'How much proof do I need?': Woman's troubling dilemma with cheating spouse

Cheating can be hugely destructive in any relationship. An unfaithful partner will often go to extreme lengths to cover up their affair, lying and masking behaviour.

So, how can you tell if your partner is cheating on you and should you confront them?

In this week's segment of Talking Honey 9Honey columnist Shelly Horton shared a plea for help from a reader facing a sticky situation.

Watch the clip above.

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The reader, named Gracie, was suspicious that her husband was cheating and requested advice from the panel, which consisted of relationship expert, John Aiken, former Miss Australia, Maria Thattil and 2GB Breakfast host, Ben Fordham.

"I think my husband is cheating on me," she wrote. "He started working out. He's doing more overnight business trips than ever before and he seems to be texting on the phone a lot. How much proof do I need before I confront him about his suspicious behaviour?"

Aiken jumped in first, professing this topic was his "wheelhouse", recommending that the reader get her ducks in a row before she approached her partner.

"What you've got to realise if you're in that situation, is that you have got to get a lot of information before you go and accuse your partner of that," he advised.

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The relationship expert said that whilst Gracie had observed a change in behaviour, she needed to be sure of the affair before saying anything.

"Once you say to somebody, 'I think you're cheating'... it can break the trust."

Aiken's advice was starkly contrasted by Fordham who, when asked what he would do in the situation, responded "nothing!"

"I'd do absolutely nothing," Fordham clapped back. "Because if someone's going to the gym, and they're going on business trips and texting on their phone – it sounds like 90 per ceny of the population."

He continued, "I think if you are jumping to that conclusion based on that amount of evidence, I don't know... I worry."

Thattil, on the other hand, sided with Aiken, suggesting that open communication was the best way forward.

"I would say, 'Something's feeling off in the dynamic between us. I don't know, maybe, you know, you're relating to me a little bit differently'..."

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She continued: "I would never accuse them of cheating unless I had some kind of solid indication that that's what was going on."

Fordham disagreed with the other panelists suggesting that Gracie herself might be the problem.

"I don't know how long Gracie has been with her bloke," he argued. "But if Gracie is seriously considering these kinds of measures based on the evidence that she's provided to us, then Gracie may be the problem?"

Horton then posed Aiken with a tricky question: "If Gracie was completely wrong, and she accused him, is there any way of repairing that or is it a bomb?"

Aiken feared for Gracie if this was the case and offered a stern piece of advice: "It will take a lot of heavy lifting from her to repair."

Watch the full clip above to see what the panelists had to say.