Believe me when I tell you that the last thing I expected from this year was my painful, messy breakup turning into a TikTok soap opera viewed by millions.
When 2026 began, my girlfriend of seven years and I had major plans for the future. It felt like all the pieces were finally beginning to fall into place.
We were looking for a house to buy and our respective businesses were booming. Unbeknownst to her, I was getting ready to propose during a much-anticipated trip we had planned to hike Mount Kilimanjaro.
Nothing, I fondly thought, would be the same after that – we were stepping into a whole new chapter of our lives.
It’s bittersweet to think about how right I was: the year certainly did bring change, just not in the way that I anticipated.
Because after building a life together, the woman I loved, and would have done anything for, blew it all up. And she did it in the most hurtful way imaginable.
I can remember the day like it was yesterday. It was April and I had just got back home after a trip to Florida. That week, Amber (as I will refer to my ex throughout this) and I had barely seen each other, so I planned a surprise date for the two of us, starting with a bike ride on the beach and ending with dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant. But when I excitedly told her about my plan, she began crying and said we needed to talk.
She told me that she wasn’t ‘living in her values,’ that she wanted to get married and have kids. While we had had conversations about both things in the past, her insistence on them in this moment felt disorienting.
The last thing I expected from this year was my painful, messy breakup turning into a TikTok soap opera viewed by millions
When 2026 began, my girlfriend of seven years and I had major plans for the future
After building a life together, the woman I loved, and would have done anything for, blew it all up. And she did it in the most hurtful way imaginable
I told her about my plan to propose, but she remained agitated. We both cried that evening and I went to bed earlier than she did, upset that my carefully considered plans for the proposal were revealed, but mostly unsettled with what the future would hold if we jumped to having children right away.
The following day, I wanted to continue our conversation from the previous night, but Amber made plans to hang out with her friends at the beach. She asked if we could table the conversation for later that evening.
Later, when she still wasn’t home, I checked her location and saw that she was at her assistant’s house. When I called, she said that her car had gotten locked in the parking lot at the beach and that she would be driving her assistant’s car home.
I remembered that Amber had been out unusually late with her assistant the week before. At this point, my intuition began tingling – and a woman’s intuition is rarely wrong.
When we both got home the following day, I asked her where all of this was really coming from – this sudden desire for marriage, kids and the white picket fence. I asked her who promised her the world and she crumbled. She admitted the truth – she had feelings for her assistant and that she had cheated on me with her.
Everything happened very quickly after that. Within weeks, Amber moved out of our home abruptly and without warning and took our beloved dog Joe with her.
To make matters worse, while I reeled, she struck up a relationship with her assistant as quickly as she ended our seven years as a couple.
I was totally and completely blindsided.
There were no warning signs or red flags hinting at her discontent; in fact, I later learned that she had sent me listings for potential homes for us the very week that she started cheating.
I think that’s part of why this breakup has been so painful – I had no idea that Amber would ever treat me like this. I really thought that our respect was mutual. During our time together, she would regularly tell me I was the best part of her day and shower me with words of affirmation, compliments and kisses. We never really left the honeymoon phase of our relationship.
Adding to the deep hurt of this betrayal was the realization that I was losing my dearest friend. I had fallen for Amber the minute I saw her working at my gym. I had such a crush on her – she was beautiful, but also fun. I was so infatuated that I began scheduling my workouts around when she worked so that I could talk to her. We became fast friends before we began dating.
Within weeks, she moved out of our home abruptly and without warning and took our beloved dog Joe with her
To make matters worse, while I reeled, she struck up a relationship with her assistant as quickly as she ended our seven years as a couple
I think that’s part of why this breakup has been so painful – I had no idea that Amber would ever treat me like this
During our time together, she would regularly tell me I was the best part of her day
Sapphic relationships are different from heteronormative ones because your partner is also your best girlfriend. The only difference between your best friend and your partner is the physical intimacy. Not only do we share our deepest, darkest secrets, but she’s also the one helping me pick out my clothes and helping me with my hair and makeup.
Of course, my relationship with Amber wasn’t perfect – no relationship is. But there were times when it felt pretty close. We had a beautiful home, our adorable Golden Retriever Joe and a wonderful community of friends.
