I kept her secret.
  Well, I finally put two and two together after she told me she was going in for chemo on a Monday. She said she wasn’t going to be at school for at least a week. I caught her trying to hide from me before the first class and asked her how her chemo went. She said it went so well and that all her hair fell out but they sewed it all together and sewed the wig to her head. © nellfromthemovienell / Reddit

• I broke up with my boyfriend a year ago. He grieved for a long time, and I immediately started an affair with a colleague, and we’re going to marry soon. Recently, I came to work and found out that my ex-boyfriend had been hired by our company. He’s sitting in the office next door now, tapping on his keyboard. I hate small towns. © Overheard / Ideer
• My girlfriend told me the week before I went to college that I got her pregnant knowing that we were not going to date long distance. She sent me a picture of a stock photo pregnancy test she cropped that was positive I just Google searched “Positive Pregnancy Tests” and it was one of the first ones. I made her come over and take another one. It was negative, and she left. deverilldk / Reddit
• I packed my ex’s stuff, and he took it and left. The next day, he came back to fight over, “You should have laundered them before you gave them to me!” © Catastrophe Me / ADME

• A friend of mine was once dating a man who, when buying expensive food, like sausage or cheese, would cut them for breakfast almost on a ruler, and then take the rest with him to work, so that his woman didn’t eat them while he was not at home. © Anxiety Cake / ADME
• My first boyfriend tried to convince me he had slashed his wrists because I wouldn’t take him back. The “blood” was very obviously Catalina salad dressing... © z0mbiegrl / Reddit
• Broke it off with an ex because all we did was fight. I moved on. She didn’t. One time she showed up to my door wearing a long coat and nothing but stockings and heels underneath. I laughed and closed the door. © Justyce54 / Reddit

• It sounds like a joke, but my ex called me 6 years after the breakup, and, as if nothing had happened, said, “Hey, what are you doing this weekend?” I was like, “Um, I’m kind of married.” And he’s like, “How come?” © Lena Slepokurova / ADME
• When I broke up with my ex he became so hysterical that the only way he would “let” me leave him was if after the breakup we continued to be best friends. Not just any kind of best friend either, he wanted me to still come over for “sleepovers” and share his bed with him. He told me that any other guy I dated after him HAD TO BE 100% okay with this or else I couldn’t date him. © dog_b**** / Reddit
• My ex proposed to me publicly, at a bar, in front of all of our friends. He liked the way it went so well that he proposed to me two more times at two different bars. In our hometown. In front of everyone we know. I said yes. Three times. So, we set a date and I plan this whole wedding. Buy the dress, set up the hall and the catering. Flowers. Everything. The only jobs he had were to buy/rent tuxedos for himself and his groomsmen and find someone to marry us on the date we had chosen.
  It was getting close to our date and he hadn’t done any of the things that he agreed to do. I finally confronted him about it, about a month before this whole event that I had planned, at which time he told me that he was not going to marry me and that he didn’t think that I was going to take his proposal(s) so seriously and plan a wedding. Three times. SMH. I am happily married to someone else now.© aubrey_25_99 / Reddit

• When I divorced my first husband, he paid the remaining part of the mortgage for the apartment we bought together from our joint savings, saying that he got this money by taking a new loan. And during the divorce, he offered me to give up my share in the apartment because he paid the main part of the mortgage.
  I don’t know what he was counting on, because the truth came out very quickly. We were married for 8 years, I thought I knew him well. Obviously, I didn’t. © Catherine / ADME
• I dated a guy who didn’t wear shoes ever. EVER. Come winter, I took him on a hike up the mountain near my house. I told him to wear boots.. as it’s WINTER and SNOWING. Man brings flip-flops. We made it up a couple of flights of stairs before he complained his feet were too cold to go any further. On our way down, I thought to myself “What am I doing dating a man who doesn’t wear shoes?!?” He’d be barefoot on the dirty city streets. There was ONE restaurant in town that would allow him inside with no shoes. A real winner that one. © brendrzzy / Reddit

• And my husband (soon-to-be-ex) sincerely doesn’t understand why he should change anything if I am not happy in our marriage. I say, I don’t like this, this, and this in our marriage, I’ve talked about it hundreds of times, I get nothing, and that’s why I’m filing for divorce.
  And he’s shocked, he really doesn’t get it, he says, “But you don’t like it, why should I do something about it? I’m fine with it as it is.” I’m shocked by this logic.
  And I am not happy about not so many things: that he speaks only by shouting with my son, that he doesn’t spend time with him, and that he spends all his free time at the computer. He also teaches my son to laugh at me behind my back (“Your mom is busy with her nonsense again, her dancing? She’d better bake some cakes, eh?” And things like that). © Baladi / ADME
• A co-worker got married, and her new husband gave her a mink coat. After a while, the bloke started cheating and then left her for someone else. And took the fur coat.
  Long story short, he came back after a while. And he brought the coat back with him. Apparently, this fur coat was his challenge cup. © Elizaveta Mochalkina / ADME

Exes’ stories are always entertaining, yet they also make you stop and think. We’ve got plenty of stories like that.