Reddit Stories - Close friend ALLEGED that my partner was UNFAITHFUL and SPREADING rumors that he

Episode Date: November 7, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #relationships #drama #friendship #betrayal #rumorsSummary: A close friend alleged that my partner was unfaithful and spreading rumors. Unsure how to handle the situation, I turned to Reddit for advice on whether I was in the wrong for doubting my partner's loyalty.Tags: redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, relationships, drama, friendship, betrayal, rumors, infidelity, trust, advice, support, loyalty, communication, confrontation, doubts, misunderstanding, socialcircleBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. Close friend alleged that my partner was unfaithful and spreading rumors that he phoned her in the evening and sent unsuitable messages after I entered a relationship with him due to her disapproval of him. Ellen, 22F, and I, 21F, met through an internship three years ago and instantly became best friends. About a year ago, I started crushing on George, 24M, who interns at the same company, but in a different department, as us.

Ellen and another one of our co-workers set us up last fall, and we really hit it off. We've fallen in love and we often talk about a future together. This is where things get messy. From early in our relationship, pretty much as soon as we went from just dating to being official, Ellen has been colder to me. She's never made it a secret that she doesn't particularly like George, though she's never said anything direct about it. The only issue she ever raised was when we first got together and he got really sick.

I was studying for the MCAT at the time, and I was only about a month out from my main test day when he had a pretty bad flare-up of a chronic illness. Because he knew that Ellen and I were so close, he called her to ask her if she thought he should tell me he was sick, or if it would be better to keep it from me so he didn't take me away from my studies. Ellen didn't like this at all. She told me she thought it was incredibly inappropriate that he tried to contact her like that and he shouldn't have called her about something so personal.

I thought her reaction was a little over the top, but I talked to George about it, and he apologized to her and never called her again. But she didn't let it go. A few weeks later she made a comment about how I was always choosing George over my friends. My roommate was going to be out of town the next week, so she said she should say her goodbyes since I would probably just spend the whole week at home with George. She tried to play it off as a joke. But I was really surprised she felt that way. I never wanted to be the kind of girl who turns her back on her friends when she gets into a relationship, and I had been trying really hard to balance my time with my boyfriend and with my friends. But it seemed she felt neglected, so I started putting more effort into our

friendship. Over the next few weeks, I tried to make plans with her at least five or six times. Every time, she came up with some excuse not to see me, even once canceling at the last minute and citing a meeting she forgot about, at 10 a.m. on a Sunday. morning. I was hurt. I knew our friendship was dying and every time I tried to revive it, she rejected me. Finally, I decided the ball was in her court. If she wanted to be friends, I was open to it, but I was sick of being rejected, and she would have to be the one to reach out to me. She never did. Meanwhile, things were deteriorating at work. We had been assigned to the same project for the year, which required working very closely together.

As our friendship fell apart, she started ignoring me at work, being rude and short, and making my share of our tasks very difficult for me. I felt like she was constantly breathing down my neck and waiting to catch me in a mistake. I figured she was gossiping about me behind my back, but at this point I was so exhausted from dealing with her that I couldn't be bothered about it. She would say whatever she wanted to say, and I would just be nice and patient with her and count down the days until our internship ended. Until today,

I had lunch with one of our other co-workers and my good friend, K-2-2-meter, and he told me everything. Apparently, Alan has been telling all of our coworkers and friends that George has been trying to cheat on me with her. Telling them that he calls her in the middle of the night, sends her inappropriate texts, and when I hosted a party after I wrote the MCAT, he spent the whole night eyeing her. I know that none of this is true. I love George and I know that he loves me, and even as Kay was telling me all of this I knew that Ellen was lying. It seemed that Kay didn't believe it either, he was just telling me what he had heard, but the thought that she's been going around accusing George of infidelity makes me sick.

