Emily to Gremily

Cheating, Mental Health Breaks, and Wild Gremlin Gossip

• Emily Hogan

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A martini, a mental reset, and a mi, today’s solo ride goes from vulnerable to jaw‑dropping fast. I open up about taking a week off to protect quality and sanity, then jump straight into a listener confession that still makes me wince: why cheat at all? I share the messy truth from my past, why “perfect on paper” can still feel wrong, and the cleanest way to leave when your heart’s already halfway out the door.

From there, the Gremlin archive explodes with four unforgettable stories. A fake pregnancy at a restaurant that fooled an entire staff and turned generosity into regret. A marriage that imploded mid‑moment when the most undeniable evidence surfaced. A partner who twisted “words of affirmation” into body‑shaming, and the calm, decisive boundary that followed. And an update from a DNA test saga that redefined siblinghood and forced a delicate conversation with mom; proof that home genealogy can uncover more than fun family lore. We talk accountability, weaponized therapy, digital restraint, and the difference between telling the truth and detonating it.

If you love candid storytelling, relationship reality checks, and the kind of gossip that makes you text your group chat immediately, this one’s your vibe. Come for the chaos, stay for the clarity, and leave with a few tested rules: pause before you post, break up before you cheat, protect your self‑respect, and handle genetic surprises with care. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs the nudge, and leave a five‑star review to help us reach more gremlins like you. Got a story, a guidance question, or a piece of gossip? Email emilytogremilypod@gmail.com and tell me everything.

SPEAKER_01:

Emily, Emily to Gremily here with a solo episode again. So I like last episode, I made myself a list of things I needed to talk about. Otherwise, I'm gonna forget it because my brain is a little bit scattered. Okay, first of all, episode drink. I was kind of lazy today. I feel kind of bad about it. But I did the exact same drink I did last episode, which was a vodka martini. I know I'm supposed to do different drinks for each episode, but honestly, I didn't feel like going to the store and buying brand new ingredients. I just used what I have available, which made a vodka martini. So, you know, obviously I like it. You should too at this point because you guys know my blood is basically Tito's vodka. So yeah. Also, this episode is coming two weeks. Two weeks? Yeah, two weeks. After my last episode, I took a one week off in between. Um, not because I had anything significant going on. I just kind of need to take like a mental health break. Again, I didn't have anything like disastrous happen in my life or bad or like everything is just everything's good, everything's great. It's just sometimes I get into like kind of these weird little moods. I feel like a lot of people could probably understand what I'm talking about, where I just get into like a mood where I don't know, I kind of get like a little depressed. I don't know. I feel like maybe we should do an entire episode dedicated to like mental health. And I would need someone else here with me for that. But I feel like this isn't like a singular problem. I feel like most everybody has these moments, and I just kind of wanted to like wallow a little bit. And I didn't want to, I could have put out an episode last week. I just didn't want to put out like a subpar episode. So I just didn't. And luckily I have, you know, the opportunity to be able to take a break if I need to. So that's what I did. And I didn't want to put out, you know, shitty material. I just wanted to like kind of reset, recharge. Um, so that's what I did. And am I fully back to 100%? Probably not. But am I ever at 100%? Probably not. Because I'm always just