It's not just an old movie trope. Crazy exes are real - they slash your tires, fabricate lies, destroy reputations, and then beg for forgiveness. Sometimes it's easy to forget all the crazy stunts they pulled when they were upset (chalk it up to "being emotional"). And then there are certain instances where you just can't fix crazy. Content has been edited for clarity.
The Cover Didn’t Match The Contents

“Dated a guy for 5 months. Said he didn’t drink for personal reasons and he worked in a lab at a local university. Always seemed to have it together and very smart. Then all of a sudden I didn’t hear from him for 2 weeks. One day, I get a call from an unknown number while at work. Turns out it’s his girlfriend of 2+ years. The guy was apparently cheating on her with other girls on a regular basis AND he was completely out in the hospital again for an ongoing substance and drinking problem. He had been in and out of rehab and just when his family thought he was doing better, he relapsed for the hundredth time. Apparently, he went to one of his friends with benefits’ house and just got completely wasted to the point of near death.
Girlfriend was really nice though. We had a decent conversation (she knew I obviously had no idea he lived double lives), then I realized she had issues too. I mean, she kept sticking around despite all the bull he’s put her through. But I left her to it. Plus she was kind enough to text me later that her STI tests came out negative.
2 months later, said guy texts me. He had no idea his girlfriend had contacted me. I completely ripped him apart in one long text and called him out on his lies. He never looked for me again.”
He Tarnished Her Reputation

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“He got me pregnant and I was scheduled for an abortion, I was only 17, so he agreed to come with me because I didn’t want anyone else to know. It was a complete accident, I was on the pill at the time and still don’t know what happened. He was my first real boyfriend and it happened two months after sleeping with anybody for the first time.
The morning of the procedure, he didn’t show up. Okay, except when it was all done, I went onto Facebook and he had posted a status something like: ‘When your ex pretends to be pregnant to get you back (laugh face).’ We had mutual friends who were all commenting that I was crazy blah blah and I was faced with the option of ignoring it and having everyone think I was some crazy girl, or defending myself publicly to friends and family about something traumatic that I just went through. Up until the day of, he was sympathetic, and I even peed on a test in front of him.
I ultimately couldn’t bring myself to talk about it yet, so I ignored it and deleted Facebook for over two years. I also didn’t date again until my twenties because of it.
Over the years it came up several times through rumors and friends of friends. I even had one guy refuse to date me because of my ‘crazy ex’ persona.
He later went to prison for beating the daylight out of another girlfriend and killed himself in there.
I’ve never gotten the chance to defend myself, and there are people who still think I’m a nut job to this day.”
That Poor Kid

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“I have so many examples. So much. All the same person.
1) Caught her in a lie and instead of admitting she cheated, claimed she was taken against her will. Then she later moved in with said violator.
2) She would break up all the time for no reason.
3) She did and still does fabricate drama for the purpose of the argument. Then she likes to act like you are the one with the issue because you are upset.
Unfortunately, I have a child with this woman.
She called CPS on me and alleged I violated her because my 4-year-old daughter asked to sleep in my bed one night.
She told our little girl ‘go find a new mommy, because I don’t want to be yours anymore’ after my daughter had expressed excitement amount seeing me one day.
Last night, her and her husband made our daughter cry right outside my front door because they were ordering her to surrender the plastic cell phone toy I had said she could take home (she was really excited about that toy) and that she wasn’t allowed to keep it because it came from me.
This is the tip of the iceberg.
Hidden Pictures

