I don't have the time at the moment to post all I could about this...lol Suffice it to say, you all realize that they cannot find themselves while they are running about with the OP...and they are in such denial, they don't want to look at themselves, so the OP = distraction.
What Conway wrote rings so true to me now, looking back at my own H and the ow. Even in my lowest emotional moments on earth, I could admit my H affaired down. It was so "in your face" down that it was laughable (if it didn't hurt so much). But my H has said to me that someone else wouldn't expect him to be "better", and I think where he is at in life right now, he's not "better" enough to reconcile with me, so he stays away.
And so it goes. Until they get themselves some real help. Some never do. Some do eventually (hi, yellowrose!).
I've recommended this book (by the wrong name!) before, Surviving Betrayal, by Alice May. Read it. It helped me so very much.
Most of us really marry only once. First love endures, even unto our dying day. And we never really divorce.