30 Breakup Stories That Prove How Much Modern Dating Sucks 

30 Shitty Breakup Stories That Prove How Much Modern Dating Sucks 

These poor people from Ask Reddit went through some harsh breakups.

1. Dude sent me a screenshot of him with my girl laying on his chest on Valentine’s Day while I was overnight in a hotel for work many hours away.

2. I found out my ex and I weren’t together after he posted an Instagram picture with his best friend of 3 years saying, “It only took me 3 years to ask her out.”

3. Kisses me goodbye after I dropped him off to get his car.

Went to class, got home, and saw all of his stuff was gone. Texted him, in mild panic, asking what was going on. He blocked my number and changed his relationship status on Facebook to single a few days later.

We were together for 2.5 years and lived together for 2.

So yeah, I think ghosting is pretty shitty. I refuse to do it to anyone. I have to be honest with the person if I expect a person I care about to be honest with me.

4. My now ex-husband had his divorce lawyer call me at work to say he filed papers.

We had never discussed divorce and had a nice dinner the night before. I was so stunned my boss had to drive me home.

5. This guy had his friend call my friend to break up for him. He was on the other line in a three way call with his phone muted so he could hear what she said without her knowing. I’d have to say that was a pretty crappy way to break up.

We found out he was on the other line when he approached her the next day thinking that since she was mostly calm and pleasant to his friend, that she didn’t take it badly. He found out the hard way that his assumption was incorrect.

6. Well, the worst I had was ghosting. After a several-month relationship. When we had other dates and events planned. I started calling her friends asking if they had heard from her, was she okay, and finally one of them answered and told me, “Leave her alone creep, she dumped you, it’s over.” This was a woman who had just finished her PhD and is now a professor at a top-tier university.

I had another girlfriend break up with me via text message after a year, then never answer the phone again. She’s now a doctor at one of the world’s most prestigious hospitals. There is no correlation between academic/professional achievement and emotional maturity.

7. An ex-girlfriend of mine broke up with me over MSN Messenger. I was sitting in class and she just IMed me that it was over and that we could still be friends. After that she blocked me.

8. Dated this guy in college for a year. Before the end of the school year we had decided to stay together over the summer, or at least give it a try since we were about an hour away by train. I helped him pack and load up his car as I wasn’t leaving until the next day. We went to grab the last few items from his room and said goodbye, hugged, made out. I gave him a blowjob with zero reciprocation. As I was finishing swallowing, he decides to tell me that he is breaking up with me. I’ll never forget how used and worthless that made me feel.

9. Through text is the worst. She couldn’t do it in person. It felt like she took the easy way out.

10. My ex sent me a text that said what if life is a staircase and you are the bottom step and there’s someone out there for me that’s the top step. So basically confessing he was cheating on me without outright saying he cheated on me. So he broke up with me for her. At least karma got him because she said she wasn’t interested and stopped talking to him. Man fuck him though.

11. She started making out with another dude while we were at a party, all sitting on the same couch. That deflates the romance pretty quickly.

12. 27 years or so ago, my ex wife made love to me, then right after while still lying in bed together in the afterglow she took off her ring and gave it to me and said she wanted a divorce. I couldn’t believe she had done it that way, although I was ready for it to be over. She said she thought it would be the nicest way to do it… I thought it was pretty ruthless…

13. She broke up with me over the phone during my final exams, one week before my birthday. That one kind of hurt.

14. Emotional cheating without calling it that. Hurt me pretty bad.

“I just hang out with this person and don’t tell you about it. What’s the big deal?”

This was a five year relationship mind you.

15. My first year at at college, I was in a long distance relationship with a girl from back home. I didn’t have a car at the time, so I had to take a bus if I ever wanted to make the 300 mile (6 hours or so) trip back home. I tried taking a bus to visit her a few months in, but the bus was cancelled for maintenance issues. Fast forward a month later and I book another one. At this point we had been talking about how we were both so excited to see each other since my last visit hadn’t panned out. I got on the bus, put in my headphones, and dozed off. About an hour into the bus ride I get a call from her, and she asks,”Hey I’ve been thinking we should just be friends from now on.”

This girl waited until I was on the bus heading to her to break up with me, after months of telling me how excited she was that I would finally be able to visit. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the worst way to break up with someone.

16. I present this one from my ex’s playbook:

  1. Break up with me right before Christmas.

  2. Beg for me to get back with you two weeks later.

  3. Reveal that you fucked THREE dudes while we were together the first time. In as many days.

  4. Tell me that it’s “not a big deal.”

17. “The words you use are too big.”

