Just for discussion ... gonna tell you all a little story about a couple I know quite well.

Prettiest girl in her family of 4 sisters. Broken home though. Got knocked up her last year of high school by some random HS slouch. Seeks counseling from young good looking male HS teacher who takes her under his wing & they start dating openly soon after she graduates. Within a year they are married & proceed to be married for 20+ years. He raises her first child as his own & they have two others together. Good father, good husband, a real "white knight." He pays for her to go to college & grad school & she gets a good career going. Being a two career family they did modestly well for themselves bringing in somewhere between 100k-120k per year in a relatively low cost of living area. He treats her well & they seem to be the perfect couple. 20 years later she's still smoking hot, even after 3 kids, he's still a handsome guy albeit 10 years older than her, keeps himself in shape, has hobbies although he's more of the studious intellectual type than social, not religious but very moral dude, and all the women are jealous of what an apparently loving perfect relationship they have. The perfect husband and wife it seemed. Successful, smart beautiful kids, and they were always all over each other at social gatherings, snuggling & mooning over each other like a couple of newlyweds .......... right up to the end.

Then one day soon as her youngest kid starts college she starts seeing a business associate (head of the organization) on the side. Guy is pretty overweight, about the same age as her husband, well educated, not overly handsome, but is very social and has lots of business connections, has a wife & 2 disabled kids, and makes 300k+ per year. After having a year long affair & denying it to husband and other family members the whole time (though it had become obvious to all) one day she sends her husband divorce papers out-of-the blue & moves out into an apartment her lover set up for her. She lets hubby have their paid-for house & pretty much all the joint money (except her 401k of course), all she keeps is her car & clothes. During this time lover boy has also managed via connections to get her promoted into a 90k per year job vs her previous 50k per year job. They work for the same organization. So she continues in the love-nest apartment for another year and lover-boy won't divorce his wife. Scandal ensues within the organization & lover-boy's wife finally files for divorce (makes out like a bandit financially, get's pretty much everything, but he's still got his lucrative job) Once divorce is pending he moves into the love-nest with her, and after finalized they buy a house together in both their names. Then he manages though connections to get another new job created for her in a related organization at 120k per year.

Suddenly lover-boy and several of his business connections come under Federal investigation for some business related white collar fraud/embezzlement crimes. She stands by him the whole time. It becomes common knowledge within both organizations he set her up in her lucrative jobs. He takes the fall for his connections & goes to Federal prison for 18 months (minimum security white-collar joint.) While he's in prison she is forced to resign her job in lieu of undergoing an intensive internal review the end result of which she will probably lose the job anyway. And then she has to short-sell the house they bought together from her own funds since lover-boy is now broke due to divorce, lawyers, fines, and prison. So she moves to another city, gets another job in a related industry (through his connections) that pays only about 40k per year, rents an apartment, and waits for him to get out of prison. Currently he's recently released from prison but required to stay in a halfway house in a city 200 miles away from her. He won't be able to move till his probation officer gives him the ok. She's still waiting for him, hoping they'll get married I presume, & goes to see him every chance she gets.

Her kids disowned her the first couple years this was going on ... but have since taken her back. Ex-hubby is still bitter as hell, but is dating and apparently has several "plates". At least he didn't get skinned financially.

Having known her for almost 20 years and having witnessed this train-wreck unfold for the past several, I'm still astounded .... all I can think is the guy must have one hell of a big dick!

I'm still trying to figure out ... what is there to learn from this? AF/BB? Hypergamy gone wrong?