Man Wants to Hang Ex-Girlfriend's Painting in New House with Wife — but She Feels 'Icky' About It

Mar. 15, 2025

A couple holding moving boxes in a stock photo.Photo:Getty

Getty

In a post onReddit, the anonymous 31-year-old man writes that he and his wife “are currently moving into our first real house.”

“As we were unpacking/sorting things into different rooms yesterday, she found a painting I’ve had for years and asked what the story behind it was,” he writes. “Note: I’ve had this painting displayed for as long as she knows me (it hung in our first apartment we lived in after we got married) and she never had any problem with it before.”

He continues: “My college ex-girlfriend was an artist and made the painting for me a long time ago. It’s a nice scene of a park we used to frequent when we were together and is very good craftsmanship-wise, so I kept it after we broke up.”

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A man hanging a painting in a new house in a stock photo.Getty

After he told his wife about the painting’s backstory, he writes that she “got really upset and asked why I wanted a reminder of my ex-girlfriend in our house.”

“She said it felt gross and that if she’d known who made it, she wouldn’t have let me hang it up in our bedroom in our previous apartment,” he adds. “I was surprised because I didn’t think it was a big deal. That relationship ended almost ten years ago, and I really just like the painting now.”

The man adds that he doesn’t “think” of his ex when he looks at the painting, but has become “attached to it over the years because it’s been everywhere I’ve been and captures a nostalgic place I used to be fond of when I was in college.”

“I tried to explain this to my wife, but she didn’t want to hear it and said she felt ‘icky’ and didn’t want it in her house,” he writes. “This then made me frustrated because it’s literally just a piece of art.”

The man writes that, “in the heat of the moment,” he told his wife that she was “overreacting and being dramatic and insecure.”

The two “haven’t really been talking since,” he adds.

Commenters are now weighing in, with many taking the wife’s side.

Some Reddit users thought the issue was where he wanted to hang the painting, with one writing, “The bedroom? Oof You blew that one. Maybe if it was in the spare bathroom you’d be able to come back from this one. lol At this point, the painting is a napalm bomb that can’t be defused.”

source: people.com