“My ex and I dated in high school until my freshman year of college. It was more like a friendship to me. We never kissed or did anything physical other than holding hands and we just hung out a lot. He was deeply in love with me, but it was more like an obsession that I didn’t reciprocate.
One day he fell asleep while we were watching a movie on his laptop. I had a strange gut feeling to look around on it. On his desktop, there was a folder with my initials on it. I opened it and there were 400 pictures and videos all of ME.
They were all taken unbeknownst to me. The pictures were taken everywhere: public places like at restaurants under the table, in the car, at school, at our houses, etc. All while I had no clue.
It hit me, he always had his iPod touch on him and it always seemed like he was on it playing games and other stuff. That’s how he must’ve taken these pictures.
At the bottom of the folder, there were videos that were recent at the time. I played them and somehow the footage came from inside my dorm closet. I always went in there to change right after I took a shower and he knew my routine. I went into my dorm closet and found the hole where he would put the camera/iPod.
I called my best friend, she came over to my dorm and I showed her.
Both of us cried on my bed for awhile. I had never felt so violated in my life.
Later that day, a small group of my closest friends helped me confront him. I told him I found what was on his laptop. He looked at me like a deer in the headlights. He started crying saying ‘I tried to stop, but I couldn’t help myself!’ He then ran out the door and sat on a bench outside my dorm crying with his head down for hours (I could see it from my window.)
After that, he stalked me. At my job, he would be outside when I got out at 10 p.m. and watch me from his car. I had a new boyfriend by then (my first real love) and he would be with me to protect me from my ex.
He also tried to kill to said new boyfriend with a bat when we all went to the same house party. My friends locked me and my new boyfriend in a room so my ex couldn’t get to us. I could hear him trying to break into the room and swinging the bat and breaking stuff in the house while others were holding him back. Then he disappeared at the party and everyone went to look for him. They found him outside on a porch, in the fetal position rocking back and forth and crying.
A year later, even after being with my new boyfriend for a while, he told some mutual friends that he didn’t care about any girl and that he just loved me forever.
To this day, everyone I’m close to knows that if I were murdered, they’d know who the prime suspect would be.”
Where To Begin?

“1) She left me for some other guy while I was deployed. When I came back she convinced me to give her a second chance. We were engaged when she left me.
2) She loved drinking. From the time she woke up she would drink. When she was under the influence, she was verbally and physically abusive. She’d shove me, throw glasses at my head, slam doors and put holes in them. Often I’d have a bag packed so I could just leave, sleep in my truck, and go to work the next day and shower/shave there and be ready like nothing happened.
3) Drinking would also set off her seizures, so often I sat for a week at a time in the hospital with her – on four different occasions (four weeks total). Each seizure was so bad an ambulance had to be called. No one should have to call 911 for self-inflicted wounds for their spouse/partner four times!
4) She’d go on dates with her ‘guy friends.’ I’d express my discomfort, but she’d say I was controlling. Again, this was her being manipulative and emotionally abusive. She’d actively flirt with men online behind my back and would talk so much smack about me to her friends.
5) She left me, again, for some other guy in Pennsylvania and she claimed she was ‘visiting family.’ We were married at this point. When she came home, she had a new tattoo on her ring finger and a new heart-locket tattoo on her arm. Which is funny, because her guy friend got the same tattoo on his ring finger and a key tattoo on his arm in the same place as hers.
6) One day she was making dinner. It took her an hour to cut an onion because she was on the phone. I offered to go out and get us food and bring it back. When I came home, there was blood on the floor and smeared all over the walls, a knife sticking out of the pantry door, and a bloody knife on the kitchen floor next to her. She was passed out. I covered her wound and called 911. To this day I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if she stabbed herself (it was a big wound). What she claims is someone broke in and stabbed her. However, in therapy she was forced to attend, she said I did it. She tried to pin it on me.
7) This is the kicker. She was wasted and getting physically abusive one day. I leave to avoid the situation because I know it’ll escalate. I get home later, and she’s standing in the doorway with a knife. She is trashed and high on something. She came after me slashing. She kept stabbing at me as I was calling 911. She puts the knife to her throat and tells me not to call or she’ll slit her throat right there. Cops come, I step away. They have their weapons drawn. They’re seriously (and within their right) about to shoot. They could have. They should have.
Since she slashed her wrists, they take her to the ER where she’s babbling incoherently. She says I tried to force myself on her. Since I wasn’t home for any of this, I had all the evidence on my side. I had security footage of the pizza place i went to, friend’s I was with gave a full statement, and had to give bank records. A full investigation was done. Put my life on hold for 6 months, almost destroyed my career, too.
I got an annulment. She took the $10k ring and stole $2k from the bank. And I’m stuck paying for her new car (that I have possession of.) Not worth the effort to get a lawyer. I just wanted her out of my life at that point.
So you can say I kind of have trust issues with people now.”
Wishing The Crazy Couple Well

