22 Real-Life Stories of the Worst Betrayals of Best Friends

For some people, making friends is a difficult task, while others quickly strike up a conversation with strangers wherever they go. Either way, trusting someone, feeling safe and accepted with someone, only to get betrayed by them? Those wounds tend to sting for a really long time.

Betrayal from a friend hurts more because people least expect their close ones to do something hurtful. Some people on Reddit shared how their best friends betrayed them when they least expected it.

Comments have been edited for clarity and grammar.

1. My Friend Chose His Girlfriend

u/KMApok: I moved in with a childhood friend (10-year history). We signed a lease on his parent's rental house.

Five months into our lease, he meets a girl and proposes in less than two weeks. She accepts. They decided to get married with four months left on our lease. She and I absolutely hate each other.

My friend informed me that either they would move out with four months left, but I would have to move out when my lease ends, or I could break the lease with no penalties granted.

I didn't have anywhere else to go. I made it work, but the issue was I had about five weeks to figure out a new living arrangement when I thought I had almost half a year. Our friendship never recovered.

2. She Changed Her Mind

u/tapirsaurusrex: My best friend had recently moved to Prague and invited me over from the U.S. It was a big deal, and we had planned it for months.

I planned to hang with her and stay in her apartment. Two days in, she kicked me out into the city with my suitcase, saying she changed her mind.

I didn't know anyone and couldn't read signs. My phone was dead. It was heartbreaking and terrifying.

Eventually, I found a cheap hotel and spent the remaining six days of the trip exploring independently. It was okay towards the end, but I'm never talking to her again.

3. My Best Friend Ghosted Me

u/RevenanceSLC: I used to have a friend who I did everything with. We played video games, went out to eat or to movies, and cheered each other up through thick and thin.

I helped him through his divorce and went out of my way to help him transition to a single life. Things were great! I told him he was the brother I never had but always wanted.

When I got engaged, I wanted him to be my best man. I was so excited to ask him and assembled a groomsman box with all his favorite things. He accepted the box and its contents.

The next day, he told me he couldn't do it. He sounded so depressed. I told him I may be getting married, but he would always be my brother, and we would never drift apart. He seemed much better.

The day of my wedding came, and he didn't show up. I called him a dozen times and left a bunch of text messages. No response.

Our mutual friends came by and asked where he was. I covered him, making up a convenient lie. He never came.

Besides that, he ghosted me. I didn't hear from him for almost a year. It broke my heart in a way I can't describe. I struggle with forgiving him.

I want so desperately to reach out to him and reconnect. I want to ask him why and what he was doing that day that was so important that he couldn't be there.

I want to tell him how betrayed I felt, not to hurt him but so he'll know how painful his absence had been.

To this day, he's only responded to a few of my texts. I haven't seen him in person for almost five years. I still miss him.

4. Things Took an Unexpected Turn

u/Hristix: I'm posting this for a friend who happens to be sitting right here beside me but doesn't have a Reddit account or reliable access to the internet.

One night, I was at a bar with my best friend and some girls we worked with. I was flirting with the server a little because he was cute, we were drinking, and he was obviously interested in men.

My best friend didn't notice his sexual orientation even though he had told us when we had been there before. We had also seen him at a local club with his boyfriend.

Anyway, she starts talking about how I always get the hot guys. Jokingly at first, but I slowly realized that she may not be joking.

She is on a five-minute-long monologue. She raises her voice so much that the other tables get quiet and start to look. This kind of thing happens occasionally in bars, so people don't pay it much mind after it ends.

The monologue ends. I apologize because now I'm seriously reevaluating my actions and trying to ensure I wasn't hogging all the male attention or anything like that.

I wasn't, but I was kind of teary-eyed right then and trying to think it over. My best friend goes to the bar for another drink. She wants to get away. That is okay.

That is what she does when mad. She distances herself, works it out in her head, and everything is alright. I didn't know that she went to the bar to get a mug and hurt me with it.

She then ran out of the bar before anyone could grab her. From eyewitness accounts, she went from hurting me to leaving the bar in about one second.

I woke up in the hospital with a severe concussion. My family and OTHER friends were great, but there was still no sign of ex-bestie.

