Helen Carroll, writing in The Daily Mail, asks Psychologist Roy Shuttleworth his opinions on men who cheat on their pregnant partners.
Clinical psychologist Roy Shuttleworth says it is not unusual for partners who have been forgiven after an affair to struggle to make the relationship work. “Whatever desire drove them to create a distance between them and their partner by cheating is often still there,” he says, “so it’s not a huge surprise that they keep sabotaging their relationship with their poor behaviour.”
Roy believes that men who have affairs while their partners are pregnant are driven by something far deeper than a desire for sex. He says men and women can be tempted to stray at times when they are making a new commitment to one another, such as getting engaged, married or having a child.
“The closer we get to someone, the more likely we are to be hurt when we lose them,” he says. “Even when relationships survive, we’re aware that we will eventually be parted by death. So for many it’s a continual, subconscious struggle to avoid that pain, which we do by putting a distance between ourselves and our partners, in some cases through affairs.”
“I’m trying to explain, not excuse, what can be dangerous behaviour.”