History Main / CheaterGetsCheatedOn

!!Examples

** Some chapters [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstruct]] the relationship between the cheating women and the antagonist of a {{netorare}} story by having the cheating women learn the hard way that a guy who would steal another man's girlfriend/wife from him would likely have no qualms about cheating on his own girlfriend/wife as well.

* ''Film/{{Go}}'': Played with. Zack and Adam have a tense conversation that implies Adam is having an affair with Zack's significant other, and that Zack knows about it. Later it's revealed that a) the two of them are gay and in a secret relationship, b) they've been cheating on each other, and c) they've both been cheating with ''the same man.'' They decide to blame the whole thing on him and end up giving him a forced haircut in revenge.

* This occurs in the 1925 German silent film ''{{Film/Variety}}''. In Hamburg, a trapeze artist leaves his wife for a younger woman. He and his mistress then move to Berlin, where they form a trapeze act with a second man. The mistress then starts having an affair with said second man, causing the original man to become angry and jealous. Incidentally, when the film came to America in 1926, it was bowdlerized to remove this trope, with the first reel cut so that the main character's mistress appears to be his wife.

* ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'': Tom Buchanan, a serial adulterer who has an affair with Myrtle Wilson, gets cheated on by his wife Daisy when she rekindles her romance with her past lover Jay Gatsby. [[spoiler:When he learns of the affair in chapter 7, [[{{Hypocrite}} Tom gets upset over Daisy cheating on him and gets into a heated argument with Gatsby over it.]]]]

* ''Literature/TheOtherBoleynGirl'' has Anne Boleyn having an emotional affair with Henry VIII for several years while he works to divorce his first wife, Katherine of Aragon; Anne deliberately makes sure the affair doesn't get physical until she's absolutely certain that Henry will marry her. Once Anne is queen and pregnant with Henry's child, she's in for a nasty shock; she made the age-old error of believing the man who'd kept several mistresses throughout his first marriage would ''naturally'' remain faithful during his second one, and is enraged when Henry begins to get up to his old tricks with the ladies of her chamber. Even worse, as Henry starts to tire of Anne when she first gives birth to a daughter and then keeps miscarrying, he starts carrying on ''another'' emotional affair with Jane Seymour who is clearly being positioned to usurp Anne.

* ''Series/TheBrittasEmpire'': {{Downplayed}} in both instances as one of the two parties is merely MistakenForCheating:

* ''Series/GilmoreGirls:'' In season 6's "[[Recap/GilmoreGirlsS06E18 The Real Paul Anka]]," Rory attempts to use Jess to get back at Logan for sleeping his way through his sister's bridal party the previous season. She can't bring herself to do more than kiss him back, and berates herself for being unable "to cheat on [Logan] like he cheated on me." Jess doesn't appreciate being used this way, but since he is still in love with her, he tells her that she can lie to Logan and say they did something if it will make her feel better.

* In Season 1 of ''Series/You2018'', Joe cheats on Karen with Beck (under the belief that he and Beck are "meant" to be together and therefore it's justifiable). He learns that [[spoiler:Beck had cheated on him with Dr Nicky, though their affair was mired in QuestionableConsent.]]

* Music/BrooksAndDunn's "She's Not the Cheatin' Kind," in which a woman who finds out she's being cheating on by her boyfriend--repeatedly, the song implies--decides to head to the nearest bar, "dressed to kill/in a dress he bought her," [[DrowningMySorrows get drunk]], and cheat on him back.

* This is the WhamLine in the DualMeaningChorus of Music/TracyLawrence's "Alibis." The singer has been covering his own infidelity for years with "my alibis/and lying eyes/and all the best lines" and learns his wife is now doing the same.

* Happened in the final verse to "The Cheater", the lone hit for Bob Kuban and the In-Men, which peaked at #15 in the spring of 1966.

* In ''Theatre/DonCarlo'', Philip is outraged to learn that his wife Elizabeth has cheated on him with his son Carlos (in fact, it's emotional adultery that both parties try to suppress, and they have barely met since Elizabeth's marriage), while he has cheated on her with Princess Eboli before. Eboli is the one who realizes the hypocrisy of the situation and confesses everything to Elizabeth (not to mention that she doesn't even love Philip either: she loves Carlos as well... [[LoveDodecahedron things are seriously messed up in that opera]]).

