Do Happy People Cheat? I Don't Think So.

The Scarlet Edit: Infidelity, Divorce, Starting Over. · Mar 19, 2026 · 29m

There's a stat that gets cited everywhere in the infidelity space — that 56% of men and 34% of women who cheat rate their marriages as happy.

It shows up in therapy blogs, Reddit threads, podcasts, and articles, and it's used to push the narrative that cheating is random and unpredictable.

I'm calling BS. Not on the data itself, but on what people are doing with it.

In this episode, I break down why self-reporting is flawed, why "happy" has become a dangerously low bar, and why I firmly believe that nobody wakes up and decides to have an affair.

I also tie in data from my Ashley Madison…