Episode 92. Myth Busters: Faith, Sex, Sacrifice & the Money Mirage (Part 2)
Debunking 5 Common Marriage Myths: A Research-Based Reality Check
Why your marriage doesn’t need perfection—it needs perspective.
Every couple walks into marriage carrying invisible luggage—expectations, half-truths, and cultural “shoulds.” Some of them sound holy. Some sound logical. And some sound like advice from a friend who means well but hasn’t done the homework.
As a researcher studying how couples grow, heal, and rebuild, I’ve seen how myths—especially the faith-flavored ones—can quietly erode connection. They promise certainty where life offers none. They leave couples feeling blindsided when reality doesn’t match the script.
So, let’s bust a few. Not to shame anyone for believing them, but to replace them with something far more useful: truth that actually helps marriages thrive.
Myth #1: Moral Living = Marital Immunity
This one is especially popular in faith communities: “If we live righteously, our marriage will be protected.”
It’s comforting, but it’s not true.
Even the most values-driven couples face betrayal, infertility, mental-health struggles, addiction, or seasons of disconnection. Not because they’ve failed God—but because life is complex, and marriage is where two imperfect humans collide.
Reality check:
Your values aren’t a shield from adversity; they’re a compass that helps you walk through it.
Faith doesn’t guarantee you won’t have storms—it teaches you how to stand together in them.
Example:
A couple I worked with had built their life around service and church leadership. When his job loss triggered depression and isolation, she panicked: “We’ve done everything right—why are we falling apart?”
The turning point came when they stopped seeing struggle as punishment and started seeing it as invitation—to grow, to talk, to lean in.
Myth #2: Waiting Guarantees Great Sex
“Just save sex for marriage and it’ll be amazing.”
Most of us heard that message somewhere. But sexual wholeness isn’t a switch that flips on with a marriage license.
Even couples who waited, who love each other deeply, can find intimacy awkward or frustrating. Why? Because good sex isn’t just about purity—it’s about practice.
Reality check:
Fulfilling sexual intimacy takes:
Emotional safety and trust
Body awareness
Clear, shame-free communication
Time, humor, and patience
Real-life story:
I once worked with a newlywed couple who said their wedding night was a disaster. They prayed, prepared, and still felt embarrassed and distant. Over months of talking, laughing, and learning each other’s bodies and boundaries, sex became not just pleasurable, but deeply spiritual.
Purity doesn’t guarantee pleasure—but it doesn’t prevent it either. What matters most is curiosity and compassion, not perfection.
Myth #3: Sacrifice Is Always Noble
We love the word sacrifice—it sounds selfless and holy. But not all sacrifice is created equal.
Research says: The motivation behind sacrifice matters more than the act itself (Impett et al., 2005).
Approach sacrifice: “I’ll do this because I love you and it brings us closer.” → builds connection.
Avoidance sacrifice: “I’ll do this so you won’t be mad at me.” → breeds resentment.
Reality check:
Sacrificing out of guilt or fear leads to exhaustion, not intimacy.
Example:
A wife quietly handled every household task because she didn’t want to “nag.” When she finally admitted she was drowning, her husband was shocked—he thought she liked doing it all. Once they reframed “helping” as partnering, both felt lighter and more connected.
The most loving act isn’t saying “yes” to everything. It’s saying “yes” from a place of freedom, not fear.
Myth #4: Money Will Fix (or Ruin) Us
We’ve all thought it: “Once we have more money, things will be easier.” Or its opposite: “We can’t get married until we’re financially stable.”
Sure, money matters—it affects stress and opportunity—but it’s not the magic ingredient.
Research shows: Across income levels, it’s not the amount of money that predicts satisfaction, but how couples communicate about it.
Example:
During grad school, Scott and I had more love than money. We ate a lot of beans and took turns holding our breath at the ATM. But we also laughed, dreamed, and problem-solved together. Those habits mattered far more than our bank balance.
Reality check:
Financial stability isn’t a destination—it’s a moving target. The real measure is whether you can face uncertainty as a team.
Myth #5: Faith Equals Trust
It’s tempting to believe, “If my spouse worships beside me, I can trust them.”
Shared faith practices can strengthen a marriage—but they’re not proof of character.
