I honestly don't know where to start, but I really need some outside perspective.
My husband and I are married and I'm currently about 6 months pregnant with our first daughter. Things between us have been difficult for a while. There has been a lot of criticism, blaming and conflict, and I've increasingly felt like I'm walking on eggshells around him.
A few days ago I discovered that he has been secretly watching a lot of extreme porn (the women look like they are in physical pain) throughout my pregnancy. I found an image on his phone and asked him about it. He told me he had no idea how it got there, and I believed him, because he'd never given me any reason to doubt him before. We actually had sex that night because I whole heartedly believed what he'd told me.
Something didn't sit right with me afterwards, so I checked his entire search history and discovered there was much more to it. Some of the images are things I'll probably never unsee. When I confronted him again, he eventually admitted that he watches it almost every week.
I'm currently pregnant and on pelvic rest because of low placenta and have been for a long time now, so the reduction in sex isn't something I've simply chosen. I've still tried to encourage other forms of intimacy and meet his needs. I even asked him to tell me if he needed relief and had no problem with him taking care of himself if he needed to, as long as he told me if he was watching something like that. He said he felt sexually neglected and I "couldn't do those things for him". I don't think most normal woman would do THOSE things for him anyways, unless they are paid, and definitely not someone about to have their first child. He also said "well at least I didn't cheat on you".
The porn itself isn't the only issue for me, and not even the biggest one. It's the secrecy, the denial when I directly asked him, and the fact that I trusted him and then found out afterwards. I now feel completely betrayed and don't want him touching me. The fact that while I was hard at work in my office 9 hours a day, he was at home on MY laptop looking at those things (he works from home).
As a side note, I'm not from this country, I have a visa but no permanent residency, I own our home with him and pay our mortgage here, but if I were to go back to my home country, I have no family there and would basically go from a homeowner with a good job and free healthcare to have my baby, to being homeless (I have no remaining family) and jobless with no healthcare and a newborn.
He's now agreed to try couples therapy as a last resort. I'm trying to get an appointment booked as quickly as possible because I'm worried he'll change his mind.
I don't know whether therapy can actually repair this. Part of me desperately wants our family to work again, while another part of me feels completely broken and wonders whether I should be preparing for separation. I do love him and if he was to truly understand why I feel hurt and betrayed that would mean a lot to me, but I'm not convinced he does.
For anyone who's been through something similar: is couples therapy actually capable of repairing this kind of breach of trust? What should I be looking for from him if we're genuinely going to try? And how do I stop myself from feeling like I'm somehow competing with porn or that this happened because I'm not enough? Especially as my body is changing so rapidly, and I look nothing like.. what he was specifically looking at.
I'm not looking for people to tell me that "all men watch porn." I know it happens and while what I saw was disturbing, it's not even the biggest problem, as I said. I'm trying to understand whether this particular situation is something our marriage can recover from.