When we write about the signs men are cheating, it sometimes looks really easy to spot the signs.
Like… How hard is it for you to realize that your husband is guarding his phone closely?
Or how difficult could it be for you to notice that your husband seems to be increasingly spending more time away from home?
The fact is that most men who cheat often go to great lengths to hide the fact.
They do their best to make the signs seem blurry and confusing at best.
They lie, gaslight you, and, most especially, hide things from you.
In this article, we will explore some things men who are cheating often hide.
6 Things Men Who Are Cheating Often Hide
1. Their communication with the other woman
Growing up, my parents constantly drummed it into me that only evildoers hide all the time.
So, my default conclusion when I see someone trying to hide things is that they are guilty of something.
Cheating men especially have much to hide because they are guilty of breaking their wife’s trust.
One of the major things they hide is any evidence of communication with the other woman.
While phones may have aided cheating husbands in keeping in touch with their side chicks easily, they can also easily expose a cheating husband who is careless with them.
This is why when a man is cheating, one of the first signs you will notice is how protective he is of his phone.
He never leaves it lying around, and even when he leaves it unprotected, you still need to penetrate layers upon layers of password protection.
He may also hide to receive certain calls because he doesn’t want you to hear his side of the conversation.
If my partner can’t pick up calls in my presence, that’s a major red flag.
When trust and love are in place, couples are transparent with each other.
One time, I spent some time in an uncle’s house.
I noticed he would pick up his calls on speaker mode in the presence of his wife.
She didn’t demand it.
He just felt like it was the right thing to do.
While I am not asking you to always put your calls on speaker around your partner, answering your calls in their presence shows that you have nothing to hide.
Apart from having secret phone calls, many cheating men usually delete their call logs and messages.
An acquaintance used to do that all the time, and I would just ignore him because I knew he was trying to hide the evidence of his cheating from his girlfriend.
If you ever have cause to go through your partner’s phone and you find out that their call logs and messages are cleared, it may be a sign that they are hiding something.
2. Their friendship with the other woman
I grew up in a small community, and I still live there.
As is the case in most small communities, it is really hard to do anything without people noticing.
We used to have a married neighbor who also taught in my secondary school.
The man was my teacher, tasked with the job of educating us academically and morally.
He succeeded in academic education but failed in moral education.
He used to cheat on his wife.
There was this young girl he taught in school.
He was her teacher, but sometimes, when his wife wasn’t around, she would step in as his mistress.
She would come and spend the whole day with him.
When his wife was around, she was just his student, but she was more to him the moment she wasn’t around.
He impregnated her later, and now, she has a son who is a spitting image of my teacher.
Cheating men always try to hide their relationship with the other woman.
They either try to pass it off as just casual friendships or professional relationships.
While it may seem like a casual friendship, certain aspects may not align with that image.
The foremost of them is the way a cheating man talks about the other woman.
He talks about her almost all the time.
Sometimes, without actually mentioning her name.
From the way he talks about them, you can deduce how much he loves to spend time with this friend of his.
Really, there is nothing wrong with your husband hanging out with friends.
What’s wrong is him trying to hide or diminish his relationship with someone.
It is a sign that there is something fishy about the relationship.
3. He hides his whereabouts
Every cheating man always tries to cover their tracks with lies and half-truths.
One of the most common lies with cheating men is lies about their whereabouts.
A cheating husband knows how to fabricate work appointments and business meetings with clients as cover for his illicit activities.
The frequent weekend trips, lunches and dinners with clients, and other arrangements to meet with the other women are all skillfully arranged.
Also, there are those periods when you just can’t account for his whereabouts.
He could stand up and go out for hours only to come back without revealing where he went.
Really, all these frequent explained and unexplained absences are all ways men try to hide their cheating from their wives.
4. He hides his financial transactions
Shared accounts or not, I believe that couples still have to be transparent with each other about their finances.
A partner showing anything less than transparency in relationships could be a sign that something is wrong and they are trying to hide it.
Sometimes, to catch a cheating husband, all you need to do is follow the money trail.
They know this too, and thus, they put so much effort into ensuring that their finances remain hidden.
I am sure you know that a picture can tell a story of a thousand words.
You just haven’t realized that numerical figures can also tell stories.
Cheating husbands know this; thus, they hide receipts, credit card bills, and bank statements.
Those receipts and bills can show the purchase of gifts and hotel and restaurant bill payments.
If you notice that your husband is tight-lipped about his finances, it could be a sign that he is cheating.
5. They hide their social media activity
“Only novices use their real social media handles to cheat.”
These were the words of a young man regaling his friends with tales of his sexcapades.
Apart from his gross shamelessness, the fact actually hit me instantly – Cheating is stressful!
Why go through all that stress and subterfuge when you can be faithful and loyal?
Anyway, many men have different reasons why they decide to engage in the stressful habit of cheating, and I won’t be focusing on that in this article.
Now, many men who cheat go to great lengths to keep their social media activity hidden.
They create fake profiles to interact with their sneaky links.
This makes it easy for them to portray the image of being loving husbands on their main profile while being the exact opposite on their fake profiles.
It also ensures that even when their wives are suspicious enough to snoop around their social media, they won’t encounter any inappropriate interactions.
6. They hide their emotional withdrawal
Cheating husbands are usually particular about maintaining a facade of normalcy.
They want to ensure you believe everything is still normal in the relationship.
They invest considerable effort in ensuring that there are no noticeable changes in their behavior towards you.
They will continue trying their best to speak to you like always.
This consistent behavior helps them avoid suspicion and keep up the impression that they are fully invested in your relationship.
The reason why many women don’t know their man is cheating on them is because they are expecting drastic changes.
They expect him to be cold and always angry around them.
The fact is that he may feel this way around you, but many men who cheat will pretend they are still so much in love with you.
By keeping up their normal behavior around you, they create the illusion that all is well.
Maintaining a sense of normalcy is important to a cheating husband.
They don’t want you to suspect them so they try their best to normally around you.
However, no matter how hard they try to act normal around you, you can get the feeling that something is wrong somewhere.
While your inner alarm bells may be on red alert and screaming “cheating,” it is important that you handle the situation with care.
It’s possible that you are misreading the situation and you are being unnecessarily paranoid.
So, ensure that whatever actions you take are well thought-out.
If you asked me, I would say gather as much evidence as possible before talking to him about it.
With evidence, there is less chance for the inevitable gaslighting to be effective.