I was in an unhappy relationship with Todd Rundgren. He cheated

The words of Bebe Buell—“I was in an unhappy relationship with Todd Rundgren. He cheated on me and I was like, if you can go out with her, then I’ll go out with Mick Jagger!”—resound with the fire of wounded pride and the strength of defiance. They remind us that betrayal in love often awakens the warrior spirit within, stirring not only sorrow but also the fierce desire to reclaim dignity.

The ancients spoke often of betrayal, for it was a wound deeper than the sword. To be bound in a relationship and then broken by unfaithfulness was seen as a violation of sacred trust, a shattering of the covenant between two souls. Yet they also taught that such wounds could ignite resilience, prompting the wronged to rise with boldness rather than bow in silence.

Buell’s declaration carries that heroic flame. Confronted with cheating, she did not cower in despair but proclaimed her own freedom, asserting that if faith was broken, she too would seize her right to choose. In invoking the name of Mick Jagger, she speaks not merely of another man, but of turning to power, fame, and independence as her counterbalance to betrayal. It is the cry of one who refuses to remain diminished.

This truth carries both pain and triumph. Pain, because all relationships rooted in distrust corrode the heart; triumph, because the spirit that rises from betrayal learns its own strength. The ancients would have called this the transformation of grief into action, the forging of self-respect from the ashes of broken vows.

So let this teaching endure: betrayal may pierce the soul, but it cannot claim dominion over it. When wronged, do not dwell in shadows, but rise with courage. Let the world know, as Buell declared, that you will not be silenced, nor left powerless, but will walk boldly, even defiantly, into new paths. For though love may falter, dignity and choice remain the unyielding weapons of the heart.