A woman has revealed how she missed the signs of her long-time partner’s affair – that were obvious to even her own mother.
Jessica May, 36, from Norfolk, was having a ‘silly’ argument with her mother who then confronted her with some home truths, saying: ‘Just because he’s having an affair doesn’t mean you can speak to me like that!’
Rushing up the stairs to where her boyfriend of 10 years lay under the duvet hungover, she demanded to know if he was cheating, to which he responded with a blunt and simple denial.
But after two further ‘hellish’ years of ‘lies, gaslighting and tears’ and Jessica ‘begging’ for him to stay, the former primary school teacher-turned-content creator was left alone with their two children, now aged nine and four.
Her partner moved out to live with his mistress – the same woman that the youngsters now affectionately call ‘step-mummy’.
Looking back, Jessica admits that there were tell-tale signs of her ex’s affair long before she discovered undeniable proof – including working longer hours at his job in finance, always being on his phone and staying at friends’ homes for the night when taxis were apparently ‘impossible’ to find.
But the mother of two, who was busy raising their children, said she still didn’t have any reason to doubt her boyfriend until her mother’s outburst.
Only then did Jessica start to question some of her ex’s actions, like why he hadn’t bought her much at Christmas. (She would later discover that the mistress got a designer handbag.)
Jessica May (pictured), 36, from Norfolk, was having a ‘silly’ argument with her mother who then confronted her with some home truths, saying: ‘Just because he’s having an affair doesn’t mean you can speak to me like that!’
Weeks after her mother’s remarks, the popular content creator, who has 1.6 million followers on Instagram, was finally given the chance she’d been waiting for – to check her boyfriend’s phone.
Her device had run out of battery – and so to soothe their youngest with white noise while out for lunch, her ex handed his phone over.
Jessica took the opportunity to rifle through the mobile and finally discovered the proof she needed to be sure her partner was cheating – texts exchanged with his lover – even while the mother of two was giving birth to their younger child.
The content creator left her ex at their lunch. She recalled to the Made by Mammas: The Podcast: ‘I left him where he was… and he knew, I don’t know how he knew, but he knew. And as I was walking away, he came after us.
‘I very calmly said to him, you’re not coming home with us. It’s probably the only time I was really the strongest out of the whole thing… and I went straight to my mum.’
Jessica continued: ‘I was just completely and utterly devastated. I’m looking at my children and I’m thinking, “What are we going to do? How are we ever going to survive this? I don’t have a job, I don’t have any way of putting a house over your head.”
‘I fell to the ground and I cried so many times, because it was just heartbreaking.’
Later, when Jessica confronted her partner, he claimed that it was nothing more than a one-night stand, the mother-of-two told The Telegraph in December 2025.
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Rushing up the stairs to where her boyfriend of 10 years lay under the duvet hungover, Jessica (pictured) demanded to know if he was cheating, to which he responded with a blunt and simple denial
But the content creator then found further proof of the romantic affair after finding a receipt for an expensive Mulberry handbag from John Lewis in his work bag, one that wasn’t gifted to her.
Her ex-partner claimed it was originally for Jessica but she ‘didn’t deserve’ it and so returned it. But when she checked with the store, they confirmed that no such item had been sent back.
Still, the couple remained together despite the boyfriend’s mounting indiscretions.
For example, he allegedly lied to get out of a family cruise, only for Jessica to return home, notice the house wasn’t as she left it, and that ‘[the mistress’s] pyjamas, a condom and a golf scorecard’ were in her partner’s work bag.
‘I wish I could say I walked away that day, but I didn’t. When you have young children, you don’t leave easily. I cringe now at the memory of throwing myself at his feet begging, “Please don’t leave me, don’t break up our family,’ she told the newspaper.
Jessica joined the gym, had Botox and ‘stopped breastfeeding’ to try and rekindle their romance, until eventually, her now ex decided to move out and continue his relationship with his mistress in July 2022.
Recently, Jessica moved out of the home she had once shared with her ex into a new house, and to mark the milestone, she felt ready to share her story with her many followers.
The content creator – known for her cleaning tips and vlogging on YouTube – admitted she had initially felt ’embarrassed’ about being cheated on.
But after two further ‘hellish’ years of ‘lies, gaslighting and tears’ and Jessica (pictured) ‘begging’ for him to stay, the former primary school teacher-turned-content creator was left alone with their two children, now aged nine and four
But she wanted to share her situation in the hope of breaking down the taboo and to help others who might be going through similar.
However, when the infidelity first took place, Jessica ‘blamed herself’.
She told Made by Mammas: The Podcast in July 2025: ‘I do think naturally, when infidelity takes place, that as the victim of the infidelity, you blame yourself.
‘You say it’s all my fault that he did that. And I think that’s like a lot of people. Some people say that too. They’re like, “Well, what did you do wrong for him to go off and have an affair and do those things?”
‘I can look at it now, and I’m like, “gosh, well, I really didn’t do anything”, but at the time, I was like, it must be… there’s something wrong with me. I must have done something that caused him to go off.
‘What was it? What did I do? And I, when I looked at it all, I was like, “Well, you know, I’ve got a new baby. I’ve got, you know, a one year old. I maybe haven’t paid him as much attention as he needed.”
‘You know, when he gets home, I’m not going, “I’m so happy you’re here.” Like, let me have, you know, give you a big cuddle and the kiss, like you’re home. Amazing.
‘Instead, I’m going, “God, you don’t know what kind of day I’ve had, like, you know, the classics, you know, it’s just sort of, I’m exhausted. Here’s the baby. I need a rest”. but he’s just been at work all day, and so naturally, kind of a distance starts coming between us.
‘I was also breastfeeding our youngest and I didn’t necessarily… like we weren’t sleeping in the same bed.’
She continued: ‘But I think some men need that extra validation. That they can’t really accept that this is how their relationship is.
‘And so when you have got you know, a younger person stepping up and being you know, a little bit flirty, and you’re at home and you’ve got your wife or your longtime partner, and they’re exhausted and looking a little bit kind of worse for wear, because they’re looking after the kids.
‘It’s natural for a man’s head to maybe be turned by that. I think it happens more than we know,’ she added.
Jessica told hosts Zoe Hardman and Georgia Dayton that the turning point in her and her ex’s relationship came about after the mistress called Jessica one night after having an argument with the content creator’s partner.
‘[She] told me everything, she answered all of the questions… She just said, you were actually correct with all of them. She said, like he has been lying. And it turns out he’d actually been lying to both of us.’
The two women ended up meeting the next day to discuss everything, with Jessica admitting it was almost an opportunity ‘to compare yourself’.
‘You want to say, what’s so special about her, that’s what I wanted to know. What is so special about her? Why has he done this?
‘And you know, she’s a very nice, very nice girl. She’s still part of their life now. And you know, she spends time with my children and takes care of them, and I am really grateful to her for how she treats my children.
‘That’s the one thing I do always stand by, is that, you know, they did what they did, but they are still together, and she is amazing with my children, and to have someone step in, as you know, in that step-mum role, you hear horror stories, and you’re growing up with step-mums and villains in the Disney movies.
‘But she’s not that. She’s great, and like my youngest daughter, absolutely loves her to pieces,’ added Jessica, revealing how the youngest daughter doesn’t know about how her dad and step-mother got together, but the eldest child does.
Jessica revealed how her oldest once said that she was glad that the parents broke up because they are now both happy.