a little bit, you know, I guess off. So um yeah. So that's why I took a week off. I don't plan on doing it often. I really don't like to miss weeks because then I feel like I'm, you know, not keeping up the momentum. And even like last week, I saw I had a real on Tuesday, the day that the episodes normally come out, I saw I had a real jump in downloads from past episodes. So then of course I had FOMO and was like, oh my God, you're an idiot. You didn't put out an episode. But again, I just didn't want to put out something that was shitty and subpar and not up to my own personal standards. So I just didn't, and I hope I didn't shoot myself in the foot. I don't think I did, but I don't know. I guess we'll see. Um, but yeah. So for this episode, I have all three of our normal segments. I have Gremlin Stories, Gremlin Guidance, and Gremlin Gossip. So we have one Gremlin story, one Gremlin guidance, and one, two, three, four Gremlin gossips. This episode will be a little bit shorter than normal. I've noticed in my podcast inbox, I have a lot of gremlin guidance questions. And you guys know I don't like to do the gremlin guidance by myself. I like to have someone else here who can give a different perspective than I can. Because just because this is my podcast doesn't mean I'm all knowing and know what's going on. I mean, I had to take a mental health break last week. I don't think I was in the right mind to give you guidance. So I like to have someone else here so they can give their own perspective. So I do have guests coming up. I'll talk more about that later. But I did pick one of the guidances because it was kind of directed towards me. So with that, I'm just gonna talk just about this gremlin guidance. But if you did send in your own questions, I just don't want to give like a one-sided opinion. I like to have different opinions with it because somebody else might say something completely different than I would. And it's nice to have different perspectives and maybe somebody else is gonna say something much better than I would say. So coming up, I do have some great guests. I'm very excited. Also, I've been kind of like living in the future. I've been more focusing more on future episodes with my guests than I have been focusing on the episodes I'm doing like today and by myself. Because honestly, I like having guests on. It's so much more fun. I like to banter with people. I've been really having a lot of fun talking with the people that are gonna be my guests about what we're gonna talk about and how it's gonna go. And I like to brainstorm with other people. But that doesn't mean this episode has to suck and it won't. It'll just be a little bit shorter, but that's okay. So we're gonna start with our very our one and only Gremlin story. And this story comes from Abigail. And Abigail says, Around 2011, I did something so shameful, so embarrassing that I hate talking about it, but I think you'll get a kick out of it. I had been with my boyfriend, now ex for about three years at this point. We were always fighting, and he was such an ass. One night we got into a huge fight at the bar, so we got kicked out, and the bouncer asked me if I needed him to call the cops. I said no, he left, and I called a cab home. When I got home, my gremlin's self decided to get on Facebook and post about what a dick my ex was, and he was lame in the sack and he had a small penis. Then I passed out. The next morning, I see many texts from not only him, but my friends, family, and even his mom about the posts. I had forgotten I did it, so I run to my laptop and delete them all. But everyone had already seen them. It was terrible. I had to explain to my Catholic mother I was drunk and upset, and then I got lectured about my virtue. One of my most embarrassing moments. Abigail.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know. I just thought that was funny. Um I haven't done this. Have I?

