With Tinder, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Whatsapp – there’s now a million ways to be online cheating on your other half, but is it really “cheating”?
TOWIE’s it couple Megan McKenna and Pete Wicks shockingly split this month after it was revealed Pete had been “sexting” other girls.
While the Essex boy insisted he never actually physically got with any of the girl, Megan said the sexting was “worse than shagging”.
Splitsville: Pete was caught out
So we asked Irish girls if they thought sexting really is cheating, here’s what they said…Â (All names have been changed for this article).
Sarah, 25, Dublin
“So it’s two days after my birthday and I’m in his bed. He’s gone to the bathroom just before we go to sleep and his phone lights up…
“When you’re in a dark room you’re going to notice this and I saw it was TINDER so I opened it.
“The conversation started on my birthday and was just him and this girl all over each other.
“He came back in and I told him to check his phone. ‘Oh why was it my mom?’ ‘No that blonde on tinder.’
“The blood drained from his face. And THAT’S what annoyed me the most.
“I gave out to him because he had pursued me and I asked him did he want an open relationship or want to be exclusive and we were now three months into this.
“I have had open relationships before, known the guy was texting girls and not cared because it’s what we agreed and we were happy.
“But because we had agreed to not and then this currently guy was on the verge of tears because he knew he messed up: THAT’S what made it wrong.
“It’s all about respecting the specific relationship. Yeah I made him cry (great). I had to stay in his that night and his life was awful. I didn’t bother reading any other messages, I didn’t need to.
“I had a feelng before that night. Any time a girl says she’s worried I usually tell her she should be.
“We always know…I broke up with him on the spot, and I haven’t looked back.”
Lisa, 21, Laois
“Well it happened when the stupid idiot left himself signed into my laptop, he was back at work (where they’re not allowed use their phones)Â so while he was telling me his phone was taken off him every night at 9pm, his Facebook said otherwise.
“Of course, he was messaging a girl. I saw the whole conversation play out before me and couldn’t exactly pull him up on it at the time or he’d know I was ‘invading’ his privacy.
“He was telling her all this stuff he wanted to do with her, she even mentioned the fact he was in a relationship but it continued anyway. It didn’t stop her nor did it stop him.
“He was asking for snapchats of her body and everything and she happily sent them out, and as far as I could see this was the first conversation they ever had with one another.
“I believe if someone can happily tell someone what they wanna do with someone else without feeling one bit bad about it, they can happily act on it and feel the same. It is cheating.
“If you forget about the person your with while someone else has your attention, be it sexting or whatnot for even a short amount of time, you’re already cheating.
“It happened on more than one occasion where this happened and it led to him physically cheating anyway, so there’s no saying that its just ‘words’ because in the long run, it can lead beyond that.
“We’ve split up since…”
Amy, 22, DublinÂ
“Well I shamefully did it and had it done to me as well.
“You don’t think it’s cheating when you’re doing it but if you’ve to hide it from your partner then it is. It had got to the point where the guy that was trying it on with me wanted to send me dick pics which was when it clicked for me that this is wrong…
“I deleted all the conversations and stopped talking to him but you still feel the guilt.
But being on the other side of it is different. When I found out my ex had been texting and sexting another girl I started to question was I the problem?
“Of course I was mad but I felt so obliged to fix the relationship yet he was the one that f***ed it all up. I’m a firm believer that if you cheat or anything like that to get into a relationship that’s how the person will leave you too.
“If you’ve to hide who you’re texting or what your saying to someone…it’s cheating.
“That doesn’t mean your partner is obliged to go through your phone to see for themselves but if you’ve to lie when they ask there’s a problem.
Ciara, 20, GalwayÂ
“Yes sexting is cheating even though it’s not ‘physically’ cheating.
“A lot of people’s relationships today are built and even start from texting. This is a modern world now, the way we communicate and share ourselves with others is usually based on messaging.
“I think relationships have evolved to include it as an important way of developing to something more.
“I think in this day and age you have to consider your other half sexting someone as cheating.
“I mean, if they are doing something that’s compromising your trust and disrespecting what you have together then yeah, I think it’s cheating regardless whether or not they are physically with the person.”
