The real reasons we have affairs - by the people having them

Stories of cheating, betrayal and affairs are not hard to come by – but we rarely hear from the people who are themselves unfaithful. One 2024 survey by World Population Review found 36 per cent of people in the UK have cheated on their partner – an increase from the 2015 YouGov poll that estimated it at 20 per cent.

Affairs can happen for many reasons. According to Carla Crivaro, sex, love and relationship coach, “affairs are often a symptom of issues within the relationship itself, or personal struggles that the individual having the affair finds difficult to acknowledge or communicate”.

Here four people candidly share how – and why – their affairs happened, and the aftermath.

Shorts

‘He made me feel wanted and alive’