SPEAKER_01:

No, I haven't. Because by the time I started drinking, it wasn't Facebook that was the you know cool thing. It was Instagram. And you can't really post about how terrible someone is on Instagram. Thank God. Otherwise, I'm sure I would have had like, you know, a mountain of things to say. Um, but I feel bad that that happened to you. Also, it made me think of Michael, who was on for the Titanic episode, and he said that he had been typing in the girl that he was like having a crush on her name, thinking he was typing it into the search bar, but really he typed it into the into like what are you thinking? And then it posted just her name over and over again. Um, I I kind of gave him a hard time for that. But look, like he's not the only person this has happened to. Obviously, you type things in and you don't really mean to, and it's funny as hell. Looking back on it, it's funny. I'm sure in the moment you were what'd you say? You said it was mortifying. You were mortified because that's terrible. And thank God I've never done that. But I don't know, I guess it could it could happen to anyone. Um, okay. So the next one is gremlin guidance. Again, you know I don't like to do this by myself, but this one was directed at me. So I am going to answer it to the best of my ability. Uh, I don't know if that's a possible, but I'm gonna try. Let me have a drink first. I always spill. My god. Get it together, lady. Okay. So this one was anonymous. Anonymous says, actually, I'm kind of outing myself again here, but anonymous says, you have said before that you have cheated in past relationships. So I'm wondering why. I have been unhappy with my boyfriend lately. He's technically perfect on paper, but I find myself wanting other men. I'm not looking for an excuse, but more of an understanding on your thought process. Anonymous. Okay. Um, so what I can say is the difference between myself and anonymous is the the guy I was with, he was not perfect on paper. He treated me bad. He was um abusive, he was narcissistic, he I I look, I the list could go on and on. And uh maybe it's not cool to talk shit about him because he's not here, you know. Thank the baby Jesus, even though I'm not very religious, but just thank the Lord he ain't here. Um But I I there there's there's really no excuse for it. It's not a nice thing to do. In all reality, I should have just left that relationship when I okay, let me restart this. I feel like I'm gonna stumble over my words. Even though I read this before and put it in here on purpose, I didn't think out my answer completely. I just kind of had a a thought of what I was gonna say, but it doesn't mean it was a complete thought. I should have left him years before we actually ended things. He was great in the beginning, but now I realize that it was love bombing. Um, the things he said to me at the time because I was 1920 and stupid and young and unaware of you know what love bombing was, it it's um it was manipulative, and I fell for it, as you do when you're 19 and kind of a dum-dum. But I should have left him long before I actually did. And this is the person that I was engaged to, and uh, that's who we're talking about in the cheating aspect. Um and I don't have a real good reason other than I just straight up didn't like him anymore. Like me, maybe I maybe I felt love for him because I cared about him and his well-being, even though he wasn't well. Um so I think that's what made me stay. It was kind of like more of an obligation, even though that sounds terrible. I feel like I'm making myself sound bad. But it in I'm just kind of trying to like speak my truth. He wasn't in his soul, I think he was a good person, but how he treated me and how he treated the house and you know who what he was about, he was very um greedy and manipulative and uh uh abusive. I already said it, but abusive. So I figured so I just I don't know, I guess I was seeking not validation, but just like I guess comfort elsewhere, even though that sounds really weird to say, because I wasn't treating any of those relationships as if they were gonna be anything other than what they were. And actually, I I did ruin um a friendship off of that because I think the person who I was with thought it was gonna become something more, and that I do regret because I feel bad that I hurt that person's feelings. Um so yeah, now I'm kind of lost in what I'm saying because now I'm kind of like going back through those emotions, and the emotions are odd and weird, and cheating isn't right. At the end of the day, I should have just broken up with him, but I was scared and I was young and I was stupid, and then I got kind of caught up in life, and you know, my nana died, and she was like the closest person they had to me. So then I was caught up in grief, and then I made even more mistakes. So it's just it's a very vicious cycle. What I would say is if you're thinking that you want to cheat on someone, then maybe it's just time for you to let it go. Like, don't become me and be like, oh yeah, I cheated in the past and you know, I feel great about it. You don't feel great about it. You feel like shit. You feel like you're a crappy person for having done that to another person, even if you don't like that person. So I would just say, I think it's time for you to break up with him. Yeah, he's perfect, like you said, he's perfect on paper. But if you're looking for something else, like you haven't