Dear Thelma: I love him so much but he is a lying two-timer

I have an issue with my boyfriend that has been going on for months. I’m 28 and my boyfriend is 18 years older than me. He has two children and is divorced. We’ve been dating for almost three years.

About one-and-a-half years into the relationship, I visited his place and found a woman’s hair in his bed. When I confronted him about it, he denied everything. However I got a bad feeling about it and was also curious. So I did something I wasn’t proud of – I snooped around his phone to find out the truth. I found out that he was playing me with four other ladies in the past.

When I confronted him, he was so guilty and defensive. We almost broke up because I was so disappointed. But he begged me and I love him so much that I gave in. Months later, I saw in his phone that he had started dropping those ladies and was no longer responding to their persuading except for one woman whom he had started dating before me.

I felt that he was very attached to her. She’s married, with children. They had been seeing each other for some years. They’d meet up every week. So I confronted him and he said that the relationship would end like all the others. I felt hurt but decided to stay.

Months later, I got pregnant with him and he wanted us to have the child. Two months into my pregnancy, the other woman found out about it.

She also found out that I had met his children, whereas she hadn’t, and yet she knew him before I did. She got furious and kind of obsessive and would throw tantrums and make threats. She left her house and told my boyfriend that she must stay with him.