Husband’s Friend Sexually Assaulted Wife at Birthday Party

A woman was sexually assaulted by her husband’s close friend during her own birthday party, with another friend helping facilitate the attack under the guise of applying sparkles. Now she’s terrified to tell her husband because it will destroy their entire friend group and weekly D&D sessions. Reddit had strong opinions about her priorities.

The Original Post

I [31F] and my [31M] husband have been together for over 13 years and this incident happened during my birthday party. We converted our garage to a gaming/event room where we throw parties on multiple occasions and we even host DnD every Friday night with the same people who attended the party.

There were about seven people there and only a handful of them were drinking heavily including me. This is a really complicated situation and I’m sorry in advance if I don’t make any sense. Towards the end of the night I was in a corner with the man who touched me ( we’ll call him Dustin) and his friend (we’ll call him Tim). I always dress up and wear costumes/sparkles for each themed event we host. Dustin randomly asked if he could use some of my sparkles, so I gave them the bottle not thinking much of it because he often does dress up when we throw parties that involve costumes. Tim held the bottle while he put sparkles on Dustin’s hand and then the next thing I know his hand is down the front of my shirt grabbing at my bare chest.

Dustin then removed his hand from my top and looked at his friend Tim who then put more sparkles in his hand and again he forcefully put his hand back down my shirt. They tried doing it a third time before I realized what just happened (I was extremely drunk and my reaction response was non existent) and I began trying to get the F@$k away from them. As I was backing up out of the corner of the room, my husband returned from the bathroom. Just then Dustin grabbed the glitter bottle and started smearing glitter on everyone’s faces trying to make things look less suspicious in my opinion. I know this sounds ridiculous, I’m still in shock. I have no idea how to tell my husband because if I do tell him, obviously he’s going to explode. Then there goes his DnD group, because both Dustin and Tim are in it. All of our friends are friends with each other so this will spread like wildfire. I’m so scared of the repercussions this may cause for everyone. What if they accuse me of lying? Plus, I keep asking myself… there were other people in the room. How did no one else notice??

I know you may think wearing sparkles and dressing up as a 31 year old woman is childish or absurd but I go all out for my parties. I decorate, provide all the food and drinks, I thought I was providing something for these people to look forward to but now I feel like a fool. I also trusted Dustin, he’s never done anything like this before. How do I tell my Husband without him going nuclear? Sorry if I don’t respond, I’m not doing very well right now. A lot of things have happened in a short amount of time and this on top of everything else made life unbearable.

What Reddit Said

Reddit was overwhelmingly clear in their response: tell the husband immediately. The top comment, with over 2,000 upvotes, bluntly stated “Just tell him” and emphasized that she’s been victimized. Moreover, commenters urged her to involve law enforcement, suggesting this likely wasn’t Dustin’s first offense given how brazen the assault was.

However, Redditors were particularly concerned about OP’s misplaced guilt. Many commenters focused on reassuring her that nothing about her behavior, clothing, or party hosting was to blame. In fact, they were alarmed that she seemed more worried about disrupting the friend group than seeking justice for the assault.

The Verdict

The unanimous verdict: OP must tell her husband immediately, regardless of consequences. This case where a husband friend sexually assaulted wife demonstrates how victims often blame themselves for perpetrators’ actions. Reddit made it clear that protecting social dynamics should never take priority over addressing sexual assault. The friend group’s comfort matters far less than OP’s safety and relationship honesty.


Original post from r/relationship_advice (1,717 upvotes, 418 comments)

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