Your Cheating Heart: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Two-timing, playing away from home, having a bit on the side, going behind your partner's back, adultery, infidelity... There are a lot of names for cheating on your partner, but most of them have the same outcome: [[Love Hurts|a world of hurt.]]

 

 

Chances are he'll eventually get caught; if he didn't, the story wouldn't have the same dramatic impact. A lot of angst and tension will ensue instead.

 

 

 

Interestingly, our attitudes as viewers have changed towards cheating as well. For a start, what we ''define'' as cheating has changed. Kissing someone who wasn't your partner/spouse used to qualify, but now many writers and viewers are unsympathetic to a husband or wife who freaks out over "just a kiss" when they find their significant other lip-locked with a stranger; most people maintain that "an affair" has to involve sex.

 

 

Unfortunately, adultery is [[Truth in Television]], as many broken hearts and broken families will testify.

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[Victorian Romance Emma]],'' William is technically guilty of this as well, despite being sympathetic. Told to give up on his love for Emma, he proposes (under duress, it has to be said) to a more "suitable" [[Proper Lady]], Eleanor. On reuniting with Emma however, he continues their chaste love affair while he is still officially betrothed to Eleanor, until he finally breaks the engagement.

* One example comes in the ''[[Fruits Basket]]'' manga. A teenaged {{spoiler|Akito Sohma}} sleeps with her cousin {{spoiler|Kureno}} in an attempt to ensure that he won't abandon her, {{spoiler|having been released from the Zodiac curse - which made the already VERY unstable Akito fall into despair}}. When {{spoiler|her other cousin Shigure}} finds out, he sleeps with her ''[[Hot Shounen Mom|mother]]'' {{spoiler|[[Evil Matriarch|Ren]]}}, partly to get back at {{spoiler|Akito (who hates her [[Complete Monster|extremely]] [[Abusive Parents|abusive]] mother)}} and partly for [[Replacement Goldfish|the family resemblance]] between mother and daughter. When she finds out, she flies into a jealous rage {{spoiler|at Shigure and kicks him out of the Sohma main house}}, not forgiving him for several years.

* ''Blue Eyes.''. The main character Tatsuya, gets into the pants of 7 girls by the end of volume 9 (the last one made recently) and it's implied [[Harem Seeker|he might get even MORE]]. And his main girlfriend is only aware of one of these girls. The other five? She doesn't suspect a thing and neither do they.

* ''[[School Days]]''. Makoto sleeps with pretty much every female character except for his initial girlfriend. He cheats on said girlfriend with another girl, and cheats on her with two more girls. {{spoiler|It comes back to bite him. Fatally.}}

* In ''[[Soul Eater]],'' Maka's father cheated on her mother, which made her completely paranoid of this and convinced that [[All Men Are Perverts]]. She frequently beat up on Soul for getting a nosebleed at the sight of Blair, and had a complete breakdown when he [[Fake Defector|seemingly]] left her for Blair, culminating in this combination of [[Tear Jerker]] and [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]]:

'''Soul''': How should I know? ''Cool men don't cheat.''<ref>He says this showing he's now in a perfect position to [[Equippable Ally|turn into a scythe]] so Maka has a clear shot at Blair with him.</ref> }}

** She got better after she got used to Blair living with them. {{spoiler|But then, when the cast are subjected to a [[Gender Bender]] (it's a long story), boy!Maka got a nosebleed at the sight of the succubus, leading girl!Soul to a moment of [[All Men Are Perverts]].}}

* In ''[[Oniisama e...]]'', {{spoiler|Mariko Shinobu's father Hikawa, who is an erotic novel writer, not only had an affair with a former actress during his marriage with Hisako, but later left his wife for said former actress.}} This was the cause of {{spoiler|Mariko}}'s [[Does Not Like Men|distrust towards men]].

