The Dr. John Delony Show – “Greatest Hits Vol. 5: Your Favorite Calls of 2025”

Released: December 31, 2025
Host: Dr. John Delony, Ramsey Network
Theme: The most talked-about, controversial, and impactful calls of 2025—three emotional, thought-provoking listener stories about infidelity, trust, and commitment.

Overview of the Episode

For this special “Greatest Hits” edition, Dr. John Delony and his co-hosts revisit three of the year’s most commented-upon, drama-filled calls, sparking conversations about the painful realities and hard choices in marriage and relationships. From infidelity and broken trust to recurring threats of divorce, these calls put listeners’ emotions and opinions into overdrive and offer raw reflections on hope, honesty, and personal responsibility.

Key Discussions & Insights

1. Will’s Story: Affair, Fantasy, and Avoiding Reality

[03:21 – 21:08]

Background

• Will calls in from Nashville, married five years, and has been having an affair with his close friend’s wife for eight months.
• Neither his wife nor his friend knows about the affair.
• Will’s question: Is this actual love, or just the thrill of the forbidden?

Dr. John’s Approach and Insights

• Confronting the Fantasy: John challenges Will for living in denial and creating a fantasy world to avoid the consequences of his actions.
  • “Your questions are so divorced from the reality with which you actually find yourself that it tells me that you've had to construct a world where this is okay... If you didn't have that kind of psychological moat around what you're actually doing, you would implode.” — John ([07:09])
• No Room for ‘Is It Love?’: Before Will can consider the legitimacy of his feelings for the affair partner, he must be honest and confront the pain he’s caused.
  • “No place in this conversation are we talking about 'are these feelings real or not'... Not until we've looked your wife in the eye and said, ‘I've blown our marriage up and I don't want to be with you anymore.’ Not until you've looked your buddy in the eye and said, ‘I've been sleeping with your wife for a year, and I'm sorry.’” — John ([08:14])
• Brutal Analogy: John uses vivid metaphors to force Will out of denial.
  • “It's like you're in Los Angeles right now, watching your house burn down and wondering where you're going to put the new kitchen during the rebuild.” — John ([07:46])
• Choice and Consequence: The only way forward is total honesty and bracing for the fallout—knowing full well that the probability of a successful relationship with the affair partner is “very, very, very low.” ([08:59])
• On Love:
  • “Love is not a feeling. It's a choice you make every single day. It's a decision... And a marriage is a choice that two people make every single day of their life.” — John ([17:54])

Action Steps for Will

• Tell his wife immediately about the affair.
• Prepare himself to lose both his marriage and friendship.
• Anchor back to reality and start rebuilding from ground zero.

Notable Quotes

• “You can't be sleeping with somebody else's wife and trying to see if your marriage is going to make it. That's madness, Will. Madness.” — John ([12:25])
• “Today needs to be the day that you tell your wife, we gotta talk. I've been having an eight month affair with our mutual friends...” — John ([12:51])

2. Lawrence’s Story: Marriage, Pornography, and Irretrievable Trust

[24:04 – 39:46]

Background

• Lawrence, married only seven months, admits to secretly subscribing to adult content (“OnlyFans”), discovered by his wife.
• His wife, upon discovering the recurring charges, immediately demands a divorce despite prior couples counseling.
• Lawrence is heartbroken, still in therapy, desperately hoping for a reconciliation.

Dr. John’s Approach and Insights

• Owning the Hole: John diagnoses Lawrence’s underlying insecurity—feeling “less than” his wife and living from a place of shame.
  • “When you first started talking, you came into this marriage thinking you were less than her... All of your actions are from a position of, ‘I'm in a hole.’ Until you stop walking around giving your credit card to a porn company is in-the-hole behavior.” — John ([32:07])
• Trust Above All: The breach is not simply about porn; it’s about dishonesty and violated trust.
• Exhaling Reality:
  • “You have to exhale that this is over... she wants a divorce, she’s filed paperwork. It’s happening.” — John ([31:04])
• Stop Digging: Lean into therapy for personal growth, not to ‘win her back.’
  • “You can't go to all this therapy and do all this stuff to try to win her back. You gotta go to therapy and stuff because there's something not right... There is healing on the other side, man. But you gotta own the reality of where you find yourself.” — John ([37:47], [38:46])

Notable Quotes

• “People can judge her all day long, but she got every right to walk. It's you that's got to exhale and go, okay, this is happening. What's going to be different next time?” — John ([38:34])
• “When you put that kind of pressure on somebody [calling her a unicorn]...You find somebody and you choose to love them. And you keep showing up, and you keep showing up, and you keep showing up.” — John ([38:35])

Action Steps for Lawrence

• Grieve the marriage.
• Focus on personal therapy and self-worth.
• Prepare for life after divorce by focusing on healing and self-respect.

