A marriage counselor whose husband allegedly cheated on her with another woman says staying with her stray husband has been the best decision of her life.
Charity Craig, 46, is now on a mission to tell other women that they are not weak if they choose to stand behind their husbands and their marriage.
“If you choose to stay and heal your marriage after his fling and it turns out to be the best decision,” the mother-of-four wrote on a viral TikTok video in March.
The clip featured footage of Craig and her husband, Matt, cuddling, kissing and laughing with their children, reminiscing in the aftermath of the affair.
Craig captioned the post: “I know everyone is telling you to divorce that SOB because you are weak and have no self worth to stay after his fling. But I call BS.
She continued: “After walking through hell to heal, love and trust again. I discovered how strong and worthy I am. I would not trade this second life we have built for anything.”
Craig, who has been married for 19 years, has not disclosed when her husband’s apparent affair took place.
Her video quickly gained more than 1.4 million views, but not everyone agreed on the mother’s feelings.
“There is not a man on this earth who deserves to be forgiven for such a deeply heinous and horrific betrayal,” one wrote. “I’m really sorry for you.”
“Once that betrayal happens, it would never be the same again,” agreed another. “You would always wonder. Emotional hell.”
Many others argued that Craig’s husband would almost certainly be unfaithful again.
Meanwhile, some expressed surprise that the woman would go public with the cheating story and share photos of her philandering husband – as well as their children – online.
“Some things just need to be revealed in a personal diary — not to the public,” one judgmental viewer objected.
However, Craig says she went public with her personal story to prove that a marriage can survive a cheating scandal.
The blonde promotes “affair recovery” and even offers a free workshop for those who found out about their partner’s betrayal.
In addition to giving tips to the rejected party, Craig also shared advice for the cheater in the relationship.
In a video posted last week titled “How to Help Your Partner Heal After Your Affair,” she revealed some of the most important things a regretful partner can do.
At first she advised the cheater to cut off all contact with the person they were unfaithful to.
She also said that the womanizer should show “remorse” and “empathy” to their hurt partner before embarking on some serious self-reflection to figure out why they strayed in the first place.
However, Craig may speak to a small number of people as a recent survey found that many cheaters do not regret their actions because the affairs are sexually and emotionally satisfying.
Researchers from the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University surveyed nearly 2,000 users of Ashley Madison, a popular website for people seeking extramarital affairs.
“We don’t see solid evidence here that people’s affairs are associated with lower relationship quality or lower life satisfaction,” lead author Dylan Selterman said in a press release. “Sometimes they cheat, even if their relationship is pretty good.”
According to the study, about 20 to 25 percent of married people — and 33 to 50 percent of young adults in dating relationships — have had sex outside of their relationship.
However, a 2019 Gallup poll revealed other sentiments.
A large majority of people do not believe that extramarital affairs are acceptable. with 89 percent describing an extramarital affair as “morally wrong.”
