Your friend is being cheated on!

Just a hypothetical question for all of you, if your best friend's 'other' is cheating on them, do you tell your friend? Or do you keep quiet and hope the situation corrects itself?

For me, I'd tell my friend. I've been in the situation before -- and I've spilled the beans. My friend was pissed at me for a while, but realized -- it's not my fault, I only told the truth. I protect my friends when I can.

if you're only friends with one of them, yeah. otherwise, I'd talk to the one cheating and ask when they're going to confess.

I would want to be told.

I would tell a friend IF I knew for a fact that they were being cheated on.

I've gone to the person cheating and said "It's better he hears it from you. You have until 9pm tonight to tell him. At that point, I'm gonna tell him and my words will be much harsher."

got the job done. and i'm the good guy.

If I was 100% sure my friend was being cheated on, I wouldn't even hesitate to tell him/her.

unfortunately with that situation, you have the potential to lose friends. I knew for a fact that my best friend was being cheated on, saw him cheating on her, and told my best friend (a her) and she instantaneously jumped to the conclusion that i was trying to sabotage the relationship, and although she later found out the truth, it put a big old black mark on our friendship, that never really recovered.

I have told good friends and had it end very badly... one of them stuck by his wife and believed her that I was trying to break them up to get in her pants (which if you knew her would make you laugh). Another believed me and ended up breaking up with the girl, but still hated me for reasons he couldn't even seem to communicate.

Still, I must say, in the right situation I would tell a friend again. I think the guilt and stress of holding the secret in, knowing he/she was being played for a fool, would eat at me worse than any pain down the road from the telling.

That and my best friend is like my brother, known him for 2 decades, and I can't imagine him turning his back on me.

To me, it doesn't matter if it's my best friend, merely an acquaintance, or a complete stranger. With the prevalence of STDs in today's society, it's not safe to have someone you're intimate with engage in sexual acts with others without your knowledge. It can be tantamount to a death sentence.

I've told people who have been cheated on, and I would again, and I'd hope others would do the same for me.

seeing as how I was just cheated on, if any of my friends knew I would want them to tell me.

Sometimes, it takes the best kind of friend to have the heart to do something they KNOW may jeopardize the friendship.

I had a friend who was spiraling out of control with alcohol. He was drinking & driving on a regular basis...and was going as far as an hour out of town so people who knew him wouldn't find out.

He was one of my best friends in the world...and I finally had it out with him. We had our own little intervention where I told him if I ever saw him driving anywhere remotely near a bar...I would just assume he was drunk and would call the police...giving them a play by play as I followed him.

Needless to say...he told me to go fuck myself, and stopped talking to me for months...but he doesn't drink & drive anymore. I would much rather have him think I'm an asshole and NOT driving drunk...than have our friendship back the old way.

I'd probably do something similar. There's a chance that the person cheating would do the right thing when they know they've been caught.

I also find this to be a very good solution. I was going to come in and say, yes, tell her, but making him own up to it is a better choice.

You don't want your friend bringing home the herp to their oblivious partner, do you? Or something worse?

Great point... for some reason I concentrated on the emotional side, but really there is a real danger to cheating.

I did this. My friend, a guy, didn't tell my other friend, the girl. So I told her.

For awhile he hated me for what I did, but it got his act together. He stopped doing what he was doing, and focussed his attention on her. They stayed together for a few years after that.

I had another similar situation, where I knew all three in the triangle very well. That one I didn't tell, but its because the girl getting cheated on...her hearing that news would have been worse for her. It wouldn't of helped her, or him. I kept my trap shut.

I would say something. Though in all fairness, I'm not friends with the type of people that would get pissed at me because they're dating a loser.

I will make sure to never be your friend.

I'd try to talk some sense into my best friend's 'other' first and see how things go...

Agreed.