Is it possible for someone to be really controlling and paranoid long distance, but not in real life?

I’ve been having a lot of doubts about this I (25M) was in a long distance relationship on and off since last year with a guy (M25).

At the beginning, he wasn’t even committed enough to me, he wanted to move to a new country and start life there. Only when he moved there and realised how miserable he felt there, he started thinking about coming to visit me or trying to make this work in a real way. From that moment on, he started getting more and more controlling and paranoid: he micromanaged my social media to the extent he made me erase old pictures in which I was completely covered, filter followers and followings, and asked me not to post any new picture. Then, he told me I couldn’t go to my master’s degree celebration party because there could be males there. I sell artwork, and I had to ask my dad to meet with the clients and give them the artwork. After I finished my master’s degree, I wanted to go on two day vacation in a nearby city, he didn’t want me to. The last drop was him wanting me not to wear crop tops and not to enrol to the gym.

Even if I was loyal to him and was a patient and supportive girlfriend, because I did submit to many of his demands, he was accusing me every two days. If I forgot to update him with pictures about my day he would tell me I was cheating. Any new follower that popped up on my followings list, he would get enraged and say I started following them (even if I didn’t and it was someone reactivating their account). He even accused me of wanting his passport when the plan was him coming to my country, not me moving to his. A chaos. When I tried to leave, which I tried several times, he would hit his face, bruise himself and blame it on me.

After our breakup, he sent me a message telling me he found a girl (textually, he told me God gave him a girl… Just some days after our relationship, when I was still grieving and depressed, even if I was the one ending it) and he doesn’t have the same issues with her. He said that if I had been patient, once he would be near me he wouldn’t have had the severe control and trust issues he had with me. He said that I gave up on a man who loved me, etc. He said that if I had been more patient, he was searching already for a job in my country and would move soon and those control and trust issues would be over, but I lost it all. It really hit me hard. I gave up on so many things to make him feel secure and he never was. In fact, at the beginning of the relationship he wasn’t like that, but over time and once he let his guard down and started catching feelings he became obsessively controlling and paranoid. He said that girl loved and respected him more, when actually I was there anytime he felt miserable in life (which was pretty often), limited many areas of my life for him, was prepared to help him get his documents in my country…

Is that even real? Partially, I feel this was the correct decision. But on the other hand, the mere thought that I might have given up on something that had future won’t let me be at peace. Is that even possible?