I cried for hours and was released from the hospital the next day. I was told that I needed to return if I blacked out, had seizures, etc. The police came and took a report. I gave them all the information that they wanted.

I found out they impounded my car because it had been stolen and practically destroyed. Someone had busted all tires, bent all rims, broken the transmission, redlined the engine, broken the back and front windows, and left dents.

The car was totaled, and the police department wanted money to get it out. My best friend attended school for another two weeks until the end of the semester before she returned to Florida.

The police refused to lift a finger to arrest her until she returned to Florida, at which time they said that she could be anywhere and there was nothing they could do.

Finally, two years later, she was found at her parents' house in Florida and arrested. Because her father was a lawyer, she got off with nothing but probation.

I know this because I got summoned to Florida to testify several days before finals started. Being unable to show up without failing all my classes meant no case against her, and none of the charges went through. The only thing I did against her was get her to pay all the medical bills and pay for my car.

5. My Best Friend Didn't Care

u/Mymothersmokes: I was generous enough to let my roommate/friend of 15+ years use my car. They destroyed it, found a girlfriend, and moved out without notice, and I have hardly heard from them since.

Not that I want to. They made it abundantly clear that they couldn't care less about walking all over me. I see them from time to time, but I refuse to make eye contact.

6. The Promotion

u/vurplesun: We were both up for the same promotion. She started sleeping with one of the people involved in deciding who gets said promotion.

She broke into the files where our performance was tracked (that's not hard because our company is very low-tech in some ways, and it was an Excel spreadsheet) and changed my records to make it look like I was terrible at my job and had many errors.

She then told all of our mutual friends that I hated them and was convincing enough that I suddenly stopped being able to hang out with them.

She got the promotion, then ended up with an even better promotion within the company, and my career has sort of stagnated as a result of the lies she told (including outrageous stuff, like that I threatened her or was completely emotionally unstable, which, of course, never happened).

The worst thing about this is that it all hit me out of left field. I didn't realize she was doing this until it was too late.

I didn't know she was turning all our friends against me, and I didn't understand why I was suddenly removed from several committees at work, even though I had not done a thing.

I'm pretty sure, in retrospect, that she is a bit of a psychopath. Fortunately, she lives in another state now, but the damage was done.

I recently got a promotion, but it was about three years (and a change in management) later than it would have been otherwise.

7. My High School Best Friend

u/halpiee: When I was a freshman in high school, my best friend and I (let's call her Alex) were inseparable.

We spent every weekend sleeping at each other's houses. We made the maid of honor pact, etc. Then, she met a girl (let's call her Becca) in driver's ed.

She and Becca got close, and for a while, she and I got along really well, even hanging out solo a few times.

Then, Becca told Alex these crazy things about me, like I was getting intimate with her boyfriend and calling her terrible things behind her back.

Alex was outraged, but Becca warned her not to talk to me about it and told her the best course of action was to use my peanut allergy against me.

Becca told Alex to pour peanut oil on my pillow the next time she came for a sleepover. Alex planned to do it until her boyfriend (who I was also very close with) told me everything.

8. Watch over Our Dog, Please!

u/lil_bit: My ex and I were moving to Miami and spent three weeks there. We hired a friend to watch over our dog and our house.

Fast forward three weeks later, we came home to our dog in his cage covered in his urine and feces, not to mention our house also covered in it.

Also, there were two random turtles on the counter in a bowl. We tried contacting that friend for days with no response. Ten years later, my dog is deeply disturbed by his cage, and I own two random turtles!

9. Our Divorce

u/jack_skellington: I was undergoing a divorce, and everyone in my Bible study decided to side with my ex.

Initially, they had sided with me, and I had begged them to stop that and be decent to us both. However, they saw divorce as evil and had to hold someone responsible.

At first, they blamed my ex for having affairs. Then, when it came out that we had willingly gotten intimate together with other people, they said, "As the head of the home, your leadership was morally corrupt. This is just the fruit of your corruption. Be gone, sinner."

So, I lost my wife, home, and job, and not one of those who had been friends for a decade would return calls.

I was dead to them. It's incredible to think that ten years of friendship with multiple people can be shut off, cold.

I have better friends now. In fact, I'm sitting in a friend's house, celebrating that I finally just got a new job.

