Search Results: friend zone relationship

I am 22 and he is 29. I met this man a while ago and we instantly had a connection. It wasn’t romantic at first because we had many mutual friends. But somehow we started hanging out more and I realized that I was in fact interested in him in the beginning but was trying to block those feelings after finding out that he is married (I didn’t really notice the ring at first but rather around the second time we met with mutual friends).
We live in different cities but he calls me every single day and we find it so easy to talk and I feel as if I’ve known him for a long time.
He has been telling me about his problems with his wife, they have been married for nearly 9 year and says that every single day it gets worse and worse and their relationship is deteriorating so he thinks that people live only once and should be with those that you love. He says he will never forget his children and will always be a fatherly figure for them and support his wife and family financially and in whatever other we he can but he wants to “wake up with me and be with me”. This morning he txted me very early and said: I am so confused. I love my children so much and will never leave them because I know she will never let me see them again. I don’t want to be the man that dumps his kids.
This text freaked me out and
I feel terrible. I was never the initiator of our relationship, and I knew from the beginning that a married man is a no go zone. I don’t love or have an interest for many men. And it disappoints me that the man that has found a place in my heart is married. I don’t want to break his family. I know our mutual friends will hate me and because we have many- I will probably be hated and I told him that and he said: well we only live once and I want to follow my heart.
Help. I don’t know what to do and am confused and feel terrible and want to drop all this immediately but it is so hard. Has anyone been in this situation?