Fair-Weather Ex

Some people date/marry people for selfish and/or superficial reasons, such as money, popularity, looks, sex, pride, etc. Many of those same people would also dump their lovers for those same reasons. And some people are so shameless and self-centered that they have no problem getting back together with someone they dumped when it's convenient for them.

The romantic counterpart of the Fair-Weather Friend, the Fair-Weather Ex is a character who is willing to get back together with their ex for entirely self-serving reasons. A Gold Digger who dumped their old partner for being poor or losing their money might want to rekindle the relationship when the dumpee becomes rich/regains their fortune. A shallow person who dumped someone for their looks will have no problem getting back together with the one they dumped when the latter becomes hot. A prideful person who hates the idea of their ex-lover moving on from them might want to get back together to save face.

A common variation involving this trope is when a person who dumped/cheated on their old lover for someone else wanted to get back with their first lover for some reason. If the reason for choosing the second lover was due to being an "upgrade" over the first, expect them to come crawling back to the first as soon as they surpass their "replacement." If the second relationship turned out sour, they'll probably try to use their first partner as a sort of "re-rebound." Expect the Fair-Weather Ex to try to paint the second partner in a bad light in order to manipulate their first into getting back together.

If the other person manages to find a Second Love, expect the Fair-Weather Ex to attempt a Relationship Sabotage. They might claim that the new partner only wants them for money, looks, status or some other superficial reason (often the same reason the Fair-Weather Ex wants to get back together), claim that the new lover is inferior, or demand that the new lover and the ex's old partner break up. The more deranged exes might go so far as to try and blackmail, threaten, or even kill the new partner.

A Thriving Ex-Crush will sometimes have to deal with this type of character. Sometimes overlaps with Entitled to Have You, Fair-Weather Foe, Attempted Homewrecker, The Grovel, and Crossing the Burnt Bridge. Compare Jerk with a Heart of Jerk, Falsely Reformed Villain, and Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. Contrast Psycho Ex, who is usually genuinely in love with their ex, and I Want My Beloved to Be Happy, which a Fair-Weather Ex is unlikely to be.

Since this trope often occurs at the end of a story, spoilers will be unmarked. You have been warned!

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Examples:

Fan Works

• For His Own Sake opens with Keitaro standing up for himself and quitting his job at the Hinata Inn, along with breaking things off with Naru for how she constantly abused him. Naru only goes along with Mutsumi's efforts to "help them get back together" because she hopes to have a shot at giving him another No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. In the final chapter, Naru tries to hook back up with him not because she's had any kind of change of heart, but because Granny Hina finally cut her off, and her family cut her out of their lives after how she torched all of those bridges as well. Naturally, Keitaro rejects her, spurring the Spoiled Brat to throw one last fit about not getting her way. What’s notable about this is that the one thing Keitaro and Naru agreed on is that neither of them wanted to get back together, with Naru outright telling Granny Hina and Mitsumi to cut it out on getting her and Keitaro back together to the point where she joins some thug so she can beat him. For Naru to have the nerve to try to come back to Keitaro after everything she’s done and tried to do to him and making it clear previously that she hates him and doesn’t want to get back together with him to everyone, including Keitaro, speaks volumes on how entitled and selfish Naru really is, that Keitaro would really take her back after everything. Motoko, who has since reformed and is regretful for how she treated Keitaro, called Naru out on her actions, saying that she is disgraceful for having the nerve to ask Keitaro to take her back without even apologizing to him.
• He Can Only Blame Himself: After three years together, Marinette's relationship with Adrien comes crashing down when she catches her cheating on her with Lila in her apartment, which the Entitled Bitch tries to claim as her own. Gabriel then twists the knife in her back by firing her, but when news of the breakup goes viral and public opinion sides solidly with her, the Control Freak demands that his son "fix" everything by charming his way back into her good graces. Adrien had already been Blaming the Victim, telling himself that they might get back together after she "settled down and could be the woman he'd fallen in love with again". Tellingly, he doesn't even bother reaching out to Marinette directly, contacting his cousin Felix instead and trying to convince him to have his mother Amelie fire her.
• Miraculous Ladybug Salt-Shots: Played With in Masked Hearts; despite dating Kagami for two years, Adrien remains convinced that he and Ladybug are "meant to be together". So much so that the moment Hawkmoth is defeated, he immediately detransforms and reveals his Secret Identity as Chat Noir to her and a crowd full of witnesses. Including Kagami. And then asks Ladybug out again, in front of Kagami. When both call him out on his utter lack of regard for his girlfriend, he hastily tries backtracking and claiming he was just joking, but neither buy it for a second and Kagami dumps him then and there and proceeds to ask Ladybug out herself.
• Synépeies - A Collection Of NTR Consequences: As part of the story's deconstruction of the netorare genre, the cheating women often regret cheating on the protagonists, who, while less manly, are good, loyal, and reliable, in comparison to the antagonists, assholes whose only positive quality is being good in bed. While some of the cheating women genuinely regret what they did, others only regret doing it because it caused them to become pariahs amongst their friends and family, meaning they have no one else to rely on, and also they can't stand the idea of their "loser" exes moving on from them.
• With This Ring: Hephaestus and Aphrodite were married at Zeus's insistence, but neither wanted to be, and Aphrodite ran off to have a long-term affair with Ares (though technically they were still married). Then Hephaestus consumes the nascent God of Technology, becoming powerful enough that he defeats Zeus and takes his throne, and suddenly Aphrodite is rushing back to her dear husband with smiles and seductive posing.

