The Root: A Friend Told Her Man My Private Info!

"I'm torn, lost and confused. I was with my best friend-cousin recently, and she began arguing with her boyfriend, who I was just meeting. He was punking her, so I stood up for her. He replied with information that I have only shared with my cousin. I was at a loss for words, appalled, felt violated and humiliated. I just left without saying anything -- I was too heated. I feel like this is grounds to terminate our friendship because I can no longer trust her. Am I wrong? And should I have a conversation with her?" --Y.P.

I'm sorry to hear that you feel violated by what you consider to be a breach of trust in your friendship. It's not an uncommon feeling when you discover that someone has shared information that you intended to be private.

However, you're going to have to take some of the blame for your business being in the street. As much as we all like to think there are people we can trust with our secrets, everyone talks to someone. And it's more common than not for people in relationships to engage in pillow talk about whatever's going on in their life and others' lives, too, with their significant others or spouses. To pretend otherwise is to be willfully naive.

You may not like that it happens. You might think it's inappropriate. But no matter how you feel about it, it's what is often done, and it's not likely to stop. Your friend's partner knowing your business comes with the territory of you telling it.

Anytime you spill tea, you run the risk of other people knowing what you're up to. I assure you that anything you've told a friend before, her partner probably knew about it, too. He just wasn't bold enough to share that information with you and violate the unspoken trust and vow of silence in his relationship. But he knew.

If you want to keep your personal life private, the only way to assure that is for you not to spill your tea to begin with. Keep your business to yourself -- or enlist the confidence of a professional coach or therapist who is bound to secrecy (on most matters) by law. That way you won't have to worry about people talking about your business behind your back or, perhaps worse, throwing it in your face unexpectedly.

As for your friend, it's not really much of a friendship if your knee-jerk reaction to being angry is just to do away with it altogether. Hopefully, that's the heat of anger talking, and you've calmed down since then.

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