43 People Tell Stories About Their Toxic Exes

This post is presented in partnership with ‘Tell Me Lies’ on Hulu.

When I first posted about wanting some stories about toxic exes, I didn’t really know what to expect. Would people want to anonymously air out their dirty laundry? How toxic can these exes actually be. Do I really want to take on this emotional trauma?

As it turns out, I received about double the submissions that I normally get for Sunday Confessions. While some went too far and others felt petty, there were so many that made me sit back and think, “Well, I guess my exes aren’t too bad.” It was also very funny to me that numerous people referenced Stephen Demarco from Tell Me Lies, the show we’re doing this in partnership with.

Here they are.

Failed out of med school and didn’t tell me. For 18 months.

Made me stay in a hotel during a fight. Later got upset because the hotel I chose was “too slutty.” To be fair, it was the Standard West Village which is objectively really slutty.

Dating long distance, she came to my city for work and didn’t tell me. Ran into her at a bar and she lied about being infertile which didn’t seem relevant (and she was not).

I DoorDashed chicken soup when I was deathly ill with Covid, and he ate it all because “What was he supposed to eat?”

He was having sex with multiple people on the side (despite telling me he was exclusive) and then months after I dumped him, he out-of-the-blue called to ask if I could catsit.

We went to a wedding together. He let me leave alone. Got back to the hotel hours later and said “I have something for you…” and lifted his leg and farted. Then said “look at this” and had tucked his genitals into a “mangina,” and then proceeded to scream “look at my mangina.”

I went over to his house and while in the shower together the steam revealed a little note his special guest had left for me to find the night before… they are now dating.

I dated a real psycho in college, like Stephen DeMarco-level unhinged. Anywho, he must have studied my friends list on my AIM account because one night he made a new screen name that looked like mine (but swapped a lowercase L for an uppercase I) and proceeded to send psychotic messages to my friends through this alias account so that it looked like I was the one behind the messages. He did so many other shitty, manipulative things during our time together. I’m so glad I finally saw the light and ended things eventually, but the PTSD he left me with is real. A real-life villain and I know karma will catch up with him eventually.

When we broke up, my ex got a horrible depiction of me tattooed on his forearm.

In a year-long relationship then he suddenly ghosted me out of nowhere. One minute it was a sweet good morning text and the next nothing. Been years now but I still don’t know what happened.

I found out he had secret folders on an app, where he saved of all of my woman friends and family members photos from their Instagram pages and Snapchat stories.

We dated for a year. Met the parents, had a key to his apartment, he told my best friend he was going to propose, everything. He straight up ghosts me out of the blue. I went over to his place because I was worried about him, and the dude had straight up MOVED OUT. He never spoke to me again and this was over seven years ago. I have trust issues now.

Posted our whole sex life on Reddit. Found out when he left it open on my computer he was borrowing because he couldn’t afford his own due to no job.

Dated a guy in college who wanted me to, and 19, be engaged to him while he went for a summer internship at Disney because “While I’m gone, everyone will know that you’re off limits.”

He ran over my glasses because he thought I was trying to look hot for other people by wearing them.

After 8 years of no contact and 10 years after our relationship, my ex sent me a poem he wrote the day before my wedding. It was about how he tanked our relationship by cheating because he always knew I was too good for him. The cheating was news to me. Still not sure what he was expecting or how he knew I was getting married… but it made my choice to marry my husband so much easier. So thanks, I guess?

He stole pickles from the gas station hot dog bar for a Valentine’s Day Picnic and offered them to me in a soggy napkin from his pocket.

I dated this one guy who got mad I couldn’t make his birthday trip to Vegas because I had to work so to be spiteful, he cheated on me and filmed the girl giving him head and sent me the video.

My ex claimed he was the original Marshmello DJ having played the first “20-25 shows with the Marshmello helmet.” He had no proof, photos, videos, NOTHING. He also couldn’t carry a beat to save his life, but adamantly maintained that it was true and told at least a dozen people this story. 6 months into the relationship I met Chris Comstock at an event in California, and asked him if he knew my (now) ex. Shocker… he’d never heard of him.

