He's been Sleeping With Other Women And Cheating on me for Ten years

This day last year my boyfriend and I were both in the Olympic opening ceremony, me as a dancer, he as a musician. We lived together in London for all the rehearsals and had become so close. He’s a wonderful lover and friend.

I was on Cloud 9, but came crashing down to earth when a woman phoned me to say she had been engaged to him for the last 10 years. She’d found my boyfriend’s mobile phone and read the messages I sent him. I laughed saying 10 years was a jolly long time but I didn’t feel like laughing.

The saddest thing is that it means he must have been engaged when I met him and we started our relationship. I was 29, he was 41. We got to know one another when I did a show and he was in the orchestra.

There was an instant attraction and there still is. Our sėx life is 100 per cent compatible – amazing – and we are great friends too.

I knew he had a woman friend. He always said they were just friends and nothing happened with her sexually. I was suspicious but chose to believe him.

We never lived together because our careers meant we were all over the country and sometimes abroad, but he’s very caring when we are together and I was happy. The other woman went to live with her mother, who developed Parkinsons, and he swore he slept in the spare room when he went to visit.

My career is quieter now and I have to be very careful with cash, so seeing him is the highlight of my life. Spending so much time with him last summer was perfect. We were sharing everything like a proper couple.

The phone call which wrecked my happiness came on his birthday last month when the other woman read my happy birthday message – and lots of the other more sexy ones.

I confronted him and he said he is in love with me but loves her. He won’t stop seeing her. He admits he sleeps with her though he swears he doesn’t touch her. He has told so many fibs to save his face, I am totally confused. I know he truly does love me but he has no loyalty for me, while I am crazy for him.

He has never spent public holidays with me because of this other woman and wouldn’t let me meet his friends or his relatives in case she found out. I know it won’t happen now, especially as his other woman has told them all about me, as his dirty little secret.

I don’t know what to do. I am not exactly dumped but I do feel manipulated. I cannot bear the thought of never seeing him again so I put up with the mess, but I know it is not doing me any good. Remembering how things were this time last year is so painful.