When a man says, “she gave me the best years of her life,” and then retroactively affirms it upon seeing her deteriorate, he is unconsciously admitting that he never understood what those “best years” actually meant.

He is treating feminine value as something that expires visually, rather than something that is governed by discernment, selectivity, and the integrity with which she chose him.

There’s a subtle humiliation embedded in his agreement. Because if her “best years” were spent with him, and he only recognises their value now then he was not calibrated enough, at the time, to perceive what he was being given.

Also notice the inversion: instead of evaluating whether he was worthy of those years, he waits for time to degrade her, and then uses that degradation as proof of his worth. That is a low-resolution strategy of self-validation.