* ''VisualNovel/BeingADIK'':
** Sage only starts her FriendsWithBenefits relationship with the MC after she confirms that her boyfriend Chad has been cheating on her.
** Jade and Stephen's marriage has been functionally over for a while, and Jade often learns of him cheating on her (with students, no less); Episode 3's opening shows the two fighting after he has been caught again. Jade subsequently starts blatantly hitting on Tremolo.
** Heather and Tommy, related to OpenRelationshipFailure. While the two are in an open relationship, the terms of their relationship indicate that if one of them wants to sleep with someone else, the other must be informed and have a veto. However, Tommy routinely and nonchalantly sleeps with other girls without even informing Heather (in early Season 2, he is "plus three", having slept with three girls without informing her), which hurts her deeply. This comes to a head in Episode 9, where she sees him take Christine to his room to go "plus four" and, drunk and agitated, asks Tremolo to have sex with her (which he may accept or refuse) and subsequently has sex with [[spoiler:Nick after she confides in him and learns of his longtime unrequited crush on her]]. Notably, Heather feels extremely guilty afterwards, and tells Tommy in Episode 10's ending.

--> Emma: I can cheat all I want, and steal as many guys as I want! But if someone else is going to do that to me? Oh! They are going to pay!

* ''Film/{{Unfaithful}}'': In the middle of her torrid affair with Paul, Connie happens to be at a library one day and catches him with another woman on his arm, which she flies into a snarling fury at. Near the end of the movie, [[spoiler: the police investigation into Paul's AccidentalMurder also reveals he was a married man all along, with his wife having been looking for him for a long time.]]

-> If they'll cheat '''with''' you, they'll cheat '''on''' you.

* Music/BrooksAndDunn's "She's Not the Cheatin' Kind," in which a woman who finds out she's being cheating on--repeatedly, the song implies--decides to head to the nearest bar, "dressed to kill/in a dress he bought her," [[DrowningMySorrows get drunk]], and cheat on him back.

* Music/BrooksAndDunn's "She's Not the Cheating Kind," about a woman who finds out she's being cheated on and decides to go out, "dressed to kill/in a dress he bought her," [[DrowningMySorrows get hammered]], and cheat on him back.

* ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'': "Kill Bill and Billie" is about a married couple who both suspect that their partner is cheating on the other. Both of them are correct in their assumption, as the man is seeing prostitutes, and the wife is a prostitute. They discover each other's infidelity when the prostitute that the husband hires turns out to be his own wife. Both of them are then shot dead by a hitman the man had sent to kill his wife.

** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7SnKx_4lQg Gold Digger Dumps Broke Boyfriend, Then Regrets Her Decision | Dhar Mann]]'': Bella is frustrated at her boyfriend, John, for being poor, so she carries out an affair with a rich man Estephan as he spoils her with fancy gifts. John is heartbroken when she reveals this while rejecting his marriage proposal. Bella believes that her and Estephan are meant to be, but months later, she catches him cheating on her with another girl.

** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yrBfhuCOKk Husband Gets Side Chick Pregnant, What Wife Does Will Shock You | Dhar Mann]]'': Brandon and his wife, Jamie, are unable to have children. Jamie frequently blames herself for it and laments that she will never be a mother. Brandon then admits to getting another woman, Liza, pregnant, saying that he can't be with someone who is infertile. When Brandon and Liza's baby is born, a DNA test confirms that he isn't Brandon's child -- which means all along, it was Brandon who was infertile, not Jamie. Months later, Brandon happens to run into Jamie, who has since moved on and is pregnant by her new partner.

SubTrope of SexualKarma. Often overlaps with MoralMyopia. Compare OpenRelationshipFailure, which can involve similar circumstances and NoHonorAmongThieves, which involves criminals rather than adulterers. A SympatheticAdulterer might inflict this on their cheating partner. Overlaps with ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine if a person cheats on their partner as revenge for being cheated on or OriginalPositionFallacy when someone involved in an affair is surprised when their affair partner cheats on them. See also GoodAdulteryBadAdultery, for when cheating is given different moral judgments depending on circumstances.

** [[https://youtu.be/cGgwS58aTtQ?feature=shared Hiiragi and Akane]] cheated on their respective spouses with each other and had a baby. When Hiiragi's father suggests that the baby might be her ex-husband Kuroki's, they decide to get a [[DaddyDNATest DNA test]] to see who's the father. However, neither Kuroki nor Hiiragi is the father, with the real father being a guy Akane met at a club. [[{{Hypocrite}} Hiiragi]] has the audacity to get mad at Akane for cheating on him.

* CheaterGetsCheatedOn: In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb95sS3kqFM "Drunk Groom's Swap Joke Clears Wedding Hall!"]] After Lisa cancels her wedding in response to Wendell's affair with Selma, she still gloats about the deed and blames Lisa for it. However, Noah reveals that the would-be groom has had a second affair with a junior at his company. When Selma chews him out for it, Wendell tries to justify it by saying that's how a man is, but his parents reprimand him for such a sexist excuse.