Reality check:
Ritual ≠ integrity. Attendance ≠ accountability.
I’ve interviewed women who discovered betrayal in marriages that looked picture-perfect—leaders, pastors, volunteers. Religious performance can camouflage deep pain.
Building real trust means asking:
Do our words and actions match?
Can we be emotionally honest with each other?
Do we still show kindness when no one’s watching?
Faith should bring you closer to the truth—not protect you from seeing it.
So what now?
This week, choose one belief you’ve quietly carried about marriage—maybe “If we’re good enough, we’ll be happy” or “Love means losing myself.”
Ask:
“Is this belief helping our marriage grow—or keeping it stuck?”
Then reframe it with something truer:
Old MythNew Mindset“Good marriages don’t have problems.”“Good marriages face problems honestly.”“Sacrifice makes me loving.”“Choice makes me loving.”“Faith protects us.”“Faith prepares us.”
Small reframes like these change everything—from how you talk to how you touch.
Check out this week’s Marriage IQ episode—“MythBusters, Part 2”—where Scott and I dig into the stories, research, and real-life moments behind these myths. We share insights from my dissertation on betrayal and from our own marriage experiments (and missteps).
If your goal is a marriage that’s not just enduring but scintillating, start by busting the myths—and building something beautifully real in their place.
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0:02
Welcome to Marriage IQ, the podcast helping you become an intelligent spouse.I'm Heidi Hastings.And I'm Scott Hastings.We are two doctors, 2 researchers, 2 spouses, 2 lovers, and two incredibly different human beings coming together for one purpose, to change the stinky parts of your marriage into scintillating ones using intelligence mixed with a little fun.
0:32
Hello everyone, welcome back to Part 2 of our Myth busting marriage myths, and we're so glad you came back.We love doing this.We do spend a lot of time doing a lot of research.
0:48
We want to make sure we get this right.We know that there's a lot of marriage podcasts out there and a lot of stories.Some of them resonate.We wanted to take more of a scientific approach to marriage and still have the stories too.Well, and I guess maybe a more realistic approach.
1:06
Yeah.Than just opinion, right?Really diving into more depth than I think.It takes a lot of time to discuss who did the studies.We want to give them credit where credit is due for the people who've conducted studies.
1:22
We want to do this the right way, and we also want to help your marriage become more scintillating at the same time.So it's a tough job, but we are doing it.We would love to have your support by just sharing this with a friend, family.
1:39
Let them know.Hey, look, I found this marriage podcast.It's really cool.Take a listen.So this week we're talking about Part 2, Mythbusters.Heidi, you're going to be kind of talking this one mainly.I'll be adding some color commentary if needed.
1:56
So on Tuesday's episode you talked more about general marriage myths, and today I'm going to focus it a little more niche audience, a little more.Kind of based more on your studies that you did in your research, your dissertation.
2:11
Right, right.So I will add some of my own marriage myths, but I do think of them more as incomplete narratives that many people have adopted.So it's not really a myth, it's a partially true yet incomplete way to look.
2:28
At things, that's true.We talked about that last time too.You could really make anything a myth or not.It's just looking at it from both sides of that coin and.Social Narratives.And learning from both perspectives.So some of them, like you said, can be true in part, but when they're misinterpreted or combined with adverse marital situations, they can be problematic for the marriage 'cause distress in the marriage or even I saw some be dangerous to at least one partner.
3:03
So I'm going to draw, like Scott said, on my own research interviews with religious women, most of who were Christian, some Jewish, one Muslim.I probably won't go into specifics about that, but just the collaborative findings that of, oh, I used to think this and now I've found this.
3:24
So for those of you who don't align with religion, you can either listen with curiosity to see what things are like for religious people and see if it's any different from what your experience is, or you can bow out on this episode, either one, but.
3:40
I'd listen.We always invite you to listen and expand your perspective on things.So let's start by talking about a myth that's especially common in faith-based or values driven marriages.It sounds something like this.If I live a moral righteous life and we live a moral righteous life, our marriage will be protected from major challenges.
4:05
Sounds good.How do you define moral or righteous?It's all subjective.That you agree together on what structures and guides and.Scaffolding.Yeah, together you're For some that may be going to church, for some it may be reading scriptures.
