Here’s another real-life confirmation of MRP concepts.

The ex-wife of one of my childhood friends started messaging me shortly after word of my divorce became public. “Diane” broke the ice by wishing me a happy birthday and then the conversation progressed from there. We ended up talking on the phone for over two hours and I found her story to be a straight-up vanilla case study in a husband gone Beta and a wife’s hypergamy kicking in on-que.

My buddy “Jack” was a high school football star running back. He went to college on a full ride until he flunked out. Now he has a good job in law enforcement. He and Diane got married in their early 20’s and have had three kids, two of them pretty much grown but still in the house, and one in 8th grade. Over the years, Jack has gained a bunch of weight and lost a bunch of hair. Diane stayed at home with the kids while Jack worked hordes of overtime so they could send their kids to a high-end parochial school, have a nice newer house with a pool, and drive nice cars. Jack is an involved father and has coached his kids’ sports teams when he wasn’t working a 12-hour shift to keep the bills paid and build up his retirement.

Diane lost interest in Jack to the point of being repulsed by him. Her loss of attraction for him culminated when Diane’s mother passed away and she started to reflect on her own mortality. Everything he did annoyed her, to the point where she couldn’t stand to watch him chew or hear him talk. She claimed he was uninvolved with their children, because he didn’t have the energy to play with them after a long shift, and just wanted to sit in his chair and have a beer after work. They didn’t have sex for over a year, and Jack developed a porn addiction, which Diane felt made him some kind of pervert.

Diane was at the funeral of her younger female cousin and started chatting with the boyfriend of the deceased, “Mike”. They continued communicating behind Jack’s back. Diane whined about what a terrible husband Jack was, and Mike lent a sympathetic ear and reinforced her negative perception of her husband. Every interaction with Jack turned into a huge fight until she finally drove him out of the house and Jack moved back in with his parents at the age of 49.

Mike and Diane had a short fling, until Mike grew tired of Diane’s middle-aged snatch and moved on to other plates. Diane has been single ever since, with a few short-term relationships that started with online dating but never amounted to anything. She clearly overestimated her SMV due to the interest from Mike, and now is finding out that single, middle-aged women are a commodity as common as dirt, and there aren’t a bunch of young hot Chad’s lining up to marry her. Jack and Diane are still married on paper, so that Diane can stay on his sweet government health insurance benefits. Diane works two shitty part-time jobs to pay for groceries etc.

Meanwhile Jack has had a few girlfriends and moved in part-time with a girl who is nine years younger who idolized him during his glory days as a football star and a lifeguard. He has lost weight and has been taking some sweet vacations with his girlfriend, much to the chagrin of Diane. Diane says she’s “happy for him”, but then goes on a rant of how much she resents him enjoying vacations with, and spending money on, his girlfriend. Her rationalization for resenting his new relationship is that Jack should be vacationing with his kids instead of the girlfriend. Clearly Diane expected Jack to stay at his mom’s house, lonely and pining away for her.

Eventually the girlfriend will pressure Jack into filing for divorce and get re-married. Diane will survive on spousal support and her shitty part time jobs. Maybe she will find a new Jack to support her, but she has a lot of baggage and her looks have faded. Meanwhile Jack has moved on, and is taking positive steps toward living the good life.

TLDR: Former star athlete became a tired cranky fat beta provider, wife tried to branch-swing at the first sign of attention from another dude, but the new branch broke off and she landed hard.