said how long you guys have been together for. Maybe you're just bored. And if you're bored, that's okay, but you shouldn't take someone else down with you. In my, I guess, defense, quote unquote, I wasn't taking him down with me because he was already kind of sucking me down into like a crappy asshole. Um, but still, it's like it's not my proudest moment. I don't come out of it looking like a hero or looking great. I was being a shit person to a shit person. You always want to be better. You don't want to go stoop down to their level. So I would just say you you probably just need to break up with the guy. Um, yeah, don't do what I did because you know, I should be in therapy. I'm not. That's why I just decided to start this podcast and talk to all of you peoples. And yeah, it's not cool, it's not fun. I probably have some demons to work through, but I would not suggest cheating on them. I would just break up with them. Like I can say right now, like in my relationship, I've been with my boyfriend for seven plus years, and I'm not like I wouldn't think of cheating on him because I'm happy in my relationship. I feel safe in my relationship, and that's the way you should feel. I don't I like I don't feel a need to wander elsewhere, and that's how you should feel. So I'm not sure what else is going on behind the scenes with your relationship, but I would just say that maybe it's time to like kind of call it. Even though he's nice and perfect, quote unquote, I think it's just time to call it. And then you can be with whoever you want without any of the guilt. So that's my guidance. Again, I hate doing this by myself because I feel super vulnerable and like I'm not giving out proper advice. So hopefully I did an okay job. Um, I don't know. I guess you can email me and tell me if I did a good job or not. Okay, and now we're gonna do Gremlin Gossip. My favorite segment ever, because you guys get to tell me all your secrets and I get to relish in all of the goodness of it. But I'm gonna have a drink first because now I feel weird about the guidance. I'm feeling very insecure. So, like I said, we have one, two, three, four. And the first one is international. I love that. So this is from Annalee, who says she is from London. Love it. I actually have noticed because again, I always look at my analytics like by myself, because I'm a one-woman show, minus Jay, who helps me out. But I love looking at the analytics and seeing like all the different countries I pop up in. I pop in like some weird countries. Like I got several views from like Nigeria, I got Singapore, I got um, oh, what was the other one that like really excited me? Crap, I don't remember. Um, I don't remember, but I do get a lot from like Australia, Brazil, um, Puerto Rico. It's a US territory, but Puerto Rico, um, I'm I don't know, I feel kind of like worldwide. It's pretty cool, but yeah. Okay, anyway, sorry, Anna Lee. Annalie from London. She says, oh, and I remember this one, and when I read it, I was like, hee hee. All right. Annalie from London says, there was a woman I worked with who faked a pregnancy. We were working at a restaurant and the uniform was a tailored shirt and pants. One day she announced very excitedly she was expecting, and everyone was of course supportive and happy for her. Over the course of several months, she asked for bigger shirts, but not pants. She was a slender girl, and the only part of her getting larger was her stomach. She was asked about a gender reveal and she said she was waiting to find out. She was asked about a baby shower and she said she had no one to throw her one, so everyone at the restaurant chipped in to throw it. We held it at the restaurant and she was showered with gifts. Then it came close to her due date. She said she needed to keep working to save money, but we would always cover for her and she could leave early with pay. Then one day she showed up, sans pregnant belly, and said she had her baby. She had worked the night before. That's when everything imploded on her. She was brought in by our very caring manager to ask what was happening, and that's when she confessed. None of it was real. We could not believe it. She quit on the spot and was never heard from again. People were, of course, mad. They felt swindled out of their time, money, energy, everything. She walked away with pay and tips that she did not earn and all the gifts from the baby shower. It's the strangest event that has ever happened in my life. Anna Lee from London. Um, okay. I said this last time. I probably shouldn't speculate on gossip gremlin gossip, like give my two cents, but I kind of have to. I feel like she is having maybe something psychological happen. She obviously did it for the attention. I feel like maybe she I don't know. Again, maybe I shouldn't be talking about it. But I feel like she didn't do it with the intention to swindle or to take money from you guys. Because she obviously took the gifts. Who knows what she did with them? Like, did she sell them for money? Like, who who knows? That's that's a separate issue. But I feel like maybe she is kind of I don't know. I don't want to say munchhousens because munchhousens is when you make yourself sick and look for the attention. But isn't that kind of what it seems like? Again, I'm not a psychologist, psychiatrist, I got nothins. Um, I'm just wondering out loud, like, there's got to be some like kind of psychological issue happening