** Discussed, but ultimately averted with {{spoiler|Prof. Misonoo}}. {{spoiler|[[Drowning My Sorrows|He turned to drinking]] when his first wife left him and took their kid (Takehiko) away with her, and it was during these days that he met Nanako's mom (the beautiful waitress of his favorite pub) and fell for her. However, the letter that demanded Nanako's ousting from the Sorority accused the second Mrs. Misonoo of being a homewrecker, which she obviously wasn't.}}

 

== Film ==

* The entire plot of the 2002 film ''[[Unfaithful]]'' is this trope.

* The comedy of ''[[Unfaithfully Yours]]'' comes from how the main character deals with thinking his wife is cheating on him.

* ''[[The House of Yes]]'': A rather disturbing example happens in the climax.

* In ''[[Love Actually]]'', Alan Rickman's character appeared to be emotionally cheating on his wife with his secretary by buying her an expensive necklace while buying his wife a CD. However, the CD was what his wife wanted (proving that he did love his wife) and at the end of the movie, despite his wife finding out about the necklace and him admitting to getting it for his secretary, they're not together but have reconciled.

* Happens all over the place in ''[[Forgetting Sarah Marshall]]''. First we have the titular character cheating on her boyfriend Peter with the [[British Rock Star]] Aldous Snow (later, it's revealed that they've been sleeping together for a year before she told Peter. At dinner, Aldous starts talking and claims that he has a right to bed any woman he wants, which implies that he may have already done so while being with Sarah. Finally, after Aldous breaks up with Sarah, she tries to get back together with Peter, and they even start having sex, before Peter snaps back and leaves in mid-blowjob. Unfortunately for him, he then tries to explain himself to his new girlfriend Rachel, who promptly breaks up with him. Luckily, they get back together after a while.

* ''[[Film/Loverboy|Loverboy]]'' is about a college slacker (played by [[Patrick Dempsey]]) who, unexpectedly, finds himself in the escort business, sleeping with women (all order than him) whose husbands are ignoring them. Why? So he can pay for college and get back to his girlfriend. He sees nothing wrong with this up until the end, when she confronts him about it and is uncertain she wants to stay with him. Interestingly, she doesn't immediately shut him out and appears to understand that he meant well. Then there are his three primary clients, who are obviously cheating. Their husbands are implied (and one outright admits it) to also be cheaters. At the end, two of the couples get back together, seeming to forgive each other's "mistakes". One, though, decides that she's had quite enough of her husband who treats her "like a geisha" and leaves him to rot in jail.

 

== Literature ==

** In ''[[The Mysterious Affair at Styles]]'', {{spoiler|John Cavendish is unfaithful to his wife. To be fair, their marriage is generally problematic. It gets better.}}

** In ''[[Sad Cypress]]'', the protagonist, Elinor Carlisle, is charged with [[Murder the Hypotenuse|murdering the hypotenuse]] when her [[Childhood Friend Romance|fiance]] falls in love with a girl who dies of morphine poisoning.

 

== Live Action TV ==

*** Freddie on Katie with Effy.

*** Emily on Naomi with JJ. (Dubious, because they weren't entirely sure if they were actually dating or not, but Naomi certainly plays it that way.)

** Series 4:

*** {{spoiler|Thomas on Pandora with Andrea.}}

* {{spoiler|Gwen}} has an affair with {{spoiler|Owen}} in ''[[Torchwood]]''.

** She feels really guilty about it, though, and tells Rhys... after spiking his drink with [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|Retcon]]. While she wants to hear him forgive her, she doesn't really want this to end their relationship. She ends up breaking off the affair and marrying Rhys.

* A standard plot-line in ''[[Gossip Girl]]'', with literally too many instances to list and many of them too complicated to explain.

** Prime example is Dan Humphrey. He's cheated on three out of four girlfriends.

* Taub of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' is a big offender, despite his recent efforts to stay faithful to his wife.