Films — Animated

• Monsters vs. Aliens begins with Susan Murphy being turned into a Giant Woman on her wedding day. When she reunites with her fiancé Derek, he selfishly dumps her out of concern for his own career, leaving Susan heartbroken. At the end of the film, after Susan helps the other monsters defeat Gallaxhar and become heroes, Derek returns and offers to take her back, though it's clear he's only interested in her newfound fame. Susan sees through it and tells him to take a hike.
• In Shark Tale, Lola dates Oscar as long as he's rich and famous. At the end of the movie when he's partnered with Sykes, made the Whale Wash more successful than it's ever been, and become who he's always wanted to be, she tries to get back with him now that he's legitimately successful.

Films — Live-Action

• In Legally Blonde, Warner Huntington III breaks up with Elle Woods, as he thinks she's not serious enough to make his career look good. In his words, "If I want to be elected Senator by the time I'm 30, I need to marry a Jackie, not a Marilyn." This incites Elle to apply to Harvard Law and become a successful lawyer herself to win back his affections. When she successfully wins a famous case whilst still a student, Warner tries to get back with Elle but by that point she's fallen in love with someone else and realises she doesn't love Warner anymore, telling him, “If I'm gonna be a partner in a law firm by the time I'm 30, I'm going to need a boyfriend who's not such a complete bonehead.”
• A Million Ways to Die in the West: Louise breaks up with Albert at the start of the film over Albert not wanting to duel a man (considered the best shot in town) and wanting to resolve the dispute peacefully. After Albert kills the feared and deadliest outlaw Clinch Leatherwood, Louise tries to get back with Albert but is promptly rejected.
• MouseHunt: When Lars's wife April hears that Lars turned down a huge sum of money for the string factory that he and his brother Ernie recently inherited (because Lars promised his father he would never sell the factory), she kicks him out of the house. But when she hears Lars and Ernie also inherited a house that turned out to be of great value and is expected to make them both millionaires once sold, she immediately seduces Lars into taking her back again. And once the auction goes south and the house is destroyed, she promptly leaves him again.
• The Ultimate Gift: Overlapping with Meal Ticket. Jason's girlfriend Caitlin abandons him when he asks her to pay for dinner when his account is frozen. By the end of the film, Jason has regained his wealth after Character Development and rejects her when she tries to get back together with him after discovering this.

Jokes

• A well-known joke takes the form of a long letter written by the recipient's ex telling them their many (many) transgressions are forgiven, ending with "P.S. congratulations on winning the lottery".

Literature

• In the first book of Tales of the City, Mona finds out that her ex-girlfriend D'orothea has come into a fair bit of money as a model and decides to get back together with her so that she can move in with her and save money on rent. During the course of their relationship, she accidentally discovers that D'orothea, who has been working as a black model, is actually a white woman and thus ruins her modelling career, whereupon Mona quickly dumps D'orothea and moves back to Barbary Lane.

