A man said he ended a three-year relationship after his girlfriend refused to drop a condition: she would only marry him on a timeline tied to her best friend's love life. The story has gone viral on the popular Reddit forum, AITAH.
The story was shared from the boyfriend’s point of view on Reddit and has surpassed 13,000 upvotes with thousands of comments. The couple was apparently together for 3 years before their breakup.
Both shared the intention of getting married and settling down with kids in their early thirties. Things in their relationship were all good until she brought up the ultimate dealbreaker for him: a condition. The deal was that she wanted to get married around the same time as her best friend.
Initially, he found it cute, but was brought back to reality after reflecting on the gravity of her words. According to the Redditor, her best friend had not maintained stable relationships and had no interest in getting married.
He claimed that the woman’s relationships typically ended before the six-month mark. Despite the women’s conflicting views on the subject, his girlfriend (at the time) had a plan.
The user said, “My girlfriend’s whole plan is to convince her that she wants a marriage, then find a guy, then hope he proposes, then coordinate weddings.”
Although he claimed not to have minded, he mentioned, “I’m not comfortable with our future basically being in someone else’s hands.” This did not go down well with her because she accused him of not being understanding about her friendship.
So he had a counteroffer: If her best friend didn’t get married within the next two years, his girlfriend should drop the condition.
Ultimately, The Couple Split Up
In a separate post on Reddit, the user updated those closely following the story. After that huge blowout between him and his now-ex girlfriend, he had decided to take a breather. He even reached out to her best friend, explaining the situation. But that only made things worse.
The woman's best friend urged her to drop the condition since she never wanted to get married. That caused a fight between them. In turn, this also affected his relationship with the woman, whose friendship with her best friend was also on the rocks.
The boyfriend decided to go for one final attempt to calmly help the woman understand that a “third party’s” involvement was a dealbreaker for him. So the morning of the breakup, he sat down and attempted to talk things through. And claimed he didn’t want to lose her over an alleged fantasy plan.
The woman was still optimistic that her best friend would want to get married eventually and sternly refused to drop her condition. In response, the user said, “That’s when it became obvious that I was essentially the third wheel in my own relationship and no amount of reasoning was going to get through.”
Redditors Highlighted Red Flags While Fuming Over the Story After the Couple Split
Together, the posts attracted close to 2,000 responses from Redditors. They each highlighted red flags that the boyfriend might have missed early on in his relationship.
A commenter mentioned, “The minute she said her friend would come around about marriage because she knows her better than she knows herself… yeah that was the whole problem right there.”
Another commenter wrote in agreement, “Exactly! That line alone is a red flag. It’s like she was living in a what-if world instead of dealing with the reality of your relationship.”
Similarly, one more user said, “She has some crazy obsession with her friend. I hope the friend is smart enough to take it as the red flag it is…”
Another commenter offered support, writing: “You did the right thing. Your ex has problems SHE needs to acknowledge and fix on her own.” A final Redditor said, “I’m sorry you’re going through this. I hope one day you find someone who prioritizes you.”
