Ok, having these feelings crop up is normal. It means you need to sort and process and also realize that you still have that part of you that loved the illusion you created in your own mind. Well, we are all susceptible when it comes to unknowingly creating something in another person that in reality doesn’t exist.
Yes, he may charm and get attention. There are people that enable that don’t realize it. When you finally see the truth it changes you and you are right in that you don’t ever feel the same about a person that exposes how they don’t care and choose to desert you and their children.
Yes he is good at charming and faking and may get attention and followers but he is not the real deal.