I went straight to George's house and told him everything. I told him I didn't think for even a second that it was true, and the real betrayal is how Ellen made all this up and spread it around. I was crushed to know that not only did Ellen say all of this, but she'd been saying it to all of my friends for months, and not one of them came to me about it. George helped me get past the hurt stage and now all I feel is rage. Tomorrow I'm going to call my supervisor and ask if I can work from home until the end of my contract so that I never have to see Ellen's face again. I feel so betrayed and I just hate her so much right now. Am I overreacting? Should I be taking the high road and just keep working with Ellen as a

if I don't know. I feel betrayed by my other friends too, because Kay thinks they all knew what she was saying and not one of them told me. Should I cut them off the same way I plan to cut off Ellen? Comment where OP has replied, Cat Mum 22 underscore, have you given any thought that what she was saying was true? What did boyfriend say about it all? Offered to show texts, etc.? Obviously playing devil's advocate here in either way a real friend would tell you directly about your man acting out, not gossiping, so no judgment on dropping her ass-oop. I really don't think it could be true. George has offered a number of times to let me go through his phone, which I've declined

because I really do trust him and we both agree that the accusations are absurd. He's never been anything but completely honest with me, and he's been saying for weeks that I should drop Ellen because he doesn't like the way she's been treating me. I don't want to contact her about it right now because honestly I'm just so angry and like you said, if there was any truth to it and if she was ever my friend at all, she should have come to me about it directly. I also don't think Kay would lie about something like this. He's not the kind of person to make up rumors and there's no way he would have known that George called Ellen if she hadn't told him, albeit a twisted version, update. July 8th, 2025. One year later, I can't

believe that I'm still learning more about all the ways that Ellen tried to ruin my life. I'll start with the good news first. Our internship ended without much fanfare. I didn't, as many comments suggested, contact HR or confront Ellen. I did contact our direct supervisor, and told him that our personal relationship had deteriorated and that it had caused some hostility on her part at work. Giving specific examples of issues in the workplace without getting into the weeds of the personal pettiness that was going on.

He was incredibly understanding and accommodating, I worked from home the rest of the summer, received a glowing recommendation from him, and got hired at our company in my top choice department fresh out of my internship while I finished my degree and applied for medical school. I've been accepted to the top school in my country, and George, and I plan on getting married once I finish my studies. Our relationship is stronger than ever. Ellen moved abroad, but stayed very well connected to the friend group that we had formed through the internship. After what happened last year, I slowly began to distance myself. from that group, and as I did I realized that I had outgrown a lot of them anyway.

Once I began to see the cracks and the friendships I used to surround myself with, I couldn't unsee all the ways they could be unkind, immature, and toxic to themselves and to one another. I held on to the few people that I knew had my back, and came out of the internship with a handful of good, close friends rather than a big circle of people with shady tendencies. One good friend from the internship, Alice, 22F, had been close with Ellen about a year. year ago, and has since told me a lot more of the things Ellen said behind my back, partially corroborating Kay's story from last year and adding details to some of the craziest

parts. Apparently, to give herself more credibility, Ellen had been telling people that she'd been in touch with my roommate and friend of 11 years, Anna 22F. Ellen said that Anna also didn't like George, that Anna told her I spent way too much time with him, was neglecting all my friends, that he basically lives at our apartment and that I always do this when I get into a relationship. She also told people that Anna thinks George is faking his chronic illness, and that I'd been using it as an excuse to blow off my friends. Once when George was at our apartment and had a flare up, I'd had to cancel plans to stay

with him, afraid that he might need me to take him to the hospital. Ellen told everyone that Anna said he didn't seem sick and that I'd only cancelled because I felt like staying home and hanging out with him. When Alice told me all of this, I immediately confronted Anna and told her everything. Although Anna and Ellen had been in touch on and off over the past few years, I'd previously introduced them to one another and they had some mutual interests that they'd occasionally text about. Anna assured me she'd said none of the things Ellen accuse her of, and even combed back through

all of the messages to see if there was anything she'd said that might have implied anything like that. In going through Anna's messages with Ellen, we noticed a pattern. It seemed that any time I told Ellen I wasn't available, she texted Anna to ask if I was with George. This went back to almost the beginning of my relationship with him. For those running to the comments to ask why Anna didn't tell me this sooner, it didn't strike Anna as bizarre until we looked through the messages after hearing the accusations. I have a bad habit of letting my phone die, so sometimes if someone really needs to get in touch with me they'll contact Anna or George,

so in itself, Ellen texting her to ask where I was wasn't out of the ordinary. Ellen texting her to see if I was specifically with George, combined with what Ellen was claiming Anna told her, is the strange part, coming out the other side of all of this. I've been trying really hard to reflect and learn from the situation. Was I a perfect friend to Ellen? Definitely not. I think there were certainly times at the beginning, when I was first dating George and studying for the MCAT, that I was distant with her.

