In this episode of the Male‑Female Hour, host Dennis Prager opens a discussion on whether marriages can survive an affair. He frames the topic as a way to understand how men and women view marriage, the dynamics that cause some unions to break after infidelity while others endure, and what lessons can be learned. Prager questions the common belief that an affair should automatically end a marriage, noting exceptions for chronic cheaters. He raises the modern impact of smartphones, location tracking, and digital footprints on the ease of having—or being caught in—an affair. After a brief intermission, he takes a call from Mike, a long‑time listener from Upland, California. Mike admits he had an affair in the third year of his marriage, but his wife forgave him, and the couple is now celebrating their 48th year together. Prager reacts positively, wonders about statistical patterns of when affairs occur, and promises to return after a break.
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For those of you new to this show, I talk about everything in life, not just politics. Number 2, the theme of the Male-Female Hour is that the sexes understand each other better and get along better. As every one of you who's listened to any number of shows knows, I am not a man fan and I am not a woman fan. There are wonderful men and wonderful men— women, and awful men and awful women. Neither sex has a monopoly or a near monopoly on a-holes. They really are divided equally. Problem is they don't always marry each other. They sometimes marry nice people. All right, and now, ladies and gentlemen, we return to today's episode. It's a very serious topic on the Male Female Hour, and I'd like you to call in as soon as you hear the topic so that I can go to calls as soon as possible. This is one of those times where you are the responders to a question and then I reflect on your response, as opposed to you calling in to reflect on what I say, which is the more normal way of which I conduct the show. So here's the question: did your marriage survive an affair? Survive an infidelity. 1-800-PRAEGER, 776-877-243-7776. This is an important subject to understand men and women, to understand marriage, to understand why some marriages fall apart after an infidelity and others survive it. And what if your marriage did survive it? What did you learn, if anything? And I have a lot of other questions for anybody who calls in on that subject. Did your marriage survive an infidelity or an affair? You know, there really is a sub-question to this. If you divorced because your spouse had an affair, in retrospect, do you think you made the right decision? I think that's a fair question to add on to the first. My general view is that the idea that if your spouse has an affair, that should lead to the— that should automatically lead to the end of the marriage is a bad idea. But the word, the operative word is automatically. There are times where it should, where you have a person who is just constantly having affairs or just constantly engaging in infidelity. It seems to be built into them. They don't restrain themselves. That's a very big problem. Where's my husband tonight? It's really funny. I mean, today, this is a very, you know, this too would be an interesting question. Is it harder to have an affair today than it was before smartphones? I mean, it's not just that there's a record of every call that came in, that went out, every text that comes in and goes out. But you're trackable, right? I mean, you'd have to turn your phone off, right? Then it doesn't ping a, a cell tower. Is that right? That the only way? But how many people would remember to do that? It actually— if you went to somebody's home or a hotel That would be permanently recorded. The other day I discovered— have you ever seen this? Google sends you, or has it, everywhere you've been, a map of the world and everywhere you've been. Have you ever seen that? It's mind-boggling. I got a kick out of it because I happily haven't had an affair. But I got a kick out of looking at it. On the other hand, it's very scary. And then, you know, jogs my memory, oh yeah, that's right, I was in Malaysia that year, that's right. All right, 1-800-PRAGER-776-877-243-7776. All right, y'all, did you— did your marriage survive an affair? C'est la question sur la table. It's la table, right? Not le table. Is it even table? I don't know. I'm gonna look at both, both up when I take a break here. We begin in Upland, California, and Mike. Hello, Mike.
Yes, yes. Hi, Dennis.
Hi.
Let me start by saying I'm a long-time listener and appreciate you very much.
Thank you for that.
Uh, I was married about 3 years and an old girlfriend came back into my life that I'd never gotten over and unfortunately took me away from what was really most important, was my my wife. And thank God that she was, uh, willing to forgive me. And since then, we have gone on and we are in our 48th year of marriage.
And this happened in the third year?
That is correct.
Wow. Well, this is an important call, obviously. I'm very happy to hear it. Yeah, I wonder if ever there's been a statistic what year of marriage is the most likely to see an affair. We'll be back.