4:22
For some, it may be being kind to people, helping the poor and needy.Whatever.Whatever it is, but it is common for people to think that living according to certain standards and especially when they believe that God or we believe that God said to live a certain way, that they'll be protected from major challenges.
4:45
Now, on the surface that does sound comforting and don't get me wrong, living with integrity and being guided by spiritual or ethical values, that really is a beautiful thing.Those values can shape how we show up in marriage or how we treat one another, how we stay grounded when life gets really hard.
5:06
But here's the myth that morality equals immunity.That if you that if you do things right, you'll somehow be immune or be shielded from betrayal or addiction or disconnection, or infertility, or mental health struggles, trauma, financial hardship, or even infidelity.
5:32
But I'm a righteous man.None of that should happen.Right.Or I'm a righteous woman.Or we're both righteous.How is it that we aren't able to have a child?I mean, those are really hard ways to learn that myth of righteousness equals hardship, right?
5:53
It's just not true.So my own research on betrayal and recovery, I've interviewed women who were deeply devoted to their faith, who sacrificed, who served others and who loved well.And they still found themselves facing devastation in their marriages, not because they weren't righteous enough, but because life is complex, people are complex, and marriage is not a reward system, it's a relationship.
6:22
So if you've ever found yourself thinking we've done everything right, why are we still struggling?Which let me tell you, I thought that all the time in my first.Marriage.I really thought I passed off more things in this program than any of the other girls my age in church, and yet it didn't guarantee anything.
6:46
I don't understand this.So I think it is kind of a little more innocent way of thinking or an incomplete way of thinking.So when you're thinking that way, just know that you're not alone and you're not doing it wrong.In fact, clinging to this myth can make it even harder when trials do come because we not only feel hurt and betrayed and blindsided and ashamed, like maybe we failed God or ourselves.
7:13
But here's the truth that I really want you to hold on to.Living a righteous or a moral life doesn't guarantee an easy marriage, but it does give you the tools to walk through those hard things with grace, with courage.Being able to repair your values aren't a shield from adversity.
7:34
They are a compass, though.They don't keep the storms from coming, but they can help you navigate when those storms do come.And maybe sometimes that navigation is not to be married anymore.That was the case for me.You're right, growth can come through all of this.
7:52
Connection has the ability to come through all of this.And healing is possible even in the messiest marriages and especially when we bring our values into how we repair the relationship before making attempts to repair.
8:08
And especially for those who are faith-based, bringing a relationship into God to help you repair and not just what we hoped to prevent.All right, well.Yeah, that's that is a really fantastic thing to think about.Again, thinking of both sides of that same coin.
8:25
Right.And these do cause us to look a little bit deeper.Yes.So what's another myth that shows up a lot?OK, so let's talk about another one that is, again, a bit more aligned with faith-based communities, especially among women.
8:41
And that is if I save sex for marriage and it will automatically be an amazing experience once I'm married, sex will be amazing once I'm married.I heard so many women in my study say this is what they believed.All right, that's a great comment.
9:03
There.He says it all.All right, so I want you to understand where this comes from.For many of us, abstinence was taught as the ultimate guarantee that if we just waited, we obeyed God's commandments and followed the rules, then we'd be rewarded with passionate, fulfilling relationships.
9:25
But here's the truth.Sexual wholeness doesn't flip on like a light switch after a wedding.Darn.Nope.Darn darn.It's not automatic.Even if you waited.Even if you love your spouse.Even if you did everything right.
9:40
Was our wedding night magical?I I was really nervous, to be honest with you, even though I've been married before.It had been a few years.I had a lot of baggage around sex for my first marriage.
9:56
But you were amazing.You just took things so slow, so gentle.So I would say in that sense, yeah, it was magical.But it's more magical now, all these years later.It's pretty amazing.Some of the women that I've worked with who waited, who wanted their wedding night to be magical, ended up feeling confused or disappointed or even ashamed when things didn't go as expected.
10:22
Not because they were broken, but because no one really told them that.Great sex takes more than purity.Purity is important, do not get me wrong.But it also takes emotional safety, like what I felt on our wedding night.