Went to a psychic who said he has a secret child. The next day I joked and asked him about it — he got serious and said he thought I knew. I threw up and we broke up the next day.

He called my hair salon, pretended to be my dad, cancelled all my appointments.

He locked me in his bedroom while his roommates were having a party right outside his door cause he didn’t want me to go because he had to study at the library.

My ex kept an excel spreadsheet detailing our sex life. He would include “satisfaction scores” for each encounter and make notes for improvement.

My ex of 1.5 years ghosted me on a random Tuesday in September after I moved cities and changed my entire life to be with him.

He told me his mom was dying and he was caring for her, when I said I wanted to meet her, she all of a sudden passed away! Come to find out she had died 3 months prior, and never mentioned it nor showed an ounce of emotion, he had been lying the whole time!

He used my Sephora points on his new girlfriend after we broke up.

My ex came back after 10 years, saying leaving me was the biggest mistake of his life, and I believed him. Things were beautiful for a couple of months, until he started traveling a lot for work and acting strange. I later found out I was only his girlfriend in our small town—everywhere else, he claimed to be single and said “the girl” in the Instagram pictures was his sister.

She called me a “pussy” because I had a good relationship with my family.

Got me to drop him off for ‘boys night’ turned out he was going on a date with a random girl he met at a petrol station, took her back to his parents (they were on holiday) and the neighbour called to tell me!

He was jealous of the nights out I had before I met him. Then he cut up my clothes and stole my passport when I left him.

It wasn’t until a woman messaged me asking me why I was talking to her boyfriend that I realised it was that fucked up. It was Covid and she lived on the other side of the city (Melbourne had the strictest lockdowns) so we would never even run into each other. We had no idea he was crop us out of group photos to send to the other or invite us over had just left. Took us years to unpack!

When I told my ex that he was “my person,” his response to me back was “Well I can be that for you, but you won’t be that for me because I have myself.”

He broke up with me because he told me he “had a calling to the priesthood” he is currently married to a woman and NOT the church.

My ex got too drunk at a party when we were together. She got kicked out so we taxied home. In the taxi, she was passed out, and I decided to go through her phone because of obvious reasons that she was cheating on me. The taxi driver told me he was writing a book about the crazy stories he had. I told him “if you want to add to it, I’m finding out in real time that this girl is sleeping with at least 5 other people.” He was very nice but got very quiet. I hope he wrote his book. And I hope he remembers that story.

I realized 18 months into my first real relationship in college that his friends didn’t know we were dating. They thought I was just some weird friend always tagging along.

He would call out sex positions like they were plays in football and would break out into impressions halfway through. You can say the relationship didn’t last very long after I found that out.

My ex was Stephen DeMarco (Tell Me Lies) on steroids. He even spit in my sister’s face once. The sex was so insane I kept going back for more even though I knew he was a loser. It’s been decades since then-but still fantasize about him every once in awhile.

My ex was so critical of me that he even critiqued the way I washed the dishes. “As the person that buys soap, I believe I have a say in how it’s used.”

My ex hired a hooker to come to our house and have sex with him in our bed and film it for OnlyFans while I was one town over celebrating thanksgiving with his entire family and our newborn.

He scheduled a lunch with my dad to get him to talk some sense into his stubborn daughter, so I would get back together with him. Told false stories about me mismanaging money, overpaying a mechanic to fix my car and that I needed a real man in my life. He flew three hours each way to do this, only to have my amazing dad say you aren’t good enough for her. This guy still comes up in conversations followed by — “The audacity!”

Went to a Halloween party at a friend’s and stayed the night. He peed the bed and tried to blame the dog. There was no dog.

He gave me back a pair of earrings I left there… they weren’t mine.

He took the house toilet when we broke up because “he bought it.” We had one bathroom.