because why would you do that? And she was obviously wearing a fake pregnant belly. Like, she was like, I don't know, like obviously she wasn't wearing a pillow, otherwise you guys would have seen, but maybe she was just buying those like bellies they use for like TV shows or movies. I don't know. But those are uncomfortable. So I've heard, not I've ever worn them myself. I listened to like podcasts and they talk about it. Mainly the office ladies have talked about it from it's um Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey, who were Pam and Angela from the office, and they've talked about the annoyance of wearing a fake pregnant belly. They're not very comfortable. So I don't know. But good piece of gossip. Um, the next one is actually the next three are all anonymous, but anonymous says, This isn't my piece of gossip, but my sisters who said I could share it on the podcast. My sister and her wife were married for three years. Out of nowhere, my sister announced they were getting divorced, and her soon-to-be ex-wife was moving out of the house. The reason? While they were having sex, a condom fell out of her wife. And since my sister does not have a penis, it was discovered that her wife was cheating on her with a man. Absolutely shocked us all. Anonymous. Oh my god. Um, I don't mean to laugh at at um at misery, but what a hell of a way to find out you're being cheated on. Like, oh my, oh my. Again, I don't mean to I laugh when I'm nervous. You guys know this, but I was just like, when I read that, I was like, like, can you imagine? I can't imagine being being there and like having that happen and seeing like again, what's with these guys wearing baggy condoms? Guys, like, you need to get the the condom size that fits you. Stop pretending that you belong in a magnum. So weird. Um, but hopefully your sister is doing well and finding love elsewhere with um non-cheaters. So yeah. Um, but yeah, I read that and I was like, oh my god. Okay. The next one. Um again, I laugh when I'm nervous and I'm gonna take another drink because now I feel weird because I'm laughing. And I shouldn't laugh. It's just like it's one of those things like you hear about or read about, or you see it on TikTok and you're like, oh my god. And then you send it to your friends because you're like, oh my god. And again, I spill. Good lord, this couch is gonna be like soaked with vodka. It's gonna be wild. Okay. The next one says, it's again anonymous. I have yet to tell anyone this information, but I am divorcing my husband. After the birth of our second child, we started to grow distant from each other. He even began to pull away from daddy duty and wasn't helping out with the kids when I he even began to pull away from daddy duty and wasn't helping out with the kids when he was home. After my second baby was nine months old, I suggested we go to marriage counseling. He reluctantly agreed, and our therapist suggested using words of affirmation to help us express how thankful we are for each other. Later on, my husband decided to use those tools against me while I was putting on makeup for a double date by saying, quote, I love your face. Your body could use some work, and then smugly walked away. He knew what that would do to my self-esteem, but in that moment I decided he would not break me. I calmly got ready and went to our event. The next morning, while he was at work, I was calling divorce attorney. It feels good to tell someone, even if it is from a burner email account. Anonymous. Yeah, divorce him. I have nothing, no words of advice other than that. That's so mean, so rude. Not only you've given him two children, and not only is he unwilling to help you, taking care of those children when he gets home from work. I get it. He's had a long day. Okay, but so have you. Plain and simple. And for him to shame you about your body, how dare he? Like, I I don't put up with that. Not that I've ever been in that pre predicament, but absolutely not. Fuck him and fuck his words, fuck his words of affirmation. And I'm someone who I love words of affirmation. I don't know if it that is my love language, but if someone tells me I'm doing a great job or tells me I they like my cooking or this or that, I don't know. I love that shit. I don't know if that's my primary love language, but if someone's gonna use that against me, fuck off. How dare you? So yeah, divorce him, take the kids, take the money if there's any money. I'm rooting for you, girl. And we have the last one, which is I saw this and I got very excited because it was a return email. This is an update from a prior submission. I forget the episode number. I probably should have written it down, but I didn't. It was from the listener who said they did a DNA test on ancestry.com and found out that who they thought was their half sister is their full sister. So that means the mom had an affair with her first husband and produced who she thought was the half sibling, but is now the full sibling. So I had said, please don't blame me for this. But I was like, I think you should tell your mom because you know, like, obviously she's been holding the secret. Maybe it would feel good for her to get it off her chest. I didn't say that in the episode, but that's my thought process now. Anyway, the uh listener responded and said, update. We decided to confront our mom with the DNA results, and she had no idea my half-sister was her ex-husband's daughter