3. Devin’s Story: Emotional Blackmail and Drawing Boundaries in Marriage

[41:23 – 58:44]

Background

• Devin’s wife repeatedly threatens to leave (via ultimata), especially over disagreements (latest: having a third child).
• Devin does almost all household responsibilities and lives in fear of abandonment, leading to an anxious, unbalanced marriage.
• He feels stuck—unable to break the “dance” of over-compensating and not asserting his own needs.

Dr. John’s Approach and Insights

• Naming the Problem: John bluntly calls out Devin’s wife’s emotional immaturity and the ongoing infidelity—not of the physical kind, but of faithfulness to the marriage.
  • “If somebody is always threatening to leave you, they have left. They aren't in.” — John ([45:32])
• Metaphor of Cheating: Equates her repeated threats to a form of cheating, as real as emotional or sexual infidelity.
  • “This is the same thing… That’s cheating. That is not giving you her full self. And so you're just feeding on scraps and you’re starving to death.” — John ([47:04])
• Restore Agency: Devin must reclaim his own identity and boundaries, instead of living to avoid her threats.
  • “If I stop doing this one nice thing, is she going to leave?... You have to hear me say, you're worth being whole.” — John ([54:05])
  • “I'm not doing this for punishment. I'm doing it so I can be whole.” — John ([54:16])
• Practical Plan: Lay out a “retreat” for the new year—map out identities, needs, responsibilities, and what it means to be “in” the marriage. Clearly reallocate household and emotional labor to ensure both partners are present and whole.
• Confronting Reality: Devin is urged to stop reading “tea leaves” and instead invite his wife to a transparent adult conversation.
  • “She has no incentive to change her life, because she likes her life as it is, because she does nothing. She just pulls you around on a leash and she's always got this atom bomb in her pocket.” — John ([57:45])
• Ultimate Challenge: “You deserve to be married to a man who is whole. And I deserve to be married to someone who is whole, who is all in. What do you need? I'll do everything I can in my power to make that true.” — John ([56:55])

Action Steps for Devin

• Set a clear conversation to define both partners’ needs and commitments.
• Establish new, equitable household roles.
• Commit to being “whole” regardless of his wife’s decisions, and stop living in fear of abandonment.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Deep Metaphor:
  “It's like you're watching your house burn down and wondering where you're going to put the new kitchen during the rebuild.” — John, to Will ([07:46])

• On Fantasy vs. Reality:
  “Until you anchor back into Earth, any conversations you’ll have are just fantasy. They're just Disney movies. They're not real.” — John ([09:36])

• On when marriage is already over:
  “Your house has already burned to the ground. Hers, too. They're gone. They're over. The marriage you had is over. The little Plate time you'll have together is over. You all have to decide what we're going to build next.” — John, to Will ([19:23])

• On trust and honesty:
  “Giving your credit card to a porn company is in-the-hole behavior.” — John, to Lawrence ([32:44])

• Emotional starvation in marriage:
  “You’re just feeding on scraps and you’re starving to death.” — John, to Devin ([47:10])

• On agency and boundaries:
  “I'm not doing it for punishment. We’re doing it so you can be whole. Finally. You’ve never been whole in this relationship.” — John, to Devin ([54:16])

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Will’s Call (Affair): 03:21 – 21:08
• Lawrence’s Call (Trust & Pornography): 24:04 – 39:46
• Devin’s Call (Ultimatums & Boundaries): 41:23 – 58:44

Tone & Style

• Direct, no-nonsense: John never sugarcoats the pain or gravity of relational betrayal.
• Compassionate, yet tough: While Dr. John expresses empathy, he’s unafraid to confront denial, delusion, and “verbal gymnastics.”
• Vivid analogies: Comparing infidelity to a house burning down or marriages adrift as crashing planes.
• Practical: Clear, actionable steps are given, even for seemingly hopeless situations.

For Listeners Who Haven’t Heard the Episode

This “greatest hits” episode pulls no punches—the calls revolve around the hardest questions of marriage: Can I admit what I’ve done? Can I build trust after betrayal? Can I stop living in fear and finally ask for what I need? Dr. John Delony’s answers are sobering but hopeful, reminding everyone that transformation starts only when you return to reality and own your actions. Whether it’s ending an affair, stepping into the pain of divorce, or reclaiming your wholeness from emotional manipulation, these stories will get you talking—and thinking—long after the episode ends.