'AITA if I ask my wife to stop secretly 'role playing' as a group of complete strangers?'

"WIBTA if I ask my wife to stop doing this weird role play?"

So recently my laptop broke, and while I was waiting for it to be fixed, I needed to use my wife's laptop. This had never been a problem before. This time, however, I noticed that she was logged into Facebook (which was strange in itself, because she claimed she didn't have an account there), but under a different, male name and surname. I admit that it intrigued me and I looked there.

I have no idea who the profile picture belongs to, but basically the entire profile was dedicated to volleyball. "The man" was a former player who had to retire from the game after an injury, but still shared information about it. He also came from a small town, which, when I Googled it, is actually a small village in Germany.

He also had a wife and two children, whose profiles I also found, and which ultimately led me down the rabbit hole. All these people came from the same place; some had real photos (sometimes disturbingly candid-looking ones), others had anime profiles, others had gaming profiles, and so on.

Each profile had a theme, some shared links to reddit, twitter, etc (some were still active). The man whose profile I was using belonged to a groups that included other strange accounts. One of the groups that popped up most often was for conspiracy theorists. I also saw his messages, and they looked like those of a real person; they went on for months, sometimes with photos, and so on.

I didn't understand what I was looking at. My wife was still at the store, so I closed Facebook and... went through her laptop. I know, I know. I found a ton of folders labeled with names, photos, a timeline, and "future plans for this character". Even things like "change in views", "change profile picture", "marriage", "TikTok controversy" were included.

When my wife came back, I asked her about it right away. I didn't even have a theory about it, I was just confused. It all seemed surreal.

My wife brushed me off, not seeming bothered at all. She said it was "her role play for fun.".

But since then I can't stop thinking about it. There were over 100 of these folders! Over 100 characters who interact with each other, even though they are all my wife.

This really strikes me as strange and from now on, every time I look at my wife, I just think about it.

I want to ask her to stop doing this, but I don't know if I'm allowed to? I mean, technically she doesn't do anything super bad and I don't think she interacts with real people , but it's still disturbing for me.

What do you think? AITA if he intervenes in his wife's 'role play'? This is what commenters had to say:

intolerablefem said:

It’s the amount of time and effort she’s put into it that are throwing alarm bells off for me. It’s definitely weird and as a spouse I’d have a TON of questions too. Especially since she’s told you she doesn’t have FB. Which is essentially a lie. What else is she lying about? NTA.

babywhiz said:

Did she ever play “The Sims”? Our whole household got stuck on role playing for a while. It’s just hers is less game centric.

Not weird, but it sounds like she’s not getting proper socialization outside the relationship.

thiccncharming said:

Beyond your discomfort, you might genuinely want to understand the motivation and depth of this roleplay. Is it a creative outlet? A way to cope with stress? A very elaborate game? Understanding her perspective could help alleviate some of your unease.

davidsherrer2 said:

This is one of the weirdest things I’ve ever read and somehow I still don’t know if it’s a red flag or just extreme LARPing. I’d be unsettled too, honestly.

PinkLuxeAura said:

Dude, that's some next level commitment to character creation by your wife. Instead of asking her to stop, why not try to understand more about her hobby? It's weird, sure, but unless she's hurting anyone, stealing identities, or ignoring her real life for this, then YWBTA. Remember, everyone's got SOMETHING they geek out about, and this seems to be her Thing™. So chill, and try talking more about it with her.

Lowkey-Reddit said:

You should really try speak to her properly about it! Sounds like she may be experiencing some crippling loneliness or some sort of mental issue if she is doing this. Are you sure the other accounts aren’t other people ?

And Dentol_Flass said:

God forbid a woman has hobbies 😔