SubTrope of SexualKarma. Often overlaps with MoralMyopia. Compare OpenRelationshipFailure, which can involve similar circumstances. A SympatheticAdulterer might inflict this on their cheating partner. Overlaps with ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine if a person cheats on their partner as revenge for being cheated on or OriginalPositionFallacy when someone involved in an affair is surprised when their affair partner cheats on them. See also GoodAdulteryBadAdultery, for when cheating is given different moral judgments depending on circumstances.

* ''[[https://m.youtube.com/@AoHaru-Manga-Library AoHaru Manga Library]]'': [[https://youtu.be/7_eiIAoDAjc?feature=shared Keiichi's]] girlfriend of two years dumped him for a more handsome guy. ''The very next day'', she wants to get back with Keiichi because the handsome guy was a [[TheCasanova playboy]] who messed with other girls.

** [[https://youtu.be/L1E-rawTJdA?feature=shared Hiroshi's wife Terumi and her friend Misaki]] combine this trope with ReallyGetsAround and TwoTimingWithTheBestie; they are best friends who enjoy sleeping around with different men, some of who are married. During Hiroshi's friend Yodobashi's wedding, both of them plan to sleep with Yodobashi along with his rich friends. During Hiroshi's wedding speech, Hiroshi makes several comments that make Terumi believe that Misaki snitched on her, which causes her to reveal both her infidelity along with Misaki's. Terumi's lovers, some of who are married, aren't happy to learn that other guys had been with her.

* ''WebAnimation/RefreshingStories'': [[https://youtu.be/hnzYxTP4ln8?feature=shared Hiroshi's wife Kurumi]] cheated on him with her dance instructor Atsushi and assumed that he had an affair with her because he was genuinely in love with her. She later finds out from Hiroshi that Atsushi is a manipulative [[TheCasanova playboy]] who seduces women to get money out of them and that he saw Kurumi as just another ATM.

** Gaby Solis has an affair with John Rowland, their gardener. In Season 2, Carlos starts cheating on her with their maid-turned-surrogate, Xiao-Mei.

* ''Series/TheSopranos'': Tony Soprano has a revolving door of goomahs that he secretly visits on the side. Whether or not Carmela knows is left vague, but it seems she's functioning on IgnoranceIsBliss. This is until one of Tony's ex-goomahs spitefully calls Carmela to tell her Tony had sex with her ''and'' her sister, who Carmela knows. In the midst of the following arguments, Carmela admits to an emotional affair with one of Tony's soldiers, Furio Giunta. Tony is enraged, but [[IgnoredEpiphany he still doesn't stop having affairs]] after they patch things up (although he promises Carmela she'll never ''hear'' from his mistresses again).

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': When Walt takes advantage of the fact Skyler can't turn him into the police or risk losing the house to continue living in the house after she's kicked him out, Skyler takes petty revenge by starting an affair with her boss Ted. Walt is infuriated when she tells him, so he tries to get her back by starting an affair with ''his'' boss, Principal Carmen. [[SubvertedTrope It fails miserably]] because, unlike Ted and Skyler, there was never even the slightest hint of sexual tension between the two, and he is fired for trying it.

** Karl is a cheater to the extreme. He cheats on Susan with Edie, and then goes back to Susan and cheats on Edie with ''her''. In addition, Carlos cheats on Edie with Gaby (who is also cheating on Victor) in Season 4.
** Bree starts a relationship with George while still married to Rex due to Rex cheating on her with Maisy Gibbons (to indulge in his taste for BDSM) in Season 2. Their relationship is on the rocks, but as Bree and Rex are (in theory...) devoutly religious, they still regard each other as husband and wife.
** Gaby has an affair with John Rowland, their gardener. In Season 2, her husband, Carlos, starts cheating on him with their maid-turned-surrogate, Xiao-Mei.
** Lynette has an emotional affair with Rick in Season 4. In Season 7, it's revealed that her husband, Tom, cheated on her with her best friend, Renee.

* ''Series/TheSopranos'': Tony has a revolving door of goomahs that he secretly visits on the side. Whether or not Carmela knows is left vague, but it seems she's functioning on IgnoranceIsBliss. This is until one of Tony's ex-goomahs spitefully calls Carmela to tell her Tony had sex with her ''and'' her sister, who Carmela knows. In the midst of the following arguments, Carmela admits to an emotional affair with one of Tony's soldiers, Furio. Tony is enraged, but [[IgnoredEpiphany he still doesn't stop having affairs]] after they patch things up (although he promises Carmela she'll never ''hear'' from his mistresses again).