10:39
It takes learning from resources that align with your morals or your faith.Takes body awareness and communication skills.Especially sexual communication, which is so hard for a lot of the people that I work with, a lot of the people that I know.
10:56
You think some of these women, before they get married, can Start learning about their sexual organs anatomically and start asking questions as far as sexual communication.Yeah, I think those are important conversations to have.A lot of them don't have the language for that, but in my study I did find that if women even later in life who were faced with having to navigate all of this.
11:20
If they still hadn't learned the language right.Right, but they were wanting, they were starting to look for resources that were faith-based, that aligned with them.And I think that's really important if you come from a faith-based perspective.So another thing that's important in learning though, is being able to heal any shame surrounding sexuality or surrounding past trauma or anything like that.
11:46
And it takes time.Like it can take decades to keep learning, keep learning, keep learning, have curiosity, have open conversations and just trying with each other.What do I like?What do I not like?What do I feel comfortable with?What do I not feel comfortable with?
12:02
And another important thing that Shalom Levitt in episode on 6 minutes taught us was to really slow things down.And that especially helps for those new marriages that are trying to navigate the trickiness of expectations versus reality.
12:21
We also talked about that in The Real Men Are Sloths.Yes, that's right.Yep.The key to the man's intimacy is slowing it.Down thank you for bringing up that one.It's also helpful when there's a willingness to grow together by both partners and integrity and honesty.
12:42
We talk about that.I think episode 6.So all of this doesn't make difficulties with sexual relationships with your spouse a failure.I want you to know that this is normal.As Corey Allen said, a lot of times sex is the way that we learn how to adult, the way that we learn how to navigate knowing who we are as a self.
13:08
So all of this is normal.See the myth that righteous living equals protection from any kind of adversity promises a transaction.If I withhold now, I'll be rewarded later.But real intimacy is not transactional.
13:26
It's transformational.It unfolds.It matures, it takes intention.So if you're married and struggling with sex, even if you waited, you're not alone.You're not doing it wrong.In fact, to my list I just gave a moment ago, finding resources.
13:41
Not just books, but finding resources and maybe even a sex therapist who aligns with your belief system.Because you're human.And if you're preparing for marriage just now, for those of you who are considering marriage or marriage is soon in your future, it's important to know that purity doesn't guarantee pleasure.
13:59
But it also doesn't not prevent it.Purity and fidelity are important contributors to trust and a commitment in marriage.What matters most is how you show up with honesty, with curiosity, with compassion for each other, for yourself and your spouse.
14:16
I like that honesty, curiosity and compassion.All right, let's tackle one of the most glorified but misunderstood marriage myths out there, and that is sacrifice in marriage is always good.Isn't it?Well, don't get me wrong, sacrifice is a big part of the most beautiful marriages.
14:36
So I shouldn't sacrifice for you?That's not what I'm saying either.Sacrifice is often necessary.That is not always.Good.And it is, but there are circumstances in which it isn't good.So here's the thing.Not all sacrifice is created equal.Some sacrifice actually hurts your relationship more than it helps.
14:53
So let me explain.There's this powerful line of research by Impet and colleagues in 2005 that really changed the way I think about sacrifice.OK?They found that what matters most isn't the act of sacrifice, it's the motivation behind it.OK, there are two kinds of motives is what input found.
15:13
One is approach and one is avoidance.OK, so approach motives are about moving towards something good like connection, love, or joy.Maybe you give up a night out because you genuinely want time with your spouse, or you want to help lighten their load so you take on a task for them.
15:33
This isn't out of obligation, but it's because it brings you closer as a couple.That sounds like an intentional act.That's right.And those are the kinds of sacrifice that actually build the kind of intimacy that we're talking about in our 4 cornerstones.If I were a lawyer, it'd be first degree murder, but in this case it's first degree love because it's an intentional act, right?
15:57
So those kind of acts feel meaningful.Those types of sacrifice feel fulfilling.On the other hand, avoidance motives are about avoiding something bad, conflict or guilt or rejection.
16:13
You suppress your needs to keep the peace.You say yes when you are really meaning no.And it might look generous on the outside, but inside it often feels heavy and unseen.And here's what the research shows.Sacrificing out of fear or pressure leads to more conflict, less satisfaction, and even more thoughts about leaving the relationship.