** Conversely, in a season 6 episode B.J. Hunnicutt cheats on his wife and feels terrible as a result.

* ''[[The Tudors]]'' has a lot of this. Henry cheats on his first three wives. Katherine of Aragon takes it stoically, Anne Boleyn blows up over it, and Jane Seymour actually doesn't seem that bothered - she is perhaps remembering that Anne Boleyn got her head cut off and is therefore being cautious. Plus, is was perfectly normal and socially acceptable for a man in Henry's position to have multiple mistresses, so [[Values Dissonance|whether it would actually be considered as "cheating" by the standards of the time is debateable]]. Needless to say, the same rule did ''not'' apply for married women. Wife no. 5, Katherine Howard cheats on Henry with Thomas Culpepper, and is executed for it. Part of what ruins the Charles Brandon/Princess Margaret marriage is that [[The Casanova|Charles can't be faithful]]. Both of the gay couples on the show involve married men, so they're cheating on their wives. Technically Ursula Misseldon was cheating on her fiance with Francis Bryan and Henry. Anne Stanhope cheats on Edward Seymour twice, first with Francis Bryan and then with his own brother, Thomas (though we never know for sure if Edward knows about the second). She also flirts with the Earl of Surrey, but Edward seems to have been encouraging that one... It's also inverted, since Anne Boleyn gets executed for adultery when she ''didn't'' cheat on Henry.

* Finely subverted in ''[[The District]]'': The mayor is spotted having discreet meetings with a young Asian-looking woman. Turns out she is {{spoiler|his illegitimate daughter from when he was serving in Vietnam.}}

* In the fifth season of ''Charmed'', Paige briefly dated a guy until she found out he was married with two little children.

* Both girlfriends Finn has had in ''[[Glee]]'' have not only cheated with him, but cheated on him with Puck. Also Quinn cheats on Sam with Finn and Brittany cheats on Artie with Santana because Santana convinces her its not cheating because the plumbing is different.

* ''[[New Girl]]'': As part of the show's premise, Jess returns home early in hopes of surprising her live-in boyfriend, only to find him cheating with another woman. This leads to her breakup and search for a new apartment.

* ''[[Necessary Roughness (TV series)|Necessary Roughness]]'' starts off when Dani finds out that her husband has been having affairs right under her nose and has even been using the guest bedroom in their house for it. She promptly kicks him out of the house and files for divorce.

* The romantic story arc in [[Hannah Montana]] between Miley and {{spoiler|Jake Ryan}} comes to an end in season four, when Oliver takes a photo of {{spoiler|Jake nibbling the ear of a female co-star during a movie shoot}}. Oliver and Lilly try to hide this from Miley, but she finds out eventually while shooting a Christmas special she and {{spoiler|Jake}} from a boy extra who accidentally reveals the secret when Lilly and Oliver are talking to her. She retaliates by beating up {{spoiler|Jake}} on camera.

* In ''[[Good Luck Charlie]]'' this happens to Teddy. It turns out Spencer had told Teddy that Skyler was his cousin and vice versa, it doesn't end well for him.

* In ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'', Ted's highschool sweetheart Karen, whom he dated off and on throughout college was most notorious for cheating on him constantly, fueling their endless cycle of break-ups and make-ups. This caused Lily and Marshall to develop a vendetta-like hatred of her and give Ted a ''lot'' of flack for [[Love Martyr|repeatedly taking her back.]]

** In season 7, this happens to {{spoiler|both Barney and Robin}} who cheated on their respective girlfriend and boyfriend at the time.

*** The nightmarish situation was nicely summed up as "Well, I'm stuck on a boat with the guy I cheated with, the guy I cheated on, and the girl who the guy I cheated with, cheated on, so no, I'm not doing so good."

** Kelso would cheat often and freely without Jackie ever suspecting a thing. One affair in particular - the one with Eric's sister - becomes more a relationship than just a one night stand like the others and is the one he is caught in.

** Jackie's turn: Later, she kisses The Cheese Guy, which Kelso fails to see the irony in. This is lampshaded:

'''Kelso''': Yeah? Well, yeah. But you cheated out of hate, and I cheated out of joy. }}

** Later still, Jackie and Hyde start dating and Hyde ''thinks'' Jackie is cheating on him and in response actually does cheat on her.