Maybe I should have tried harder to patch up our friendship in those early days by confronting her directly, or maybe I should have been more in tune to how she was feeling and addressed it sooner. Despite everything, I do miss her a lot and I wish things had turned out differently. But I don't think she was fair to me either, if I had withdrawn a little bit into my relationship in its early stages, she should have given me some grace, and confronted me directly when she had a problem rather than going behind my back. She absolutely should not have tried to drag my name through the mud, made things difficult at work, or worst of all tried to destroy George's and Anna's reputations and relationships. I recently heard that Ellen is moving back to the city and

tried to get a job at the company where we interned, but she was rejected by every department she applied to, am I a bad person for feeling a little vindicated? Thanks everyone for your comments last year. I really needed that support, but now I'm just looking for any lessons to be learned. Could I have done anything differently? What can I take a away from this to try and be a better friend in the future. Next story, cousin left her four kids on my doorstep at 7 a.m. in the cold so she could go on a cruise, then got mad when police pulled her off the ship and now the whole family thinks I ruined her life.

I won't make this post long, happened a few hours ago. Me and my girlfriend do not have kids, so we have extra free time as we always get told by my cousin, who has four kids, all minors. She had been joking around lately and saying we should take care of the children, all of them, as she has booked a cruise with her new boyfriend. We didn't pay any attention to it as it sounded absurd and just laughed along with her. We both have an extra day off as it was a long weekend, and heard some knocking on the door at 7 a.m. in the morning.

We knew it wouldn't be the postman as they don't arrive that early and weren't expecting any visitors. I go down to check who it is and see my cousin's four kids standing out there in the cold. mother nowhere in sight. I opened the door and bring them in because it's freezing outside and they had no jackets on, then asked where the mother is. They said she told us that you would take care of us while she is on her cruise, so we took the bus and came to your house. I couldn't believe my eyes and ears, I kept thinking WTF. So I called her immediately and her phone was off. Called her new boyfriend and his phone went to voicemail. I asked the kids to explain exactly what their mom has told them. They said in these words, she said, since you don't have any responsibilities

and have free time you said you will look after us while she's gone. What do I do? I called my aunt and she said the same thing, that my cousin has told her I agreed to take care of the kids. She didn't even have the courtesy to drop them off and made them catch the bus on a cold winter day. Thinking of calling child services at this point. Update 1, June 10, 2025. All right, Here's what actually went down a few hours after my cousin's kids showed up at our place. We were still trying to figure out what to do, gave them food, put the heater on, got them settled. Still no word from their mum or her boyfriend. Both phones going straight to voicemail.

Then around 10.30 a.m., I get a call from a private number, it's the police. They ask if I've got four kids at my house. I said yes and explained the situation. Turns out the bus driver who dropped them off is the one who called it in. Apparently, on the ride over, the kids told them they were going to stay with family and gave them our address. He thought it was odd that four young kids were traveling alone in the cold with no bags or jackets, so after dropping them off, he reported it for a welfare check just to be safe. A short while later, both police and child protections show up at my door.

They were honestly great, calm but clearly taking it seriously. I told them everything. Showed them the texts where my cousin had joked about us watching the kids, nothing confirming anything, explained how we had no warning, and that they just showed up saying we'd agreed. The kid said their mom told them we had plenty of free time and would be happy to take them. Then about an hour and a half after that, police tell me they've gone to the cruise terminal and found her on the ship.

This ship was in circular key in the city, not too far from my place and was scheduled to leave at 3.30 p.m. She had already boarded, ready to sail off with her new boyfriend. They pulled her off and told her she had to come immediately no argument. She showed up at our house looking completely unbothered, full cruise outfit, sunglasses on her head, lanyered around her neck. Didn't even look at the kids, just walked in and said, Did you seriously get the police involved?

I told her she left four kids with no warning, no gear, and no contact info. She starts going off about how I embarrassed her and ruined her holiday. Then my aunt calls, her mom, yelling at me, saying I'd gone too far and that she paid for the cruise as a treat for her daughter, and I'd wasted her money. No concern at all about what actually happened. Meanwhile, child protection was taking a statement from me and telling my cousin this was a serious neglect issue and would be investigated. She didn't seem to care.

