What To Think About Before Choosing To Stay With A Cheating Partner

In early April, just days before Khloe Kardashian gave birth to her daughter, True, a video of her partner, Tristan Thompson, getting cozy with a woman who was definitely not Kardashian surfaced. Since the Kardashian-Thompson cheating scandal began, there's been a lot of speculation from Kardashian's fans about whether or not she'll choose to stay with the NBA player.

As of now, it looks like Kardashian and Thompson are trying to reconcile, and Kardashian's fans have some feelings about that choice. A Cosmopolitan poll asking "Should Khloe be giving Tristan another chance?" got a 90% response of "NO WTF?!"

It's judgmental, but kind of understandable. The knee-jerk reaction to infidelity, most of the time, is to tell the person who got jilted to GTFO. After all, once a cheater always a cheater, right? Well, that's not always true. There are many reasons why someone might cheat on their partner, just like there are many reasons why the person who was cheated on might choose to stay in the relationship. "Just because your partner had an affair doesn't mean that you stop loving them," says Carolynn Aristone, LCSW, a sex therapist who specializes in affair recovery. "You've been loving them right up to the moment that you find out about their affair, so what happens then?"

Choosing whether or not to stay with a cheating partner is an emotionally fraught process, she says, and there are all kinds of questions to consider. Below, we talked with Aristone and two other couple's therapists to break down some of those questions. The good news? It is possible to work through an affair and come out with a stronger, more stable relationship.