Sadie28,
I have a simple ask for help. Really not so simple.
Boy and howdy, you are correct, your ask is anything but "simple". What works for one couple may be injurious to another. Consider advice but reject blueprints.
But I want to help comfort my wife and always make her feel safe. I Love my wife! And I recognize that my past affair in 2018 brings all that I do now or previously did into question.
It is good that you "want" to comfort your wife. It is good that you "want" to make her feel safe. But think about your phrasing. Yes, to want is a necessary starting point in the reconciliation process. However, 8 years post affair, are you? Are you comforting? Are you safe? Or just wanting to be? I am not stating you are not, it is simply a question for your consideration. If you are not, then there is lots of work for you to engage. If you are, then stay strong and consistent, display that for your wife while she is in a crises state. Be understanding, kind, patient, and discard all temptations to justify your actions or correct her misconceptions. Again, I am not saying that you are not doing these things just attempting to answer your questions the best I know how with extremely limited information.
Some here believe that you could not possibly have loved your wife during your affair. I personally do not fall into that camp, but it was the most unloving, destructive thing you could have done. It took my wife a very long time to grasp how devastating her affair was to me. Pre knowledge of an affair, many betrayed partners will state that thought they "knew they were loved". However, post affair, the absoluteness of the permanence of the knowledge of that love is probably forever gone. A doubt most likely will always linger in the recesses. For some betrayeds that may not be the case. But I know that for me and from the many I have read here at SI, doubt’s tentacles cling tenaciously in the dark places.
The recent news of Jensen Huang's affair has set my wife into a fit of rage. Similar but even more severe than prior news of affairs by men in power (Bezos, Gates, Vrabel and others). How can I best comfort her in such times? What can I do to help in any way?
Be there. Be strong. Be consistent. And sit it out with her for as long as she needs.
I believe it is important for you to fully understand; you sacrificed her safety for something fleeting. I am not attempting to burden you with shame. Shame is not helpful for you or your wife. I am simply sharing my experience for your consideration and hopeful for you and your wife’s reconciliation.
Asterisk