I first saw that my husband was liking a specific models selfie post several times and I finally brought it up calmly and explained how it made me feel. I tried to be understanding with how he may have not realized that it was hurtful. He lied about how he knew her at first, saying that he only knew because her boyfriend was in the same work industry. With more discussion I found out that he actually dmed her because he was interested in her. He acted like he completely forgot that he did that. I didnt really address the lying and just emphasized how I felt and then let it go.
Months later I found multiple womens names in his facebook search. I brought it up and asked who they were and he said that he was "looking for something to jerk off to" as his first response. I got upset and it turned into a whole argument where he changed what he was saying multiple times until it felt like my head was spinning. He said that he looked at their profiles just because they showed up as suggested friends but I asked him why would he type their name in the search instead of just clicking on the suggested friend pop up. Because that makes it look like hes looking them up. He just said he didnt know why he types their name in instead of just clicking the pop up. We had many discussions and for hours and hours and I expressed to him very specifically how it made me feel and what my boundaries are. I told him that I dont expect him to never notice a pretty female but I do expect him not to engage in to take a closer look. I understand it happens to notice a pretty female on suggested friends but I expect him to just scroll on and another thing to type their name in the search bar to look at their profile. The whole time he kept just saying that he only had eyes for me and has never had any eyes for another female. Which felt so dismissive to what he was actually doing but I really wanted to try to make it work. This took a couple months to recover from because he kept changing what he was saying and getting defensive and pointing at me for digging. He finally came around and emphasized that he understand why it crossed a boundary for me.
Then months later, after getting married I found out multiple girls on his fb search bar again. I found out one was a girl from his single days where they hung out in a group. I looked at her profile and it was nothing but sexy selfies of herself. I got very upset. He just said again it was harmless because she popped up as a suggested friend and he looked her up to see where she was now because she had stopped hanging out with the group that he used to hang out with before we met and he had wondered what happened to her. The other girls- he said he doesnt remember or know why he looked them up other than they showed up as suggested friends and he was curious how they were connected. For me, I had spent so many hours explaining to him multiple times why this behavior is hurtful to me and I just broke down. But I tried to be positive and give him another chance but it was pecking at me everyday. I noticed I did NOT want to sleep with him and kept pushing it off. It was stuck in my head - all these girls names and sexy photos. How I can excuse not understanding how hurtful it was but how could he have done this repeatedly. Then one day I was expressing to him calmly how I was struggling that day with anxiety because I was having a hard time getting over the most recent incident and then he said he understands because he had wandering eyes for women online. He had never straight out admited that and it just triggered and I got upset and found out more information on one of the girls. And he got so defensive and started shouting at me for digging.
Im at my wits end. Should I just try to open myself up to my husband being a curious man and needing to look up girls profiles? How do I just shrug it off? At this point I dont believe he wont do it again. He says he will stay away from social media to avoid this happening but he said that with the second incident. And its hard for me to just accept that all people do this. Because I dont. Of course I see there are physically attractive men but I never look into them. I just have the interest or curiosity to do that. Sometimes I do wonder how my ex it doing (we remained platonic friends for year after breaking up-nothing ever happened after we broke up romantically-I stopped communicating with him when I got with my current husband), but if i have that curiosity- i just move on with my thoughts. I dont look into his profile because to me it feels like crossing a boundary.
tl;dr 38F married to 40M, need advice on how to handle husband who keeps looking at women online even after repeatedly expressing how it hurts.