Turfut Oymen had been preparing to celebrate his golden wedding anniversary with his wife Nese, after fifty happy years together.
But the pensioner was left stunned when his wife phoned him from Istanbul, 550 miles away, to tell him that she had fallen in love with a 55-year-old doctor.
And that she wasn't coming back.
Utterly heartbroken, the pensioner went down to a river close to his Turkish village, where he then cut his penis off and tossed the dismembered organ into the water.
Hospital staff rushed to stop the blood flow - but, unfortunately, could not find his penis to reattach it.
A hospital spokesman told local media outlets: "He lost a lot of blood and is lucky he didn’t die at his age.
"He told medics that he had decided to get rid of his manhood because he felt it was useless and he felt like he was no longer a man."
A friend of the father-of-six added: "He was absolutely devoted to Nese and when she said she wasn’t coming back his whole world fell apart.
"He phoned her and begged her to return but she refused, saying she was in love with this doctor.
"He said he had devoted his life to her and could not even think about meeting someone else."
The pensioner is recovering in hospital and is now receiving treatment for depression.