Cheating

Never done this before but have nobody else I can ask. I'll keep the story as short as possible. Basically, I have a friend who told me something in confidentiality and made me swear never to tell a soul. She could not have stressed enough how important that was and I have never mentioned a word to anyone. Last week I found out the her partner had told one of our friends and on top of that he had cheated on her on numerous occasions. My problem is, do I tell her? I have to be honest and say that I have strong feelings for this woman and she feels the same for me but we have always backed off as she has a 5 year old child with her partner. She has always felt guilty about how she feels about me, there is a selfish part of me that wants to tell her about her partner but I do not want to split up a family and I really don't know what to do, aside from everything else we are really really close friends.

I think you should tell her, but don't do it for you. Tell her you care about her and want to be honest with her. Tell her it hurts you to have to be the one to tell her this information (and it should hurt you if you tell her because she will probably be humiliated) but since you have the information it would be wrong to hold it from her. If she found out that you knew and didn't tell her she may hate you for it. Let her know that it was only hear say and that you have no proof but that you felt she needed to know what other people were saying and that it was a possibility. Then once you tell her ask her if you did the right thing in coming to her with this information.

Firstly, you need to understand that her relationship is already in trouble. If her partner is cheating on her, then her relationship is unravelling. Secondly, as the previous poster stated, when she does find out (and she will) and she discovers that you knew and didn't say anything, she will question your friendship with her. Thirdly, put yourself in the position if the tables were reversed..would you expect her to tell you?