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Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Love Diaries: “My Partner Proposed, Then Changed His Mind – And I’m Still in the Dark About Why”

Welcome to our series, The Love Diaries – a space for you to share your experiences, advice, fairy-tale endings, setbacks and heartbreaks. We’ll be hearing from industry experts giving practical advice alongside Capsule readers (You!) sharing your firsthand experiences with love – everything from finding love, to keeping love, to losing love. 

This week we check in with a story from a guest writer at 9Honey who shares her heartbreaking story of being ghosted by her fiancé.

If you have a topic you’d like to discuss, share your thoughts, experience or advice about, drop a line to hello@capsulenz.com with ‘Love’ in the subject line

When my partner Chris told me he wanted to take me out for a very special dinner, I was instantly suspicious.

He’d been hinting about this special night for a long time, and I was hoping he’d propose to me. I was super excited and went to my hairdresser that day, making sure I looked my best.

I wore a stunning black dress and was nervously waiting for the moment. He didn’t exactly get down on one knee, but he held me in his arms and asked the magical question I’d been waiting for: “Will you marry me?”

He put a beautiful ring on my finger and I cried, telling him that yes, I would marry him.

But it fell apart very quickly and I still don’t understand exactly what happened.

Chris and I met through mutual friends three years ago, and I would say we were a ‘perfect’ couple.

We were best friends, had great sex and we also had very similar goals. Both of us come from country towns and have a dream of moving away from the city eventually.

We also want to have children and Chris has always been so supportive of me in every way you can imagine.

For example, he took on extra work so he could help me set up a studio for my art and he is helpful with everything, from cooking to cleaning and just being an all-round fantastic partner.

I’m not exaggerating when I say Chris really has been the perfect man for me. My friends all adore him too – he’s just so kind and thoughtful.

Once, I was on a girl’s night and we all had too much to drink, so Chris picks us up and makes sure we all get home, saving us money on an Uber.

The day after our engagement, I let my family and friends know the great news, and they were all thrilled. But I realised something was wrong when I asked Chris about the reaction of his family and he told me he hadn’t told them yet.

That seemed very weird to me and alarm bells were ringing. He is very close to his family, so why wouldn’t he tell them he was engaged to me?

A week later, when he confessed he still hadn’t told anyone, I confronted him and got a dreadful answer to my question. He told me he’d had a change of heart and said we’d be better off being friends.

I nearly fainted on the spot. Friends? This was awful. I burst into tears; I couldn’t believe I’d gone from being engaged to being dumped in one week.

Chris was good enough to give me an explanation of sorts, that he realised I wasn’t the one after all. But he didn’t elaborate and I am still in the dark. Did he suddenly look at me and realise he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life with me because I was annoying to him? Or did he realised he didn’t find me very attractive?

And, so much for being friends – he has now ghosted me, so I will never get any answers.

This article was reproduced with permission from  9Honey. To read the original article, click  here.

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