True Romance: No Daddy Issues Here, Woman Dating A Married Father & Hall Passes Given Out To Even The Score

If we've learned anything from our journeys through true romance, it's that almost nothing is as straightforward as it appears on paper.  There's often twists and turns along the way that nobody could ever have predicted.

When hearts are open, anything is possible, and you sometimes get dragged out into deep waters where situations can get complicated.

Last week we learned that we're in for a summer of threesomes.  In this week's edition of True Romance with SeanJo we learn that the path to a happy relationship is a difficult one to navigate for some.

Some find comfort in older partners.  Some wind up in a relationship with a married father.  Others heal a broken heart from a cheating spouse with some "hall pass" cheating of their own.

The bottom line is, everyone is different.  There's no right or wrong way to make it work with another person.  In the words of Anna Nicole Smith, who knew a thing or two about interesting relationships, "I don't drink as much as I use to could."

Sorry, wrong quote.

This is the one I was looking for and is attributed to the late model who married a wealthy elderly man before he died.  She said, "I was 23, and he was 86.  I saw a very sick man.  I just wanted to just talk with him.  There was no physical attraction at all.  He was very much attracted to me."

What a touching sentiment and an excellent way to introduce this week, where we have a relationship with a bit of an age gap.

Remember I want to hear from you.  If you have a true romance story you want to share or if you want to comment on anything, send them my way at sean.joseph@outkick.com.

No daddy issues here, just a woman who fell in love with a man her dad's age

We're getting this week's edition started with a couple that has an almost 30-year age gap.

The age gap combined with the fact that the man has the same name and is the same age as his wife's dad, has some claiming she has daddy issues.  That's not the case according to this couple.

34-year-old Jessica and 62-year-old Alan met just over 10 years ago at a party when a mutual friend introduced them to one another.

No matter how many signs of daddy issues there are, there are no daddy issues here. (Image Credit: Getty)

While not physically attracted to Alan at first, Jessica took note of his success and the way he carried himself.  From there, the attraction started to grow.  She didn't even realize that Alan was the same age as her father until weeks into dating.

"I always say Alan fell in love, and I walked in love," Jessica said on an episode of Love Don’t Judge.  The different ways in which they got there didn't matter and 9 months after they first met, Alan proposed.

The pace at which they went from first meeting to walking down the aisle turned a lot of friends and family off and many of them didn't show up to their wedding.  That was a decade ago.

The two have been together since and just celebrated their 10th anniversary.  That's been enough to win over some, including Jessica's dad, who first responded to the fact that his daughter was with a man with the same name and age as him by saying she had daddy issues.

It's just a coincidence.  There are no daddy issues here.  She's in love, he's in love and these two are going to live happily ever after. 

They'll cross the bridge of what happens when he's in his 80s, and she's in her 50s with plenty of good years ahead of her when they get there.  For now, they're here to prove the rest of society wrong.

Woman finds out she's dating a married dad

Not everyone is as lucky in love as these two daddy issues deniers.  Some fall for the wrong person.  It happens all the time.  Although the wrong person isn't normally a married man with a child.

For one unfortunate woman it is.  She made the discovery recently that she's been dating a married man with not only a wife, but a child at home as well and isn't sure about how to proceed.  

The woman says she's been dating the man for a couple of months and, despite some obvious red flags, that they've already slept together.

Woman discovers the man she is dating is a married father. (image Credit: Getty)

"He works all over the country so we've met most weeks on weeknights when he's in the area (we have slept together)," she said.  "He has been quite evasive about some things, such as refusing to tell me his surname and never messaging or responding at weekends."

This started to bother her to the point that she decided it was time to ask some questions of her only available during weeknights when he's in town new love interest.

"I bit the bullet and asked him last night if he had a girlfriend and he said 'not really.'"

Not really?  That doesn't sound good.  So she finally decided to put on her detective hat and hit the internet.  Her digging paid off and she learned the truth about his relationship status.