His mom was an English teacher and he was a college graduate. The reality was he just wasn’t in love with me anymore, if he ever had been. I was pretty stunned at the time though. Many years and many miles between then and now. It was a good thing in the end.

18. Someone broke up with me over the phone when I was shopping for nice clothes for her grandfather’s funeral. (I didn’t know the grandfather but I was going to be there for her.) Two weeks later she is dating her ex again.

19. Story I heard from a friend. A guy went to his girlfriend’s house on Valentine’s Day with presents and noticed another guy’s car outside. When he knocked on the door the girl’s mum answered and told him he better leave.

20. My girlfriend of over a year came over for dinner and when she came up I went to kiss her and she kept her distance. “I don’t love you anymore,” she said.

We never fought. I loved her and we were planning on moving in together.

Found out about a week later she dumped me for a new acquaintance. I’d assume she cheated but I have no proof and honestly does it matter? All her friends were as confused as I was.

21. My ex-fiancé texted me, while I was living with his parents, that we were done. Later found out he cheated on me (and has since married) the girl I was worried about at his work. Never saw or talked to him on the phone again after those last few text messages.

22. He was supposed to pick me up from the airport… texted to let me know he wouldn’t be there, and that we were done as I was boarding the plane.

23. Live together for 2.5 years, get a hunch about his new friend. Communicate your inVaLiD and IrraTiONaL feelings. Come home to their bags packed because they couldn’t handle the jEaLouSy. And then receive a video of them on a date two days later. See them holding hands 5 days after the break up. After they told you, “You have nothing to worry about. She’s just a friend. Work on your jealousy. “

24. A friend had her bf break up with her at the start of a 12 hour flight after boarding the plane. So they sat together the whole time.

Sympathy ended when she got back with him. I joked when they went on vacation again he’d do it again.

He did it again.

25. Girlfriend of 5 years wanted to move into a new house on the nicer side of town. We looked and looked and found a place nearly twice as expensive but in our price range. The day we got the keys, I went to work for the day, got off work and all her stuff was gone. She said things just weren’t working out and moved back home with her parents (we were only 23/23). Also, she never sent me a penny for rent that year after the breakup. Fun year that was.

26. Was working away in another country for a year and would come back for a week every 3-4 months. To make up for being away I’d spoil her with gifts, getting flowers delivered to her house, buying her massage/fuel/food vouchers she could use whenever etc, this was on top of messaging her and video calling whenever I could despite the unfriendly time zones. Basically I was doing what I could in the position I was in, the plan was to buy us a house when I got back, it was a whole reason for me taking the job in the first place.

The year is up, and I give her my flight details for my last trip home, she wanted to pick me up from the airport. Messages me an hour before I get on the plane to tell me she had been cheating with her ex pretty much the entire time I was away, and that were over because ‘she needs some time to herself.’

I was bitter and heartbroken but fell on my feet and met the best girl ever a month later. Ended up taking new girlfriend on a year long world trip with some of the money I’d saved, the ex finds out about this and completely flips her shit and damn it still feels good even today.

27. We had been together for 3-4 weeks and one day I was just coming home from work and I saw her walking with another dude. I confronted her in front of him and the conversation went something like this:

Me : “Hey (her name), who’s this?”

Her : “Oh, hey, this is (his name), my boyfriend.”

Me : “Uhmm haven’t we been in a relationship for like a month now?”

Her : “Ugh I guess, but we clearly broke up yesterday evening.”

Me : *visible confusion*

We didn’t break up that evening, we just had a minor squabble about how we should spend more time together (I was working 12s that week). We even kissed when I was leaving her place and she told me “I love you.”

I was so astounded I couldn’t even be mad. Forgot about her in a few weeks and moved on with my life.

28. My boyfriend broke up with me by texting me asking how my day was. I said, “Fine, how was yours?” He responded with: “Great had a fantastic day with my girlfriend.” I was at work all day. We had been together for 4 years, and been living together for 2… He had been cheating on me, and decided to leave me for his mistress. Good times.

29. On the second day of a 7-day trip, or on the second hour of a 9-hour fucking bus ride where you still have to be within 10 feet of each other for the rest of the damn trip. Not that I’m bitter or anything.

30. Christmas Eve my ex got all of her gifts because we wouldn’t see each other the next day because she would be “busy”. Turns out she had been cheating on me with another guy and she just wanted to get her gifts. After packing everything she says oh yeah we are done I’m seeing someone else and left. We were together for several years and engaged at that point but at least I got the ring back. Thought Catalog Logo Mark

January Nelson is a writer, editor, and dreamer. She writes about astrology, games, love, relationships, and entertainment. January graduated with an English and Literature degree from Columbia University.