* ''[[Once Upon a Time]]'': In the Real World, Mary Margaret ([[Identity Amnesia|Snow White]]) and David ([[Identity Amnesia|Prince Charming]]) start having an affair while David is married to another woman. They are found out, and [[Double Standard|Mary is ostracized for it]]. There is much [[Your Mileage May Vary|debate]] over whether this "counts" as cheating since the two are [[One True Love|meant to be together]], but as they aren't aware of the fact that they're supposed to be married, it is still cheating.

* Infidelity and people's attempts to cover up or get revenge for said infidelity is a frequent plot point in ''[[Person of Interest]]''.

 

== Music ==

* "Lying" by Amy Meredith

* Glasvegas' "It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry," which never quite makes its mind up as to which side it's on (the relationship is certainly screwed, but it's tricky to tell whether it's because he cheated or because he's completely petrified about her cheating, or both, or neither, or...). In a cross between [[Soundtrack Dissonance]] and [[Foreshadowing]], it appears in ''[[Skins]]'' when Naomi And Emily finally get together and Thomas And Pandora reconcile in S3's penultimate episode; by the time they get two episodes into S4 though... well, see the ''Skins'' list in Live Action TV above.

** "All I Have" - The Veronicas from the perspective of the cheater

* "The Long Black Veil"

* "The Other Man" by Canadian band Sloan, based on Chris Murphy's relationship with [[Feist]], who was also dating Andrew Whiteman of [[Broken Social Scene]] at the time.

* ''My Big Mistake'' by [[Delta Goodrem]].

* The infamous and massively [[Memetic Mutation]] song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DloxuSM5SJI "El Venao"] by Los Cantantes, in which the protagonist tries to fend off all the rumors about his girlfriend cheating with him with many others. [[Played for Laughs|Played completely for the lulz.]]

* "Lately" by [[Stevie Wonder]].

* "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" is a strange example. A man decides to cheat on his wife with an unknown woman who posted an ad in the paper looking for romance. He arranges to meet with her by sending a reply message to the paper, and when he reaches the rendezvous, he discovers that the woman he plans to cheat on his wife with is... his wife. Strangely, catching each other trying to cheat on each other revitalizes their marriage instead of destroying it.

 

 

== Theatre ==

* In ''Street Scene'', Mrs. Maurrant is [[Cheating with the Milkman]], who the neighbors point out is himself married with two children. Her daughter Rose is aggressively propositioned by her boss, Harry Easter, who tells her that his wife doesn't need to know about anything he's planning.

* In ''[[Chicago]]'', Roxie is cheating on her husband Amos with Fred Casely, a married man whom she shoots to death at the start of the play; Amos grudgingly stands by his wife until she decides to draw sympathy in her murder trial by pretending to be pregnant. The musical also has [http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/chicago/cellblocktango.htm Cell Block Tango], which contains a minimum of four affairs, depending on how you count it.

* In [[Rodgers and Hammerstein]]'s ''Allegro'', when Joe moves to the big city, it turns out that his wife is cheating on him with Lansdale, the benefactor of the hospital he works for. He finds this out from Mrs. Lansdale.

* In Noh theatre, the bridge princess youkai is the eternally-jealous spirit of a noblewoman whose husband cheated her. Depending on the retelling, she either [[Death by Woman Scorned|murdered]] or cursed him, and the gods turned her into a bridge-haunting youkai as punishment.

 

== Video Games ==

* You can accidentally (or not) do this in ''[[Dragon Age]]'' ''Origins''. Picking any of the more flirtatious dialogue options with a potential Love Interest will make them think you're in a relationship. If you're ''already'' involved with someone, you'll eventually be forced to choose; losing approval with the one you give up.

** If a female PC woos Alistair {{spoiler|and later arranges for him to marry Anora}}, they can stay together. Alternatively, if a female human noble {{spoiler|marries Alistair}}, but romanced Zevran, the same situation can happen in reverse. In both cases, it's an affair out of a political marriage, rather than a romantic relationship, which has different implications.

* ''[[Persona 4]]'' uses the same social link mechanic, but you're given the option of keeping your friendships with the girls platonic and pursuing only one or no girls. However, you also have the option of sleeping with them all if you do it right.

