#820 Cheating & Finding Out Why - Chloe Radcliffe#820 Cheating & Finding Out Why - Chloe Radcliffe
Mental Illness Happy Hour
Comedian Chloe Radcliffe talks candidly with Paul Gilmartin about her history of serial cheating, the insecurities beneath it and how turning her story into comedy changed her relationships. Their conversation links fantasy, love addiction and shame in a way that may resonate with anyone who has used attention as a substitute for genuine connection.
1:35:37•2 Oct 2026
Cheating, Craving and Chasing Validation with Chloe Radcliffe
Episode Overview
- Chloe explains how long-running crushes and emotional affairs felt safer and more exciting than honest intimacy with a primary partner.
- She links her cheating patterns to deep insecurity formed around her facial birthmark, weight worries and an inconsistent father relationship.
- A highly spiritual, emotionally focused childhood taught her to "process" feelings, but she still turned to secrecy and fantasy for relief.
- Developing her solo show *Cheat* forced her to examine her past more deeply, especially her parents, changing how she behaves in relationships.
- Both Chloe and Paul highlight how chasing attention and idealising others mirrors addiction, creating intense shame alongside temporary relief.
“It just squeezed out a different end of the tube, but it's the same goo inside.”
What drives someone to seek a life full of intensity, secrecy and constant validation from others? This conversation between comedian Chloe Radcliffe and host Paul Gilmartin tackles that question head‑on through humour, honesty and plenty of uncomfortable truth. Chloe talks openly about being a “serial cheater”, tracing her pattern back to long‑distance college relationships where emotional affairs slowly turned physical.
She explains how crushes, slow‑burn flirtations and secret emotional bonds became her drug of choice: a way to feel desired, special and safely detached all at the same time. As she puts it, she was often “transferring” her relationship energy to someone new long before anything sexual happened.
You’ll hear how growing up with a large, hairy birthmark on her face, feeling like an outsider, and having an inconsistent relationship with her dad all fed into deep insecurity and fear of commitment. Chloe’s stand‑up and her solo show *Cheat* became a way to dig into those patterns. She went in thinking she already understood herself, only to realise she’d been avoiding the hard stuff about her parents and childhood.
Bringing that material into the show changed both the work and the way she shows up in relationships. The episode also looks at how chasing fantasy partners, emotional highs and external attention can feel eerily similar to addiction. Paul shares his own history of cheating and talks about the “magical qualities” we project onto others, and the agony and self‑loathing that can sit behind compulsive behaviour.
For anyone dealing with love addiction, serial infidelity, or using relationships to fill a void left by trauma, this chat offers raw honesty, dark humour and a reminder that many people share the same “goo inside”. It might leave you asking yourself: what am I really trying to feel when I chase the next hit of attention?
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