She never once in this story actually sat with her partner and tried to understand what was going on with him. She gave him an answer, made a few demands, and flat out refused to listen.
Reading this story broke my heart. I couldn't believe her utter weakness and lack of compassion.
The truth is scary. Love is scary. Change is scary. These things loom over our comfortable lives threatening to expose us to the changes going on outside our realm of control. You don't own your lover, and the truth may one day be that they're unhappy, and need to leave. That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be.
If this is indeed a true story, I sure hope the guy has since managed to find a good divorce attorney.
ADDITION:
I’d finally managed to exile the voices in my head
that told me my personal happiness was only as good
as my outward success, rooted in things that were
often outside my control.
Whenever some says that they've "finally managed" to fix themselves in some major way, be very suspicious. It doesn't work that way. We keep our patterns, and they find new ways to manifest until we learn through repeated painful experience to turn them to our benefit some of the time.
There is no switch.
Her happiness was still clearly very much rooted in her "successful" marriage, her ability to provide a traditional two-coupled-parents environment for her children, etc.
The first step to Happiness is admitting one's neuroses.
The second is admitting that the first didn't make them go away.