16:34
Over time, it drains connection rather than deepening it.So that's why I love this insight.I think for me, I like to think of AI, call it white knuckling.I hold on to that bar, I white knuckle it.I hold, hold, hold, hold on as long as I can.Eventually I can't hold on anymore.
16:51
I keep sacrificing for you and I don't like it.I can't do it anymore.Yeah, and you feel distressed and exhausted.It gives us, though, looking through this perspective, insight and permission to check in with our hearts.
17:09
Not all sacrifice is healthy.Some of it's silent martyrdom.And you probably all know somebody who.Kind of the martyr operates.I will take this one on the chin.Yep, operates from this perspective.Yep, and that doesn't make you noble.
17:27
Guys, girls, women, men, it just makes you lonely.No more martyrs please.Yep.So if you catch yourself constantly giving in or giving up, ask yourself, am I doing this to move toward love or to avoid tension?Nice.Because 1 creates intimacy and the other one quietly breeds resentment.
17:47
Sacrifice can lead to both positive and negative outcomes like we've talked about.And I do want to mention really quickly one other study by Lynn ET al.In 2017, and she found that when one spouse sacrifices but the other doesn't respond with emotional support, which is things like empathy, compassion, appreciation, or simple attunement, it can actually lead to depression and lower marital satisfaction.
18:16
So if I'm doing all the sacrificing and you're not saying thank you or noticing, I may become depressed, I may have some resentment in the marriage.Or if you're working really, really, really hard and coming home exhausted and I don't say thank you once in a while, show appreciation for what you're doing.
18:37
You may breed some reason.I think this is a reminder to when I sacrifice for you that I need to check myself and say, OK, is this an intentional act?Am I moving towards something positive?Love.And if I do that, I'm going to have more resilience in this relationship, regardless of whether you validate my sacrifice or not.
18:58
Right.And those circumstances where it goes unseen and there's an expectation or a need for that social support, you supporting me and just saying I appreciate what you do.That's a really quick fix.
19:13
I think for some of these problems that we have, instead of going unacknowledged, we acknowledge we support.Support doesn't have to be a big thing.It doesn't have to be grand.It's often like, thank you so much, honey, for doing that.Or I really see how much you're doing, and I want you to know how much I appreciate it.
19:32
I'm here for you too.That kind of emotional responsiveness can turn a draining sacrifice in just that fast to a moment of deeper connection.And this kind of makes me wonder sometimes when our spouse does sacrifice for us and we receive it well, can that make our mental health much better?
19:52
Can that make our marriage satisfaction much better?So kind of have the opposite.Effect.Absolutely.I think so.So meeting with care and warmth and gratitude, all of those things help us have better marriages.All right, you ready for another one?Let's do it.OK, let's talk about two common myths actually that I thought of around money and marriage.
20:16
First one is our marriage will be so much better once we have money, which I probably thought that several times when we were in grad school.And we're trying really hard to just come up with enough.Well, it's true to the point.But yeah, those are some of our very favorite memories.
20:35
That was an amazing part of our marriage, right?It's just happiness is less likely to be had if you're living on the street, right?Yeah, that's true.OK, so here's another.There is the flip side.There is a.Bottom level that's required.Yeah, here's.Yeah.Remember those wonderful days when we were sitting around the campfire begging for food?
20:55
No, probably not.Yeah, you're right.Good point.Here's another side of that scenario though, and that is believing that we need to wait until we get married until we're financially stable.I.Heard that one a lot.Yeah, me too.Now don't get me wrong, money does matter.
21:12
It impacts stress, opportunity, and how we function day-to-day.But here's the myth.The myth is that money automatically makes marriage easier, and research really tells something very different.In fact, couples across all income levels experience conflict.
21:28
This is true.And when researchers study marital satisfaction, it's not the amount of money that predicts happiness.It's how couples communicate about money, how they handle stress, how they support each other when resources are tight.I've seen couples with plenty of money who are completely disconnected.
21:48
Checked out, Yeah.And couples just scraping by who are deeply in love, who are wildly supportive of each other and growing stronger together.So no, money won't magically fix poor communication, it won't resolve childhood wounds, and it won't replace emotional intimacy.
