
The men who leave their spouses when they have a life-threatening illness
When relationships are hit by serious illness, it can bring existing gender inequalities shockingly to the surface
For two years Sanchez’s mom, Sandra, battled stage four breast cancer. It was advanced enough that within days of her diagnosis she was having her breasts, lymph nodes and both ovaries removed.
Sanchez’s stepdad, Tom, was upbeat at first. He attended appointments with his wife, cooked meals and looked after the children. But within a week Sandra – the breadwinner in the family – was back at work, and within two, she was already cooking and cleaning again.
By the six-month mark, her stepdad’s attitude had completely changed. “It’s like, once the chemotherapy started and he saw the decline in her health he was kind of like, ‘Oh shit,’ and tapped out.”
Christie shared her experience of the ordeal on a thread that went viral on Twitter in February. The tweet that sparked it all off read: “My sister had stage four cancer and her ex husband complained about her not doing her part to clean up. I will never forget that for as long as I live.”
Wow this was a eye opening article, a lot of men in this day and age are so obsessed with the concept of a woman’s looks and health, that when she doesn’t have those things you really get to understand their loyalty smh