A woman has spoken candidly of her devastation after discovering her husband had described her as "ugly" in a series of cruel texts when they began dating six years ago.
Mother-of-three Jane Lewis, a 40-year-old from New Jersey, said she discovered the heartbreaking messages after asking her husband of two years, Jack - whose real name is withheld - for permission to go through his phone last month.
He agreed, and Lewis began her deep-dive through his old texts - but soon stumbled across a series of shocking messages that now have her questioning their entire relationship.
Speaking to Kennedy News and Media, Lewis said she opened his conversation with an old friend and was almost immediately confronted with a brutal exchange from six years ago, when she and Jack, 35, had first started seeing each other.
Lewis recounted how Jack had described meeting an "ugly chick" at the grocery store where she'd worked at the time. While he believed he could date any of the "hot girls he sees all the time", he added that most "hot chicks are stuck up anyway" - noting that instead, Lewis would do "f*****g literally anything" for him.
In one text, he described her as "an ugly chick who wants me so bad" and in another, he said while he hadn't "f***ed her yet", he'd decided to "make out with her a little bit" to keep her happy. In a different message, he noted that while she was a "good chick", he'd dated "plenty" of other women who were more attractive.
Lewis said she immediately confronted her husband, who was "mortified" by her discovery and attempted to explain that the texts were a reflection of his own insecurities at the time.
"I went through his messages to see who he was talking to. Him and his friend don't text that often so I only had to scroll back about ten messages. I got to one from when we first got together saying he was using me for my money, how ugly I am and he won't have sex with me," Lewis told Kennedy News.
"It was pretty bad. It was very shocking. I was devastated. He was mortified, he was pretty upset and he apologised. He said he felt bad about himself [at the time] and he wanted to make himself feel better."
The mum-of-three said the discovery has shattered her confidence in not only herself, but their relationship - admitting she no longer has any trust that his compliments are genuine.
"I don't know how I'll move on from it. I'm hurt by it… he calls me beautiful but I don't believe him," she continued.
"I would have left him if I found the messages in the beginning. I have to try to move past it, it's seven years later and we're married. If it was someone else who found the messages, I would tell them to leave because if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't be with him. I wouldn't have stuck through so many things."
The couple moved in together shortly after meeting at the grocery store, where Jack was a regular customer. Their relationship had been smooth-sailing at the time, Lewis said, describing him as "kind, appreciative and flattering" when their romance began.
"I had to do a double take when I found the messages. It seemed like our relationship was based on a lie. He didn't treat me like that. It was out of character," she told the outlet. "He's clearly a different person to me than he is to his friends and that's messed up.
"He said he was never going to get married unless it was someone really special but I don't believe anything he tells me now. He could be telling me one thing and other people another."
Last year, a US woman went viral on TikTok after sharing how a prospective date had sent her a text meant for his friend - 'accidentally' revealing his true intentions, and his true colours.
Alongside a snap of the woman in a bathing suit, seemingly snatched from her Bumble profile, he wrote in the text: "No bro she's a solid 4 and I will forsure keep it on the low but desperate times call for desperate measures and beggers [sic] can't be choosers, all I saw was t*ts and an easy lay."