We rarely argued and agreed about nearly everything. We didn’t lie to each other – or so I thought.
In the wake of our breakup, Amber’s betrayal began to take its toll on my mind and body. I couldn’t sleep and could barely keep food down. I began having panic attacks at night and felt my mental health going to dark places.
I was so lonely and haunted in our empty house that I booked a trip to Mexico. I’ve never been one to run away from my problems, but in that moment, it felt like escaping was the only thing I could do. I alternated between crying on the beach and in my hotel room.
When Amber and I did have conversations, she was cold and at times, downright nasty and cruel to me. It was like a mask had fallen off and revealed that the person I had dreamed of spending the rest of my life with was really a stranger who didn’t think twice before saying something intentionally mean or cutting to me.
In our relationship, I was typically the one who comforted her. I rarely needed to be held, but in this moment, all I wanted was for her to hold me. It’s hard to reckon with how the one person you want to comfort you is also the person who hurt you the most.
I felt so unbelievably alone in my sadness, so on a whim, I began making funny TikToks about my deeply unfunny situation.
People who had been wronged like me began responding and it was nice to know that I wasn’t alone in my experience. By the time I decided to do a ‘storytime’ series about how I had been betrayed, many of my videos had gone viral to the tune of millions of views.
I’ve received hundreds of responses from overwhelmingly supportive people and it made me feel empowered in a situation where I had felt utterly helpless. If I were to keep this inside, then Amber and this person would have completely got away with what they did without having to face the harm they’ve caused.
Although she was initially upset that the saga had gone viral and that internet sleuths had discovered who she and her assistant were, it also seemed to make Amber realize the impact that her decisions had on all our lives.
In our most recent conversation, she took accountability for the many ways in which she hurt me. She had remorse for how she handled the situation, her cruelty and coldness. And she finally gave me the many apologies I hadn’t received.
She apologized for her actions, misleading me during our relationship and for breaking our trust. She apologized for the fact that her betrayal means that I may have a hard time trusting another human being again.
‘What I did was nothing short of evil,’ she said. She wasn’t wrong.
At the end of our conversation, she pulled me in for a long hug, probably the most intimate hug I’ve ever had in my life.
With one hand in the waistband of my pants and the other cradling the nape of my neck, she kept pulling me in closer and closer as we sobbed in each other’s arms. It didn’t feel like the hug of two people who had fallen out of love at all.
It’s not lost on me that that hug was extremely inappropriate for someone who’s now in a relationship with someone else. But of course, I wasn’t thinking of that in the moment – it was just nice to have my girl hold me again.
I’ll never know if she wanted to comfort me in that moment or make herself feel better about what she’d done.
I felt so unbelievably alone in my sadness, so on a whim, I began making funny TikToks about my deeply unfunny situation
I was so lonely and haunted in our empty house that I booked a trip to Mexico
I truly forgive Amber and I release what she has done to me, because I don’t want that to dim my light
Posting my story has helped me to process everything that I went through. People may be following me now because of this messy breakup drama, but I hope they’ll stay for more of the content that I’m making about healing and how I give back to myself. I hope that it will show people that life really does keep moving forward, even when it feels like the rug has been ripped out from underneath you.
My journey towards healing from this betrayal still has a way to go, but what I do know is that it starts with forgiveness. If that grief has nowhere to go, it rots your soul and your entire perspective on life and love is permanently altered. I don’t want that for myself. I don’t want to ruminate and play scenarios repeatedly in my head or blame myself because, in reality, it had nothing to do with me.
When I was with Amber, my world revolved around her, taking care of her, going home to cook and be there when she got off work. Now, I’ve been focusing all that love and care that I wanted to provide to Amber back on myself.
I am trying to be intentional about separating myself and who I am as a person from her, because for so long my sense of self has been tied to my partner. Now I need to focus my energy back on me.
I am hoping for a life that feels full without needing romantic love, but once romantic love comes around, I’m just hoping that it’s reciprocated in the same way that I so freely give.
I truly forgive Amber and I release what she has done to me, because I don’t want that to dim my light. I don’t regret any of the love that I’ve given and I’ve definitely never had cause to regret the way I’ve treated someone I love. I don’t know if Amber can say the same.
As told to Cady Lang
Amber did not respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.