Her new boyfriend is a married father.  So where does she go from here?  She asked, "Do I confront him about lying to me?  Do I just block him and move on?"

There's no way this relationship continues, is there?  Well, when love is on the line, people are willing to go to any length to make that happen.  She seems willing to take a chance to find out if this is real or not.

"I absolutely accept that I was far too trusting and shouldn't have slept with him whilst he was still being evasive - I can't change that part but I certainly can learn from it.  And yes, in a warped way he didn't exactly lie about 'not really' having a girlfriend, but rather a wife!"

I say go for it.  His wife and kid aren't your responsibility.  This might be your only shot at being with the one.  Don't let anything get in the way of that.

Cheating wife lets her husband even the score

This is the perfect example of not letting anything get in your way when it comes to love.  The shock and devastation of being cheated on can be overcome with some marriage counseling and a hall pass.

A married man revealed on Reddit that his wife had a 6-month affair during the seventh year of their marriage.  It was a tough pill for him to swallow.  His wife offered up a way to even up the score.

She gave him one hall pass for each month of her affair.  There were rules in place for the hall pass arrangement.  This wasn't a wild west free for all.

Wife gives her husband several hall passes after she cheating on him for six months. (Image Credit: Getty)

She didn't want to know when a hall pass was used unless she asked.  He had to answer questions about the hall pass encounters honestly and in detail.  He had to use protection, and he wasn't allowed to have an emotional connection.

Fair enough.  Those seem like rules that aren't all that hard to follow.  Was he actually supposed to use his hall passes?  I think we all know the answer to that, but he did.

He obeyed all the rules put in place and slept with two women, three times each.  He says, "It helped me subside the resentment I had towards her.  That is just how ‘getting even’ feels I guess."

That was five years ago.  Things since then have been going great until recently when his wife asked him out of the blue about those hall passes and whether he had used them.

Remember it was her idea, but clearly the offer to "get even" was supposed to be enough.  He wasn't supposed to go through with it.  When asked about it, he was honest and provided details, which he now thinks might have been a mistake.

His wife didn't take the news well.  He said, "She does not even look me in the eyes now and in a depressive state.  I know this calls for another marriage counseling for us and maybe individual counseling, too."

There you go.  So much for honesty and the concept of hall passes.  It sounded like a good idea, but he quite obviously wasn't supposed to actually use them or he was supposed to lie.

Now they're back at square one.  Another round of marriage counseling and, if I had to guess, some more extramarital affairs.  Somehow, I feel like these two are going to make it work one hall pass at a time.

Story of True Romance

Unfortunately, I don't think the same can be said for these next couples.  They took a chance, well worth it for those who understand romance, but it didn't work.

- Anonymous writes:

This is a real bad one, as relayed by a friend of mine.

He found out that his son-in-law had struck up an emotional relationship while on a business trip. His daughter was expecting their second baby, and the other woman had either two or three kids of her own and a long time marriage.

In literally a couple of weeks, they both left their spouses and kids, and went on a crazy love bender (for lack of a better word) for like four or five months. And guess what, it flamed out quickly and they both tried crawling back to their exes, begging for forgiveness.

I couldn’t even believe that was a real story, but these people must not have been happy in their marriages and when they found someone, it must’ve been a quick flash, and they thought they could make it last. Meanwhile, they left their relationships in shambles.

A classic "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" scenario.  Wouldn’t it be great if?  It would be, and while it didn't work out, this sort of thing was bound to happen at some point.

They caught a spark, thought it was enough to last, and the wind blew out the fire.  It sounds heartbreaking, and I'm sure it isn't easy, but their mistake opened the door for their spouses to wander back out into the wilderness of love and find something new.

That's the happy ending for these marriages.

That's all for this week.  Let me know if you've ever had any experience with hall passes or daddy issues or any other story of true romance.  Send me your comments or your stories to sean.joseph@outkick.com.