my boyfriend and i have been dating for about a year now, and overall things have been pretty great. we had a bit of an unorthodox story, wherein we met on an app last summer and dated from june-august before jumping into long distance for the rest of the academic year. i had known he had a pretty long term (3 year) ex when we first met but i didn’t think much of it as i usually don’t let my partners’ past affect me. he also broke up with her (twice?) and assured me he was not happy in that relationship…
over the summer, however, i found out that they were still seeing each other socially. we weren’t officially dating so i had no reason to bring it up but it was something i kept in mind. in august, we made it official. at the time, he made a point to ask me if i was exclusive over the summer and assured me he hadn’t been seeing anyone else. he followed this up by telling me he had cut his ex off at the beginning of the summer after telling her he had begun talking to someone he really liked. i had been exclusive, and though i was skeptical of his answer i decided to trust him. a few weeks later, however, i found photo shoot pictures of him on her account that were posted in late july. these included pictures of him lying down on the couch, smoking a cigarette, etc late at night. she also posted a picture from his apartment balcony. it looked pretty intimate. when i calmly asked him about it, he got very defensive/patronizing told me “i have a lot of friends who have hobbies. that was taken by my male friend who happens to do photography” and i didn’t want to push further so i took his answer to heart.
flash forward to now, i found out that those very pictures are in her personal (public) photography portfolio. i wasn’t intentionally looking for evidence against him, i just happened to stumble upon it. i’m not sure what to think.
we’ve been doing well besides this and he doesn’t really give me reason to feel like he doesn’t love me. despite this, i’m very concerned about the lying (especially the lengths he went to craft a bold-faced lie about this situation) after finding out my gut feeling and suspicious were correct. please give me some advice as i really need it. thank you so much.