Man Wants to Keep Late Wife’s Memory Alive for Their Daughter, Is Shocked by His New Wife's Cruel Quirk

A heartbroken man took to Reddit, pouring out a story that shattered everyone who read it. He had always dreamed of preserving a precious memory of his late wife, a memory he planned to share with their daughter on a day that would mean the world to her.

But just when he was preparing to honor the woman he loved and lost, his current wife committed an unforgivable betrayal—an act so cruel, it left him lost and torn. Now, caught between the past and present, he’s left wondering how to move forward, with his heart in pieces and his world turned upside down.

A frustrated man turned to Reddit and shared his mind-stirring and dramatic story.

A man has recently turned to one of Reddit’s communities and shared his heartfelt and very dramatic story, asking other people for advice. He wrote, (edited by Bright Side), “My wife passed away when
our daughter was 2. She made some sweet videos to be shown to our daughter when she turns 18. Now, her 18th birthday is approaching, and recently I discovered with shock and disgust that my current wife has made a cynical and heartless gesture, and now I don’t know what to do and really need help.”

The OP shared, “I have a daughter with my late wife and her name is Eleanore. Her birthday is coming up in 2 weeks and she’s turning 18. Background, me and my late wife, Cloé have been dating since college. We got older and ended up getting married, and after our wedding, she shared the news to me that she was pregnant, and I was excited that we were expecting our first child.”

The OP’s late wife left a treasured memory for her daughter.

The man wrote, “Since it was our first child, we bought a video camera and made little tapes and snippets of her whole pregnancy. Wholesome things such as us just joking around or having lunch, or talking to our unborn child through the camera. We made a promise to only show Eleanore the tapes until her 18 birthday.

Fast-forward 2 years after her birth, Cloé passed away due to a car crash as she was coming home from her mother’s house. I was devastated of her passing and went into a deep depression and having to raise our two-year-old daughter by my self. My friends tried to get me to go out again and start back dating, but every time I did, I felt like I was betraying her.”

OP’s new wife had always had not the best feelings about his late wife.

The man shared, “Years later, when Eleanore was 13, I met Wendy. We met at a gathering for my sister’s birthday, and we instantly hit it off. She didn’t mind that I had a daughter because she had two kids herself and just went through a divorce. Two years after we got married, now back to the present.”

“Eleanore 18 birthday is coming up, and I kept all the tapes for me to show her. Mind you, her mother died when she was just two, so Eleanore doesn’t remember her touch or her voice. I was excited to show her the tapes and a week ago I was talking to Wendy about it and I noticed her expression going from happy to looking a bit uncomfortable. Wendy would always get uncomfortable when I talk about my late wife.”

“I don’t say things like ‘Why can’t you be like Cloé’ or ‘Cloé was only supposed to be my first love’ but I talk about her in a way to give my daughter a mental picture of how her mother was like.”

Wendy’s behavior was quite weird for no obvious reason.

The man wrote, “Wendy has always talked to me about Cloé and how it made her sad that ‘She can never be like her.’ Cloé was a model then started working on her fashion career, and don’t get me wrong she was a really beautiful woman, while Wendy had two kids in college and ‘not in the best shape’ due to her words.”

“I love both women how they are, and I’ve never had a preference, but I feel like Wendy is gaining some jealousy towards Cloé. I told Wendy that I love her just the way she was, and she broke down crying.”

“The next day after that incident, she came up to me and apologized for the way she acted last night. I told her it was okay, and it’s good that she felt comfortable to share her feelings, and I gave her a tight hug and a kiss on her forehead. She asked to see where the tapes were at, and I showed her the box of videotapes of my late wife in my closet. Things were going fine until yesterday morning.”

OP’s wife betrayed him and he feels totally depressed about her act.

The OP shared, “I was looking for the tapes because I wanted to put them in a prettier box for my daughter, and when I went to go find them, the box wasn’t in my closet. I looked everywhere to the point I walked downstairs to see my wife laying on the couch watching TV. I asked her about the box, and she told me she threw it away with a neutral expression.”

“My heart dropped, and I asked her what did she mean, and she told me that I talk about her too much and that I need to move on with my life, so she threw them away as a ‘head start’. I was fuming with anger because not only she threw away what I had left of her, she threw away my daughter’s big surprise. We quickly got into an argument, and she noticed how angry I was, so she started apologizing. It got to the point I started crying and locked myself in our bedroom.”

“It’s the morning, and I’m writing this in my office going through my computer finding old files or any type of video of my late wife to give it to my daughter because sometimes my daughter still cries that she never got to ‘meet’ her mother and I really thought it would bring her closer to her. I’ve been ignoring my wife for the past day, and she’s been texting me nonstop about how sorry she is, but I really just can’t look at her right now.”

“It’s getting to the point our mutual friends are texting me to accept her apology and get over it since Cloé died over 10 years ago, but I’m trying to ignore them all because they never had someone so close to them died. I am working on finding these files, and I’m starting to think I was overreacting. I don’t know what to do, and I really need help.”

Redditors flooded the comments with their emotional opinions about the dramatic story.

One person wrote, “I’m honestly not one to advocate for divorce, but I do not think I could continue a relationship with someone who did something so wildly despicable. That isn’t jealousy — that’s a mental disorder. She stole the only vestiges of your wife that your daughter will have.
This is not something you come back from, or she can apologize for. This is a line in the sand.”

Another person commented, “She robbed a daughter of the only small piece of her mother she had. That she never even got to see. Divorce is too kind.”

One more user said, “This isn’t even a mental disorder. This is cruelty. Her terrible behavior doesn’t even deserve an excuse. She threw away the only physical memories that this girl would ever have of her mother. Ever. Because she’s jealous of a ghost.
OP, get divorced. Leave. For your daughter. Because this will never stop. She isn’t sorry. She’s sorry you’re upset and that you’re mad at her. Leave her.”

Another person shared their story, “My mom died when I was 18 and my dad re-married about five years later. My dad had told me that everything of hers was left to me to decide what I wanted to do with them. He had also told me that out of respect for his new wife, he placed all of my mom’s things down in the basement, which was fine with me, because I didn’t have my own place yet or a way to safely move them from the house to a storage unit/wherever I ended up living.
A few years later, when I finally had the space and money to relocate everything from my home state to my new state across the country, he told me that his new wife had thrown everything away because she no longer wanted anything from his ‘old life’ in her house. Items she threw away included many collectible (and priceless) items that my mom absolutely loved, anything related to myself or my siblings, hell, even toys she had collected when we were younger to eventually give to her grandkids.
She did not want anything trace of any life my dad had before she entered the picture. It was all gone, and my dad not only didn’t tell me/my siblings this fact, but also didn’t even try to stop it when it was happening. There were a few pieces that that woman didn’t throw away, and my dad got pissed at ME for me saying I wanted to take them and keep them safe with me.
Dead serious, we did not speak for four months, and he didn’t even apologize, just pretended the fight never happened (this is reason #2,694 of why he is kept very, very low-contact). This happened to me after I had already had 18 years with my mom, I honestly can’t even imagine how it would feel if you lost your mom before being able to have any real memories of her.”

And here’s an emotional story of a man, whose new wife didn’t want her stepson in a family picture. She simply kicked the 10-year-old boy from a family photo, saying that he didn’t belong to the family. Read more to find out how the man reacted to this absolutely heartless quirk and what lesson he taught to the stepmother.