Live-Action TV

• The Big Bang Theory: In "The Lunar Excitation", Penny drunkenly asks her ex Leonard to have angry sex with her since she feels he has "destroyed my ability to tolerate idiots". As a Dogged Nice Guy, he agrees. When she regrets it in the morning, he gets upset that she essentially used him for sex instead of genuinely wanting to get back together, so he tries to have meaningless sex with his ex, Leslie Winkle, and then again with Penny, to get over it. Both have the common sense to reject him.
• The Brittas Empire: "Sex, Lies and Red Tape" introduces Michael T. Farrell III, Laura's Rich Bastard husband, who has been separated from her for two and a half years after she caught him cheating on her. He reveals that he wants to get back together with her, his reasoning being that she needs to have a child as his father (who hasn't been told that they're separated) will wipe him out of the will if she doesn't do so. Laura, understandably, refuses. However, in "Shall We Dance?", Michael returns now freshly broke and tries to get back together with Laura with the understanding that if he was going to survive broke, it would be with her. This time, he successfully woos Laura back, and whilst his final appearance in "The Lies Have It" has him still wanting Laura to have a child to please his father, he seems to have developed more genuine romantic feelings for her.
• In the series finale of Everything's Gonna Be Okay, Alex, who had previously dumped Nicholas for being immature and selfish, tries to get back together with him after finding out that Nicholas is autistic because he doesn't want to look like an asshole who'd abandon an autistic boyfriend, especially one who didn't even know he was autistic until recently. Nicholas sees right through this and tells him to rack off.
• In the first half of season 2 of Family Law (2021), Frank tries repeatedly to get his soon-to-be-ex-wife Abby to reconcile, not because he regrets cheating on her repeatedly, but because he wants their kids to see him as the "good guy" who tried to "save" their family, whereas Abby would be the "bad guy" who "abandoned" them. After Abby calls off any further marriage counseling and serves him with divorce papers, he abandons any pretense of being a nice guy, exploiting the fact that he has temporary custody of the kids to make Abby's life miserable.
• Monk: In "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect", Sharona Fleming's ex-husband Trevor returns in order to get back with Sharona and their son Benjy. Turns out his only reason for doing this is that his uncle has removed him from his will because of his separation from Sharona; Trevor was hoping to be put back in the will if he reunited with her.
• In Season 4 of Trailer Park Boys, Jim Lahey tries to get re-married to his ex-wife Barb, the owner of Sunnyvale Trailer Park, and undergoes Sanity Slippage and starts trying repeatedly to kill Ricky when he learns that Barb is planning on propose to him instead, and wants Lahey out of the trailer park. To the camera, Lahey admits that he wants to re-marry Barb so he can gain enough power to finally defeat Ricky, instead of just being a constantly thwarted alcoholic supervisor. This behaviour perfectly highlights Lahey being His Own Worst Enemy, because instead of being content with his assistant/boyfriend Randy, who he actually loves, he'd sooner ruin his own life trying to get re-married to a woman he hates, just to get rid of a man he also hates.
  Jim Lahey: Randy just doesn't understand. I mean, I love him dearly, but I hate Ricky more. I just don't wanna put up with that prick for the rest of my life. (...) If I get to be married to Barb, I'll have total control of Sunnyvale, and then I can unleash a shit-nami tidal wave that'll engulf Ricky and extinguish his shit-flames forever. And with any luck, he'll drown in the undershit of that wave. (Beat) Shit-waves.

Music

• Cher Lloyd: In "Want U Back," part of the reason why the protagonist wants her ex-boyfriend back is that she expected him to be desperate to get her back and felt insulted that he moved on with another girl.
• Elle King: In the song "Exes and Ohs", the singer's exes want to get back together with her, but only because she's good in bed.
• Luke Combs's song "When It Rains It Pours" recounts a string of good luck that starts with the singer winning $100 from a scratch-off lottery ticket at a gas station right after his girlfriend leaves him. After he's won a vacation to Panama by calling in to a radio station, though...
  She was sure real quick to up and apologize
  When she heard about my newfound luck
  On that FM dial

Theatre

• The Visit: When the billionaire Claire Zachanassian visits her impoverished hometown of Guellen after decades away, the locals try to ply her for money, deploying her old ex-boyfriend Alfred to woo her. They've conveniently forgotten that she left in disgrace after he got her pregnant and disavowed her in court. She has not, but she plays along for a bit before beginning her Revenge.

