I didn't see this mentioned but it's only mention in secondary material that the reason Aeris was left alone for so long by Shinra and the Turks was because of the "boyfriend." Since you said you watched Advent Children, he's actually there but they seem to think everyone played/watched all the side stuff because it isn't explained or commented on.
This is just how FF goes. They blame a lot of the nonsense in the game to a poor translation, which granted is true, but they just never explain anything well. The mystery adds to the game, right?
Maybe since it was more recent for you but now explain FF8's Time Compression to me cause I got nothing on that.
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