and not her current husband's. She said, yes, she did have an affair at the beginning of their marriage with her ex, but honestly believed her daughter was the product of her second marriage. In her defense, her husbands look similar, but yeah, no idea. Okay. I didn't mean to blow up this family. I was just giving my two cents, which again, gremlin gossip, maybe I shouldn't give my two cents, but I can't help it. Like, I I'm I'm nosy. I'm a nosy Nelly. I like to like give people advice on things I have no right to give advice on. I I hope I will. I'm hoping I didn't do this. I am sorry if you took my advice and then found this out. I hope your mom is okay. Um I mean, I'm assuming both of you are adults, so this is decades later. Um yeah. I read that and I was like, oh my goodness. Um very excited to read the update and thank you for sending in the update. I just didn't mean for it to um blow up in your face. I honestly you said you weren't gonna respond, or you you said you weren't going to say anything, or you didn't think you were going to, and I was like, maybe you should tell your mom. And I don't know, maybe it's good a good thing you did. Please email me and let me know if it's a good thing that you did. I'm hoping she doesn't tell her current husband or her ex-husband. I hope it's kinda everything's just kind of like left as is because I now I feel weird. Now I feel bad. And um, I don't know. I I I read that first I got excited, and then I was like, uh-oh, like did I just like fuck up? I feel like I fucked up. And with that, we're done with the episode. I will, I don't know. Oh my god. Um, I am so sorry. I you you gotta realize that I am like I give advice, I love to give advice, but obviously, um I'm not a psychologist or a psychiatrist. Duh. Um and are any of us mentally sound? I mean, I'm not over here being a crazy person, but you know, we all have our our days. And I hope I didn't just absolutely fuck up. By telling you my own personal thoughts, which was I want you to tell your mom. I'm assuming you did that on your own accord because everyone has autonomy. I think. Um, so yeah, you obviously heard my call to action. Email me back. Um, email me back and let me know if this was my fuck up or if you just decided that you wanted to tell your mom. Because heavens to Betsy, I don't know what's going on. We're done with the episode. That was it. I decided to end it on that kind of a note. Um, yeah. This is gonna be somewhat of a short episode, not the shortest, but a short one. Um, I do have some guests coming up. Like I said, I've been more focused on their episodes than putting out episodes by myself because I love when I have guests on. The next time we have an episode air, it's going to be October, spooky season. So get ready for the spookies. I'm very excited for the episodes I have coming up. I have two planned right now, one at the beginning of October, one at the end of October. And in the middle, I have a few different people lined up. It's just depending on scheduling and lining up with everything and getting our ducks in a row. Maybe they'll have to be pushed to November, depending on scheduling conflicts, but we shall see. But I am very excited for what should be the next episode coming out. I don't want to, you know, say too much and then it doesn't happen. So knock on wood, clink clink that it will happen. So if you want to send in your own gremlin stories, gremlin guidance, gremlin gossip, you can email the podcast emily to gremilypod at gmail.com. You can also watch this podcast in all its glory and see myself and this studio. And you can see that at Emily to Gremlin Pod on YouTube. You can also follow us on social media, Emily to GremlyPod on Instagram and TikTok. Yeah, everything's universal. And yes, so like, follow, share, rate five stars, wherever you're listening to. There's so many places you can listen to this podcast. Um, if you're already listening, you're obviously listening to it somewhere, but you can go elsewhere and listen to it as well. If you want to help my download rating go up, you can listen to it on, let's see, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Listen Notes, Castro Box. Um I forgot about the rest of them. There's so many different ones. If you go on to my Instagram, you can't do it on TikTok because TikTok only allows you to do um five hashtags. But if you go on Instagram, you can see all the places I'm listed on on the comments. It'll be hashtagged. So you can find me anywhere you want. And you can watch the podcast, you can listen to me elsewhere. I don't know. You can listen to me everywhere. That would help my download rating and help me get sponsors and help me get signed to a network and all that jazz. So yeah, that's it. Okay. I'm really perturbed by that last one because now I'm worried I fucked up a family. But yes, that's the episode. We're on episode 23. Very excited for episode 24. We're gonna cheers out with my vodka martini, and I'm probably gonna make myself another one because what else do I have to do today? I have to um basically just like take care of my household. And I can do that after another martini. I'm good. So cheers to me, cheers to you, cheers to all of our listener submissions. Make sure to submit yourself, Emily to Grammily Pod at gmail.com. Love you all. I'm probably gonna make another one myself. Okay, bye.

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Emily Hogan

Host