Grab the kids, didn't say, thank you. you, didn't apologize, just left like I was the one in the wrong. I tried to call my aunt and her a while after that to explain that I was not the one who called the police and child services but they wouldn't believe me and both have blocked my number. Update 2, June 11, 2025. Didn't think I'd be writing another update, but this situation just keeps escalating. A couple of days after my cousin came to pick up the kids, after being dragged off the cruise ship, Fax got back in touch and asked a few follow-up questions. During the conversation, they mentioned they had contacted the kid's biological father

and informed him of what had happened. I didn't even know he was still around. From what I remembered, he'd moved out to regional NSW years ago, I think somewhere near Waga. Apparently, he's been paying child support and trying to stay in touch, but my cousin made it almost impossible. Would ignore his calls, block him, cancel visits, that sort of of thing. Well, when he found out what she did, leaving the kids to catch a bus alone in winter and dumping them on our doorstep, he was furious. Drove straight to Sydney that same night.

He came to our house the next morning. Genuinely nice guy, clearly shaken but calm. He said he just wanted to hear everything from someone who was there. We sat down and talked for a while. He asked how the kids were, if they said anything, and what exactly happened. You could tell he really cared. Then he told me straight up, he's going to apply for full custody. He said he's been documenting everything for years, the cancelled visits, the excuses, the strange behavior when the kids did come back to him and this was the final straw. Leaving them like that without even a message?

He said he wouldn't let them grow up thinking that was normal. I told him I fully supported him. Those kids deserve stability. He thanked us for not turning them away and for taking care of them when no one else did. Then he left to speak with a solicitor. Now, onto something I didn't expect and honestly still can't believe, our car was Vandalist last night. All four tires slashed.

Nothing else touched, just the tires. We noticed it this morning when my girlfriend went to head out. No note, no witnesses. Unfortunately, we don't have cameras installed, but we've asked neighbors if they have any footage from overnight. Can't say for sure who did it, but given the timing. I've got a few guesses. Especially since a family member called us yesterday blaming us for turning the family

against my cousin. No proof yet, but we've reported it to the police just in case. Honestly, we're exhausted. We didn't ask for any of this, just tried to be. do the right thing when four kids showed up freezing on our doorstep. The entire family is believing her version of the story. I'm thinking of compiling a Facebook post with all the information to prove what happened, as things are getting serious now. Update 3, June 13, 2025. Last night, around 7.30 p.m., we got a knock on the door. My girlfriend opened it and just froze.

standing there was my cousin's eldest, 11 years old, alone, in the dark, holding a small school bag. No jacket. No phone. Just said, Mom told me to come stay here for a bit. We were stunned. Asked where the other siblings were. He said, there with her boyfriend. I didn't want to stay there anymore. When we asked why she'd let him leave, he said, she told me to leave if I didn't like it there. So I did. We brought him inside straight away, gave him something warm to eat, and called the police. They showed up quickly, along with facts. Because of the previous incident with the crews, they treated this seriously right away.

The boy told them things no child should have to say. Said his mom had been yelling all day, locked in her room, and no one was looking after them. Said he remembered how calm it felt at our place and just wanted to come back. Shortly after, facts and police went to the house. We were later told the other children were removed and my cousin was brought in for questioning. There's now an active investigation into neglect and abandonment. I don't know if it was guilt, pressure from facts, or just everything catching up with her, but apparently she'd been spiraling since the crew's incident.

Then this morning, my aunt, my cousin's mom, showed up at our door, absolutely furious. She started screaming at us, saying I'd destroyed the family, turned the kids against their mother, and was I stole her kids from her. She even yelled, that Cruz was the first time she was happy in years, and you ruined it because you don't like kids. We shut the door and reported it. Police advised us to keep a record and said we can apply for an AVO if it happens again. Later that afternoon, I got a call from the biological father's lawyer. He's officially pursuing full custody and asked if I'd be willing to provide a character reference and a statement about what happened, what the kids said, how they were when they arrived, and how we were involved.

I agreed without hesitation. I didn't ask to be in the middle of this, but if it helps those kids get to a better place, I'm in. The thing that really stuck with us? Just before Fax left with the eldest boy, he gave my girlfriend a hug and said, You're the only people who made me feel normal. That hit hard. We're emotionally stepping back now, but we'll continue to cooperate where needed. We've learned the hard way that doing the right thing doesn't always come easy, but we don't regret opening that door. If anything major happens, I'll post again.