22:05
But here's the other side, waiting for the perfect financial stability before you commit.And that's kind of a little bit of a slippery slope.I agree.Stability isn't a destination, it's a moving target.Yeah, there's always a reason to wait.
22:22
Yep.One more promotion, one more loan.One time to jump in one more join us.All better job.It's kind of adulting, right?Yeah, do it.And in the meantime, you might be postponing a relationship that could grow with you through these very challenges.
22:41
So hear me Now, I'm not saying throw wisdom out the window.I'm not saying ignore debt or job stability or red flags in a partner.Be wise and be honest.But also ask, am I using money as a shield from intimacy or a delay tactic because I'm afraid of the unknown?
23:02
Hard hitting questions.And those are some of the things you can sit down with yourself and.Yeah.Because while money matters, mindset matters more.Are we A-Team?Can we solve problems together?This is where the growth happens.Can we face uncertainty without turning on each other?
23:19
That's what builds us long term marital relationships.So don't buy the myth that money equals marital bliss or that you have to reach some magical number before you deserve love.Instead, build your marriage IQ.Listen to Marriage IQ.
23:35
Work on communication, grow your emotional safety.Practice being partners in uncertainty.That's what makes a marriage.Rich, I like it.What about some other myths?OK, here's another one.This one can feel a little bit comforting sometimes, but it's also dangerously misleading.
23:53
And this is another one I saw in my research.It's the myth that because my spouse goes to church or synagogue or mosque or temple with me, I know that I can trust them.This one's tricky because on the surface, shared spiritual practices can feel like the ultimate foundation.
24:12
They're praying with me, worshiping beside me, hearing the same sermons, reciting the same vows.That should mean we're on the same page, right?Not necessarily.Necessarily.Sometimes it does.But here's the hard truth.
24:29
Religious participation isn't the same as relational integrity.So just like some of the other myths we've looked at, ritual does not equal character.What attendance does not equal accountability performance.
24:48
It doesn't mean they're really present there during that religious.They are Czech.Activity so you can do the things but not be what you're saying.But they're not being.We talk about that a lot.We do.In my research on betrayal, I heard from woman after woman who essentially said I thought I was safe.
25:08
He sat next to me every Sunday, or he led devotionals, or he was a pastor, or he wore the label of faith but didn't live the life behind closed doors.Now, I got to be clear too about this one.This isn't to say that people of faith are more likely to betray.
25:25
It's actually the opposite.However, it is to say that spiritual performance is not a guarantee.Again, a guarantee of emotional safety or moral behavior.If anything, this myth can lull us into ignoring red flags, just sliding right into the safety comfort zone without doing the work to talk, to be aware of your surroundings, to be aware of what you're both doing, to be fully present in the relationship.
25:56
We assume that shared religion means shared values, shared honesty, shared trust.But real trust isn't built in the pews or in the pulpits.It's built in how your spouse treats you when nobody's watching.Are they kind?
26:12
Are they consistent?Are they emotionally honest?Do they do what they say they're going to do?All those things build trust.Can you bring your full self to them and be received with grace, not with judgement.That's what builds spiritual intimacy, which is one of our parts of intimacy that we talk about.
26:31
It's not just showing up at the same service.So here's a marriage IQ refrain.Shared faith practices can support trust, but they don't substitute for it.OK, Don't confuse shared religion with shared responsibility or character or emotional maturity.
26:51
And if something just feels off, don't silence your gut because your spouse looks the part.Faith should bring you closer to the truth and not shield you from it.I mean, all of that's true.I think that some people might, when they're burned first time, they may just totally look at things differently for the rest of their lives and not be able to trust.
27:13
But I think what we're trying to share with people is that it requires A moderation, a balance of both sides, right?And we all want to assume the best of our spouse.We want to have that little positive bias that we talked about in other episodes with at the same time, not ignoring these red flags.
27:31
And it just takes time and emotional maturity.To.Look for these things and see the consistency.I had one woman I interviewed say that a video came from Red Box in the mail, that she opened it up and it was a pornographic video.
27:48
And she's like, Oh my gosh, what is going on here?And she asked her husband about it and he said, I don't know, I think they must have us mixed up with somebody else.Let me call him and send it back.And she just like believed that because they talked in their family all the time with their kids about pornography.