Visual Novels

• In Rules of Engagement, Katie dumps her fiance Trent after it's revealed he is cheating. However, when Katie gets a chance to inherit part of her grandmother's enormous wealth and become a multimillionaire, Trent immediately goes back to her and tries to alternately coax and trick her into marrying him.

Web Animation

• AoHaru Manga Library: One of the more common forms of female antagonists in this series. In the beginning, they callously dump Keiichi for his low-key and humble attitude, which would not give them some quick money, and hook up with a richer, more elite boyfriend. When Keiichi's hard-working attitude pays off and he gets rich, or he's revealed to be rich all along, they immediately try to hook up with Keiichi again, going so far as to dump their previous elite boyfriend (if the boyfriend is stupidly smug, then it's because the boyfriend falls into hard times when their scheme crumbles, but it's also likely that said previous boyfriend is actually a Nice Guy too, making him a sympathetic victim). Keiichi does not fall for this and rejects them without fail.
• ATTACK on MIKA: In stories that involve the antagonist breaking up with the protagonist for being poor, the antagonist will almost always try to get back with the protagonist when the latter's income improves.
• Etra chan saw it!: Akane abandoned her husband Kuroki and daughter Tsutsuji to be with another man. A year later, she asks her ex-neighbor Karin to help her get back together with Kuroki, not because she regretted abandoning him and Tsutsuji but because her parents disowned her, her former in-laws hate her, she's broke, and sleeping at a manga cafe. However, not only is Kuroki married to another woman, but he also wants nothing to do with Akane.
• lovekoi manga: In pretty much every story where the protagonist gets cheated on by their Gold Digger ex-girlfriend, the reason is almost always because the guy they cheated with makes more money. When the ex discovers that her old boyfriend has become more successful or was Secretly Wealthy, she will offer to get back with him, only to be rebuffed by either the protagonist or his new, more loyal girlfriend.
• MoniRobo: Pretty much every episode involving the main character's cheating ex will have said ex begging to get back together for selfish reasons, such as not getting sued, the main character's money, their new lover breaking up with them, not having anyone else to turn to, or to pay off debt. Said main character will naturally see right through them and refuse.
• Refreshing Stories: Hiroshi's cheating ex-girlfriends/ex-wives almost always try to get back with him in the end, not because they feel remorse for their cheating, but because they don't want to get sued for infidelity, want his money, or because their cheating partner turned out to be a loser.
• Sekai no Fushigi: A common plot is for the Male MC's gold digging ex-girlfriend to dump him for a guy with more money, only to try and get back together with him when he becomes rich. Typically, the MC and/or his new girlfriend/fiancee/wife end up telling her off and she ends up suffering some form of humiliation for her gold-digging ways.
• SparkTales: The protagonist's cheating exes always try to get back together for selfish reasons, such as not getting sued for adultery, a desire to exploit the protagonist, having no one else to turn to, money, or because their new relationship turned sour.

Webcomics

• Cheating Men Must Die: An Sheng used to date Su Lüxia before pimping her out to gain an acting role. When his acting career starts tanking thanks to Su Lüxia's scheming, he assumes that the reason is that Su Lüxia is sour over him dumping her. Despite already being in a relationship with Lin Xue, An Sheng offers to get back with Su Lüxia, even telling her that he still loves her. Unfortunately for An Sheng, not only does Su Lüxia see right through him, but she also recorded him and gave the recorder to Lin Xue.

Web Videos

• Apple Texts: Stories in which the protagonist is cheated on and/or abandoned will almost always end with the betrayer trying to get back together with the protagonist for a selfish reason.
  • If the protagonist was once poor but became wealthy, the antagonist will ask to get back together in hopes of getting money.
  • If the antagonist broke up with the protagonist to be with someone "better", they will try to get back with the protagonist the minute their new relationship goes sour.
  • If the protagonist was liked by their in-laws, expect the antagonist to want to get back together with them to repair their relationship with their family.

Western Animation

• Steven Universe: Jasper and Lapis's powerful but unstable fusion Malachite is a metaphor for a highly toxic relationship. In "Alone at Sea", Jasper crashes onto Lapis's boat and begs Lapis to fuse with her again, knowing that their fusion was destructive, but craving the immense power they wielded when they combined. Jasper insists she's "changed", but when Lapis (who herself has a ton of shame for how she took her anger out on Jasper via Malachite) turns her down, Jasper lashes out, making it clear she only cares about her own power and not how being Malachite made Lapis feel.

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