Until my first paycheck, I have people who will put me up for the night. None of these friends are from my life with my ex. Having to start over entirely from scratch at age 38 is not something I had hoped to experience.

10. I Was Helping My Friend

u/ihaveapurpose: I had a friend who divorced and started dating the girl he was cheating with on his wife. She got overbearing and crazy, so he didn't want to deal with her anymore.

As I was friends with her, he asked for help convincing her she would be better off with someone else.

I met her for lunch one day in a public place and almost convinced her to take a date with another guy she had been talking to and that my friend wasn't worth it if he wasn't going to return the affection.

My buddy found out I had lunch with her and accused me of trying to get with her. When he confronted her, she said I said terrible things about him.

He knew I would try to manipulate her into thinking he wasn't worth it anymore to get her off his back.

He calls me at 2 a.m., intoxicated, and says he doesn't know what to believe and will cut off ties with both of us. I haven't spoken to him since.

I'm sure his story would be different and make me out to be the betrayer, but that's how it went down, and after I tried to help him, he betrayed me by "unfriending" me in real life... as well as Facebook.

It has been about 18 months since we last spoke. But I did find him on Facebook one day, and he is now happily dating the girl he wanted me to get rid of for him.

11. This Was Unexpected

u/MistressLiliana: My husband and I went on vacation with some friends. One friend that couldn't go was to watch our house and animals (we had many of them back then: four cats, a dog, a ferret, two hamsters, a chinchilla, a cockatiel, and two doves).

We had issues with our heating, so we gave him a lot of money to get oil delivered. He took that money and instead used it all on himself.

When the oil ran out, he used space heaters that ran on kerosene. Somehow, the kerosene tank he filled them with accidentally had gasoline.

He burned down our entire house. Out of all the animals, only two cats, the dog, and the chinchilla survived.

We found out when we were at Disney World and still had three days of vacation left. It was hard to enjoy ourselves, but coming home early would have cost a lot, and we couldn't do anything anyway.

12. My Friends in Third Grade

u/SmoochyDaisy52: This incident happened in the third grade and has disturbed me for a long time. (I'm 23 now.)

I was always a lonely child. I was not good at making friends or being in social situations. My brothers made fun of me a lot, and my parents never did anything to stop them, so I had low self-esteem.

Somehow, I managed to be a part of a group of 4 girls. We were the best of friends, or so I thought. We all lived in the same general area, one of the friends living in a house behind mine.

Being the socially awkward and oblivious third grader that I was, I remember calling my friend in the house behind mine every day after school, wanting to hang out. Yes, I was clingy, which was a bit much, but I thought that's what friends did.

We all walked to school together and would meet at the friend who lived behind my house. We would stand outside and wait for her and her sister to be ready to leave, and off we'd go on our merry little way.

One morning, I arrived and was waiting on the porch. Another friend showed up to wait, and I tried to greet her. She didn't respond and looked away from me with this smug grin.

For some reason, I thought we were playing a "Who Can Stay Quietest The Longest Game." I happily joined in.

Soon, the other friends arrived. The girl and her sister were ready to go, so off we went. Then something strange happened. Everybody else started speaking to each other and joking around, and whenever I said something, they'd ignore me.

I tried my hardest to get their attention, but no one would look at me, let alone respond. I started getting really upset. I realized they intentionally ignored me, but I didn't understand why.

The entire way to school, I followed behind them and begged them to tell me what I had done to make them hate me. Finally, they explained.

Apparently, the day before, I had said something bad about a friend who lived in the house behind mine. No such thing had ever happened! I loved my friends. Why would I insult one of them like that?!

I insisted I didn't do it, but they didn't believe me. I switched tactics and started apologizing profusely, saying it was an accident, and I didn't mean to do it, even though I knew I had never done such a thing!

That's the part that hurts the most today: apologizing for something I didn't do because I was so desperate for human interaction.

My friend's sister had been listening to all of this and came to my defense. "Maybe she really didn't do it! She seems so upset!"

My friends told her to shut up because she didn't know what she was saying. We got to school, and all the children would wait outside until they opened the doors and it was time to report to class.

They told everyone what I had done and what a horrible person I was. So, from third grade to sixth grade, I had no friends.