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“I dated this guy for almost 3 years. One day, I found a second cell phone in his room with only ONE phone number, incoming and outgoing calls, but a different area code so I called the number. I explain who I am and tell her that I am not the enemy and I just needed some answers.
She confesses to me that she has, in fact, been dating my boyfriend for 5 years, although she has never met him. She ‘met’ him in an intimate chat room while she was investigating him for violating children, but it turned out he was NOT interested in banging kids but just a pervert who liked those chat rooms. Oh, and they began a relationship FIVE years ago. That meant I was the other woman!
Anyway, she tells me that she knows about me but she’s going to finally meet him and move in together. They ‘spent’ Valentine’s Day together on the phone, both ordering takeout meals and pressing play of the same DVD while on the phone together.
I noped out of there as quickly as I could. I told her that she would not have to worry about me being the other woman any longer and I would gladly bow out of crazy town and I hope they were happy together.”
This Girl Is Psycho

“She went into a psychotic episode where she called me at work and said people at her apartment pool attacked her. I left work and confronted them and they all have this terrified ‘that girl is crazy, we did not touch her at all’ look, so I was inclined to believe them considering there were a ton of people there pretty much giving me the same vibe.
Shortly after that, she had this ex-boyfriend that was also insane and was still in love with her. He would randomly show up at her house and her brother would have to get him to leave. One day the guy decides to drive without his seat belt on and dies from a car accident.
So as a good boyfriend, I try and talk her through it and comfort her since I assumed it was pretty emotional for her. She decides that it’s my fault he died and blames me for it all and if it wasn’t for me he’d still be alive.
After that’s all done with, sometime later when she thought I was ignoring her, so she messaged me saying she was going to kill herself and I had to call her mom, friends, and the EMT.
Another time she asked if I wanted to get food and I told her I had a midterm at the exact time she asked. She responded with the, ‘k, have a nice life, bye’ bull which I didn’t respond to, and then she said she was going to kill herself AGAIN.
She was eventually admitted to a psych ward and I think is living a sober lifestyle.”
Weird Notes

“My ex-fiancé was a real piece of work. He did a lot of bad things even in the good moments of our relationship, including but not limited to: breaking my stuff when he was angry, hyperaggressive/dangerous driving, and controlling my appearance and friends. When we broke up, it was because he hit me (he claims not to remember either instance and says I made both up), and after I finally found the strength to end it with him, it got so much worse.
Some highlights are: him spitting on me, him threatening to kill me and my new boyfriend if he ever saw either of us at MY work, him refusing to communicate on my terms to get me off our lease so I could cut ties with him, and him stealing one of my paychecks. He claims all of that was ‘panic attacks,’ but what kind of panic attack lasts long enough for you to break into someone’s room, find creative spaces to hide a bunch of bits of paper, write out crazy things on those bits of paper, hide them, and then put things back in order so I wouldn’t notice?
Anyway, he then moved back up north and convinced a bunch of my friends that I was the abuser, not him, so I lost a lot of people. Then again, they took the side of someone with no proof because he was more convenient to keep as a friend, instead of the side of someone with an entire file of threatening texts admitting what he’d done.”
Identity Crisis

“I dumped him because I was able to see his ID that he left on the counter. The name on his ID and his age were not what I knew it to be. Instead of being 23, he ended up being 31 and his name was completely different. I drove home when he was showering and got hundreds of calls. I told him I was leaving him when he called because I saw his ID and he got really, really mad and kept trying to turn it around on me as if I did something wrong. He called me daily for a while from different numbers and I had to change my phone number. He sent my mom and I both flowers. My tires were slashed a couple of times and I’m pretty sure it was him. I’ve had messages from random social media accounts from him. Its been four years and I still occasionally get weird messages from him. I called the cops because I wanted to get my laptop back from his house when I first broke up with him. He moved out immediately and his roommate told me he was never on the lease and he doesn’t know where he is at.”
Fool Me Once, Shame On You…

“A guy I knew for 14 years and dated for three broke up with me over text – while I was in another city visiting my dying grandfather. I told him, ‘The doctors are saying my grandfather won’t make it through the night.’ He didn’t, and my ex’s response was, ‘We should see other people.’
When I got back into town he refused to acknowledge that he had broken up with me and refused to leave my apartment. I told him I was going to work and wouldn’t come back until he had moved out. That night I stayed at a friend’s and my phone died. When I finally was able to plug my phone in, I had 46 text messages. My ex had called the police, my mom, my dad, my grandma, and my work saying I hadn’t come home for three days and he was ‘concerned.’ Needless to say, we don’t talk anymore.”
The Paranoid Ex-Lover