28:05
And he was a very good man from what people saw on the outside.And so just that that innocence, that's another time.I'm going to come back to the word innocent, the naivety if you will.Well, some people say that some secrets you just aren't to be known, but I think we're here to obliterate that idea that you could say that they're just some secrets my spouse never going to know about me.
28:32
You will not get to that scintillating marriage that you'd so desperately seek.No, sorry.No, it's really built on integrity.If you're viewing pornography on Netflix, which I don't even think they send them out anymore, it's all online.But it has to happen at some point.
28:47
Yeah, we got to muck through this together.All right, let's talk about another painful and paralyzing myth that I've heard over and over again, especially from people in the thick of heartbreak.And that is, if one spouse betrays the other, the marriage has no chance of surviving.
29:04
It is an understandable belief, right?Yeah.Betrayal, whether it's sexual, emotional, financial or a deep breach of trust of any kind, feels like a bomb going off in the middle of your life.Feels like your life turns upside down.And what is reality?
29:19
The pain is real and the damage is real.And yes, for many couples, betrayal does end the marriage.Indeed.But here's the myth for this one that it has to end the marriage.The betrayal is a relationship death sentence.
29:36
As somebody who spent years researching this and have worked with people experiencing this, honest stories of betrayal and survival happen.So I want to tell you something different.Betrayal breaks trust, but it doesn't automatically break the marriage, and it breaks trust in a massive way.
29:59
Some couples emerge from betrayal stronger, and that's exactly what my research showed.So of the women I interviewed, 1/3 divorced, 1/3 stayed in the marriage.But had in home separation or it was just a bad marriage but they didn't have the financial means to be independent on their own because they'd sacrificed a lot and never worked outside the home.
30:25
There are a lot of other reasons, but 1/3 of the women completely transformed their marriage and that's because they faced the betrayal together.They did the work, which often took years, and they got really, really honest with each other.
30:41
They stopped pretending and they built something brand new.Again, going back to the quote that you were reading in Tuesday's podcast by Esther Perel, sometimes this was the very, very first time that they built a relationship on communication, on authenticity, on curiosity, on patience and forgiveness and desiring to change.
31:03
So let me be clear with this.Healing doesn't mean that you have to stay in the relationship.And in my first relationship, I stayed through several betrayals and then I had the strong impression in my mind, which I feel was a spiritual impression that said leave now.
31:20
Not everybody has that.I know someone else well that the message came to their mind.If you stay, this will be a benefit to you.And it was so excruciatingly difficult to stay, but has really been resilient and transformational.
31:37
Staying doesn't mean healing.Every story is different.But here's what I do know from the research and from real couples who've walked this road.What matters most after betrayal isn't perfection.It's ownership.It's owning what happened, It's dealing with it.
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It's whether the one who caused the harm is willing to face it, and whether the one who was hurt is given space and truth and safety and time to heal.Betrayal isn't the end of the story unless one or both partners refuse to write a new one.So if you're in that place today, even if you've heard the voices, maybe even in your own head, saying it's hopeless, I just want you to know hope doesn't come from pretending the betrayal didn't happen, sweeping it under the rug.
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It comes from facing it with courage and wisdom and willingness to rebuild.You know that really, Heidi?Sounds like the marriage IQ path.It's not easy.It's not automatic.It's possible and sometimes even scintillating.
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You know, such profound thoughts today, Heidi.I really, I think you, you were able to just drill down and put things under a microscope in a way that I think it's going to be really understandable for a lot of people.Yeah, I hope so.Think, you know, myths aren't automatic.
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They can be true too, depending on how you look at it.But I think you really helped us look at both sides of the same coin.Yeah.Great, and you did a great job with Tuesday's episode doing the same thing.We appreciate all of you joining us today.Remember that the intelligence spouse knows to change from a stinky to a scintillating marriage first requires a change in themselves.
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Find us on YouTube, Instagram, Spotify, Apple Podcasts.We'd love to have you share this with other people.Leave us a rating, send us an e-mail to hello@marriageiq.com and until next time, we'll see you on another exciting episode of
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Marriage IQ.