Everybody made fun of me and was cruel to me. No one believed that I didn't do it. People who didn't even attend that school for third grade also hated me.

I'm an adult now, but every time a friend/boyfriend/relative starts acting weird, I freak out because I think they're trying to get rid of me like the little girls back in third grade.

13. She Called the Cops on Me

u/OriginalZombie: I had a close friend who was making a (what I thought was) rash decision to move to New York.

She asked my opinion on the topic, and I tried to be honest with her and tell her I thought it was a bad idea. She started screaming at me and told me not to talk about it anymore.

Back then, I was a fool and tried to continue the conversation. My friend told me she was never talking to me again and started running away.

I followed her, trying to prove I was a good, caring friend and concerned about her. She got in her car, and I sat on the hood of it so she couldn't leave.

Granted, I was being unreasonable, but my heart was in the right place. She called the cops on me. They showed up and told us we were both idiots, essentially. I was stupid and have learned a lot from that experience, but I still think she was terrible.

14. I Gave Money to My Friend

u/clutch_944: I got a ticket while driving overnight to a girlfriend's place. I was 16 and still on a learner's permit, past legal curfew, and out of state.

Fortunately, NJ lets you pay for tickets online, so I sold some stuff (Xbox and other expensive kid things).

I gave the money to a friend from CHURCH so he could use his debit card and pay for it. He took the money and paid for his things. This is not the worst thing, but it made me lose faith in humanity.

15. The Fighter

u/questionator514: My good buddy was known to fight a lot and had a reputation in high school for fighting all his close friends. And up until then, I was one of the few friends he didn't fight.

We got into a fight at a club (on the same side), and it ended up with him fighting another guy one-on-one.

They fight, and he gets destroyed in a few hits. Everyone breaks it up, and we go on our merry way. We get into his car, and he starts accusing me of letting him get attacked.

He called his "gangster" friends and tried to make up as many lies as possible to hurt me. All this to save face.

16. The Girl I Liked

u/turkeypants: While on tour, I met this girl at a concert. Long hair, short miniskirt—you know the type. I asked her what her name was, but I couldn't even focus on what she was saying because her appearance distracted me.

I asked her if she had a boyfriend, and she said no, just a "friend." Well, whatever, nothing wrong with that. I just took her word for it. I really liked her, so I didn't let some non-boyfriend friend get in my way.

Anyway, what's-her-name adored me. We spent a lot of time together and built up a relationship. Things were just incredible. Little did I know what was to come.

She returned to school after the tour, and I called her every day to see how she was doing. But every time I called her, it seemed like something was up.

I called this one time, and a guy answered. I was shocked and just hung up, but I called right back. This time, she answered, and I asked her who was on the phone before. She said it was that "friend" she had mentioned a while back. What? Just a friend, eh?

So I decided to surprise her with a little visit because I was suspicious and wanted to see her. I knew she was there, so I had somebody direct me to her dorm room.

I went up and just opened the door to surprise her. Guess what I saw? Some guy was getting intimate with my girlfriend. It was the "friend." I was in shock, and my heart just sank.

So take my advice, guys. Don't ever believe a girl who says she just has a "friend." She had what I needed and said he was just a friend. She said he was just a friend.

17. I Lost My Best Friend

u/eose: When I was 14, I was a very active writer, a 'graffiti artist.' Let's call my best friend at that time Pieur because he was a Frenchman.

I had interested him in graffiti many years before, so by now, we were very active. So, one night, we went to see a movie downtown.

When we returned, this abandoned building was on a main street with a fresh canvas awaiting. I was always cautious and didn't want to risk it yet.

It was only 10 p.m. We could have come back later and hit it, but Pieur insisted we try out this new pen he made. So he throws a throwup, then I do, and a police car rolls up.

We split in opposite directions, but unluckily, I was the one the cops ran after. So I turned the corner and entered a store, hoping no one saw me.

Well, they did. So, I got called out and talked to the police. They put cuffs on, etc. About 20 minutes into being 'examined,' Pieur was being hauled up in front of me by an officer asking if this was the kid I was with.

We had made a pact years ago never to rat each other out, so I said I had never seen him before. They let him go.

Since I was young, they called my parents instead of arresting me. They gave them the option to punish me or have me arrested. After long thought, I was not arrested.