* The game ''[[In the 1st Degree]]'' has this happen. To start, you have Zachery Barnes and his wife Yvonne Barnes, as well as James Tobin and his girlfriend Ruby Garcia. Yvonne has been very focused on her career, leaving Zach unhappy. Tobin has slept around, and even told Ruby that he is only interested in getting into her pants, leaving Ruby unhappy. As a result, Zach and Ruby had an affair. There were reprecussions from this. First, Zach wrote a love letter to Ruby admitting that he loves her, but he is convinced that the affair should not have happened. Second, Tobin found out about the affair and was furious over it, giving him one more reason to murder Zach. Third, {{spoiler|Yvonne found out about the affair, and brought the gun from Zach's cousin Daryl Barnes to the art gallery to threaten her husband. Yvonne and Zach did have a long talk and may have planned to give their marriage a second chance. Yvonne did tell Zach about the gun, but he laughed and decided to have it locked in his desk until he can return it to his cousin}}. Now that is drama!

* In ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'', {{spoiler|you can have a sex scene with [[Schoolgirl Lesbians|Misha]], but not only is Hisao [[What the Hell, Hero?|already going out with Shizune by this point]], this whole thing leads to her bad end, where Shizune breaks up with Hisao because she blames ''herself'' that it all happened.}}

* Chandra in ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'' sends Karim on a fool's errand to retrieve an [[Artifact of Doom]] for her, promising to wait only for him. He's gone long enough that she "gives herself to a nobleman with a jealous mistress" and is murdered for her infidelity. She and Karim end up being [[Together in Death]].

* In ''[[Culpa Innata]]'', the citizens of the World Union are encouraged to avoid romantic attachments. Marriage (or rather "[[Insistent Terminology|nuptial agreements]]") are not permissible for Union citizens. They are, however, allowed to have primary sexual partners, which means absolutely nothing from a legal (or personal) standpoint. During the game, one of the potential Union citizens is an Indian immigrant, who reveals that he has cheated on his wife on several occasions and doesn't feel guilty about it (he's also {{spoiler|a sociopath}}), while his wife never did because of the social [[Double Standard]] in Indian culture.

 

* The issue of just what constitutes cheating was raised in ''[[Friendly Hostility]].'' Fox is devoted to his boyfriend, Collin, but his bisexual colleague Derringer springs a kiss on him, just to see what it's like. Fox is outraged. However, he's even more outraged when Derringer questions Fox's kissing skills... and so Fox kisses him again to prove his aptitude. On the ''Friendly Hostility'' blog (doubling as [[The Rant]]), fans varied between "kissing is cheating" to "it was just a kiss" to "kissing usually counts, but there was no affection behind it, so it doesn't." Some fans even suggested that it might be good for Fox and Collin to break up following this incident, since they [[Hollywood Psych|didn't think it was psychologically healthy]] for Collin to only have one romantic/sexual partner in his lifetime and he needed to "see other people" rather than remain exclusive to Fox.

* [[Nerf Now]] had {{spoiler|Sniper-tan}} cheating on {{spoiler|Pyro}} with {{spoiler|the Spy}}, after an argument. {{spoiler|Spy}} later produced ambiguous evidence that {{spoiler|Pyro had had an affair with Engie-tan}}. {{spoiler|Subverted in that nether of them were caught... at least by each other.}}

 

== Western Animation ==

* On ''[[Daria]],'' Daria and Tom kiss while Tom is dating Daria's best friend Jane.

** It's implied that both Brittany and Kevin have cheated on each other at various times, though this is [[Played for Laughs]].

** Also, Buck Strickland cheats on his wife. Quite a lot, in fact.

* On ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]],'' Apu cheated on his wife Manjula. [[Averted Trope|Averted]] with Homer and Marge; both have had opportunities and temptations to cheat, but have racked up quite a few [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|Crowning Moments Of Heartwarming]] by sticking together.

* [[Batman Beyond|Terry McGinnis]] has a girlfriend throughout the entirety of the series and the movie. Yet on several occasions he spends quality time with 10 of the Royal Flush Gang.

** However the first time was when he and Dana were broken up.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Romance Arc]]

[[Category:Romance Novel Tropes]]