“He would pretend to go to the store and sneak back to the house to peek in windows, thinking I was having lovers over as soon as he left (we were engaged and I never cheated). He ripped my phone out of the wall and read my diary. When I finally broke up with him, he gave away all my clothes, threw some out the window, and stole my car. Eventually, he was reduced to calling constantly, standing in the street outside my house at 2 a.m., crying.”
The Control Freak

“He was super controlling, demanded all my passwords for everything, shut down my Facebook without my permission, wouldn’t let me see my friends, the usual controlling ex stuff. One night, he took my external hard drive (which had everything I’d been saving for about ten years) and demanded that I erase it in front of him to prove my love. He knew how much it meant to me, as I am a very nostalgic person. I told him ‘no way,’ grabbed the drive, and went to stay with my brother. I hid it at his house until I managed to break it off with that crazy dude.
He also flipped one day when he realized he didn’t have the password for my work schedule app (like, what? What sketchy business am I possibly getting up to on there?) and I had to get a ride to my place from a coworker in the middle of the workday because crazy dude was threatening to spray paint all my clothes and throw all my possessions in the dumpster.
This was years ago and I’m ok now.
Took my whole family to move me out of the apartment while he locked himself in the bathroom and screamed and cried.”
While I Was Away…

“She and I were together for almost five years and had even planned to get married (already bought the ring). Three months prior to our 5th anniversary, we had a big fight. I was working 16-18 hour shifts as a manager at McDonald’s, which was pretty stressful. I came home from a shift and asked her for some money (we shared bank accounts – I know, big mistake). Come to find out, she had spent an entire two-week paycheck in one night. We fought, and she ended up leaving to stay at her parent’s house for a bit. During that one week lapse, she called me and said, ‘While I was gone, I went out with another man. I had a great time, better than we’ve had, and I’m leaving you for him.’ Extremely ticked, I told her to get her stuff out of my house (which was in my name) and I even started packing everything up for her, calmly, in giant bags. After we said our goodbyes, she called our cell phone service and had my phone turned off and reported it as stolen. And to top it all off, she stole my German Shepard/husky mix puppy that wasn’t even 10 weeks old even though I was the one who paid for all the dog’s medical treatments.”
A Breakup Taken Way Too Far

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“I needed a night alone, so I told a fib and went to a bar. Nothing was going on and I wasn’t talking to other girls. Unbeknownst to me, she went to my place to see if I was really homesick. Next day she confronted me and we ended up breaking up. She went to my place when I was at work to get her stuff and then came to my job and pulled one of my weapons on me. Ended up rolling around for a minute fighting over it and got it away from her and she ran. No one else had seen the whole thing by some miracle so I just stuck the weapon under my coat until I could take it to the car. Never saw or spoke to her again. Good riddance.”
Crazy Logic

“We broke up, and after a couple of weeks she came over to my house and let herself in at 2 a.m. (unlocked…college…), made herself a drink, and came and found me playing Xbox in the living room. She said she wanted to get back together. I said bad idea and that she should probably go. She got upset but left.
She came back about an hour later with a destroyed phone, asking if I think it can be fixed. I said no again but asked what happened to it. She said she pulled over in a parking lot after she left, threw it on the ground and ran over it a few times because she was mad I wouldn’t get back together. She then tried to blame the broken phone on me and said she’ll forgive me if I get back together. I said no, she needs to leave. She said not until we get back together. I locked myself in my room, she fell asleep on the couch, she was gone when I woke up. Never heard from her again.”
Speaking Of Crazy…

“I was accused that, instead of visiting my grandparents for Christmas like I actually was, I was in Texas cheating on her with a friend of mine who lived there. After I returned from my grandparents and broke up with her, she threw a picture frame at me while screaming bloody murder. I went to my car after dodging the picture frame, and she followed me out to get inside the car as well. She tried to break the window, but I just drove off. Man, was she crazy.”