Then, they ran. Often to someone else who would give.
In my case, STBX's OM is simply 'there' and asks for really nothing in return. Nothing. He's a puppet.
In my case the new mrs. x was one who told him he was wonderful, poor baby, to suffer so with an undeserving, unloving wife, etc.... then she trotted him down to her attorney and the rest was history!
"You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf." Jon Kabat-Zinn