NEED TO KNOW
Florida-based Andrea Szabo believed her boyfriend of four years, Josh, would propose. During their relationship, he frequently mentioned that spending four years with someone was his proposal timeline.
Instead of getting a ring, Josh gave Szabo a different surprise by abruptly ending their relationship. One week later, he had already moved on with his former co-worker, Sarah, whom they both knew.
Szabo didn’t find this out until after the fact. Szabo talks to PEOPLE exclusively about what happened and why she decided to share her story on TikTok.
Sarah, the co-worker, previously went viral on TikTok after finding out that her husband was cheating on her while she was pregnant, leaving her for another woman.
Josh and Szabo used to watch Sarah’s videos together during the viral breakup, and the latter admittedly felt terrible about the situation.
When Josh broke up with Szabo, Sarah tried to console her, noting that she had recently gone through something similar. However, Szabo didn’t know at the time that Sarah was the reason Josh left.
“I always felt a little weird with her. I told her, ‘Yeah, we used to watch your videos and felt so bad about your situation.’ That’s when she said, ‘Oh, don’t feel bad for me,'” Szabo tells PEOPLE. “I always thought that was a weird response.”
Despite feeling like things were a bit off, Szabo didn’t think anything else of it at the time, until her friend told her what was going on.
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“I sat down next to her, and we chatted about it. Two days after that, I got a call from one of my friends, who knows both of them, and she said, ‘Hey, I hate to be the one to tell you this. I tried to give Josh a chance to tell you, but he obviously isn’t and hasn’t. I feel like it’s my responsibility to let you know that they are together now.’ ”
Courtesy of Andrea Szabo
With encouragement from friends, Szabo decided she wanted to make a TikTok about her story. That desire only grew after watching Sarah post videos getting ready for dates with Josh, talking about how she had a new man in her life.
The comments underneath Sarah’s videos were filled with people wishing her well and telling her that she deserved a good man.
“If it was that he broke up with me for some ex-coworker, I wouldn’t have felt the need to go to social media,” Szabo says. “It was because of who it was and the fact that her social media presence was caused by her being cheated on and by her portraying herself as this mother and good person who was wronged, just for her to turn around and do that to another woman.”
“In her videos, she said, ‘I don’t wish this kind of pain on anybody,’ it really didn’t sit right with me,” she adds.
Although she didn’t have a lot of followers, Szabo’s video still went viral, amassing 13.6 million views.
“I wasn’t even sure if people were gonna put two and together, I changed their names, and then the first comments I got were, ‘Is it Sarah?’ one minute after I posted it,” Szabo says. “My videos were based on what I knew for sure. I wanted to share where I was coming from.”
PEOPLE reached out to the Sarah identified in the comments of Szabo’s story, though when all parts were posted, Sarah deleted her TikTok account. She did not reply to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Szabo says she now has more clarity with Josh, as she understands he saw an opportunity with Sarah and took it. PEOPLE also reached out to Josh, but like Sarah, he did not reply to our request for comment.
Courtesy of Andrea Szabo
Months later, Szabo has moved on and now looks at the situation from a different lens.
“Honestly, it is a saving grace that he didn’t waste more of my years. Four was enough,” Szabo tells PEOPLE. “It was a crappy way to find out, but now I know, and if that’s who he is, and that’s what he can do to somebody that he supposedly cared about for this long, then he’s not somebody I want in my life.”
Szabo also shares advice for anyone who might find themselves in a similar situation, encouraging them to take it day by day.
“The first few days were tough,” she admits. “Having him leave and then getting that bombshell dropped on me that not only did he leave, but now he’s also with this person.”
“My advice is to focus on yourself,” she adds. “I’m focusing on myself. So many people have reached out with similar situations. It does get easier, and you can move forward from these situations.”