I was a 4.0 student attending a magnet school, so I was lucky not to have ruined my life. Anyway, Pieur went home and told his mom it was all my fault and that I forced him to write when he didn't want to.

When the cops were involved, he told them the same story, while I saved him to go home and lied to everyone about how it was all my fault. That day, my best friend of many years became someone I despised.

18. My Sixteenth Birthday

u/withtheking: One time, I tried inviting friends to do stuff on my 16th birthday. They hung out with me for about an hour.

Later, I found their Snapchat stories where they were at another friend's place. This friend didn't come to spend time with me, and they were having a hot tub party without me.

Oh, and my best friend at that time also sent my boyfriend a message saying she was better than me in bed. So that was also terrible.

19. My Wedding

u/jasminea12: A friend emailed me after my wedding telling me how disappointed she was that she didn't get ready with me on my wedding day.

Mind you, I didn't have bridesmaids. The only people who got ready with me were my family and friends since back in college (people I had known for 10+ years vs. Knowing this "friend" for four years).

Besides that, I had asked this friend to give a speech at my wedding, which she declined. After I posted all my wedding photos, she only "liked" a single one.

The one of me with the women I got ready with. I know it sounds stupid, but I know she was being petty. I ended our friendship.

20. My Church Friends

u/aubreyrg: I grew up in the church and had a big friend group. I wasn't popular at school, but that didn't matter much.

When I was 19, I got pregnant out of wedlock (OMG, I know, how horrible ~heavy sarcasm~). Lo and behold, everyone from my church friend group completely abandoned me. They wouldn't talk to me, hang out, support me, or anything.

One day, I was in my room (still living with my family), and my "supposed best friend" came over and hung out with my BROTHER the entire time!

I was chilling in my room reading or something, and my dad came in and asked why my friend wasn't hanging with me. I said she didn't come over to see me.

He then proceeded to my brother's room and told her she wasn't welcome in our house if she didn't come to see me. My dad was my hero that day!

Needless to say, we were no longer friends from that point on. There has been one person from my "church" life whom I've remained friends with.

We met when we were 10 (now we're 38) and are still besties. We're kindred spirits, and nothing will ever break that bond. I thank God for her every day!

21. I Felt Left Out

u/Wanderlustskies: I realized a huge part of why I was so angry and sad and isolated myself so much was because of my friends. I always felt left out.

For some, it was because they thought I was some prude, so they never told me anything about dating. They never invited me to parties.

One specific time was in an airport before we left for back home in high school. I was watching someone's bags, and they went to see where everyone was.

Someone else left their bags with me then, too. I sat there the whole time, considering I couldn't go, and they returned right before boarding. They had eaten dinner. I was so angry.

Another time, my friend liked this guy, and we were all in the marching band. On the way to the competitions, she always sat with him, when before, she had always sat with me.

I just wanted her to sit with me to the state finals. She did not. It was the most depressing bus ride I've had. She also didn't tell me anything about him, but I know about six months later, she hated him.

22. 'Best Friend'

u/[deleted]: My best friend was the godmother of my 6-year-old son. That day, she took him to the amusement park, and they were in an accident where she was the only survivor.

My wife blamed me for everything and left. A year later, I married this 'best friend.’ She helped me through my grief and once said, "We can always make one of our own."

20 years later, we were packing up our daughter's things, and I froze. I saw clothes that my son had worn on that day. Me: How did you say you survived?

She: I told you, I remained inside the car. Me (in rage): THEN CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHY THIS HAS my son's clothes from that day?

Her face drained of color, and she was silent for a moment before the truth spilled out. She hadn't caused my son's death, but she had hidden crucial details about the accident.

She confessed that in the chaos, she saw an opportunity to be closer to me, having secretly loved me for years. Her plan, twisted by grief and unrequited love, was to marry me in the aftermath.

As her confession ended, I stood there, heartbroken and betrayed, the pieces of a life built on lies crumbling around me.

These people shared what it felt like to be betrayed by their best friends. Many didn't expect they would eventually have to part ways with their closest friends. Have you ever experienced the loss of a best friend after betrayal? Was it your childhood friend or someone you met as an adult? We would love to hear your story.