40+ Stories of Betrayal That Make Us Feel Better About Our Relationships

In this post, someone describes how their best friend abandoned them after they suffered a traumatic brain injury. And what was this person’s crime? Well, they sent some text messages when they were on pain medication.

For some reason, that was enough to make their friend abandon them for good. This sort of betrayal is unthinkable for most people. Hopefully, this person went on to find better friends.

It takes a generous and kind-hearted person to invite someone to live in their home. And, it takes a paranoid and irresponsible person to invite a gang of men into that home and ransack the place. The person who wrote this post invited a friend into their home and paid for their food.

In return, this person brought in a gang of men while the homeowner and their partner were sleeping. Though this betrayal must have stung, we suspect this person wasn’t well at the time.

Sadly, some people are extremely manipulative and cruel. Perhaps they had a difficult childhood, or maybe they have low self-esteem, but either way, they cause a lot of pain to the people around them. The person in this next story had a close relationship with another woman — so close that she considered her a sort of mother figure.

She later discovered that this woman had betrayed her by comparing their friendship to training a dog. Even worse, it was in a group chat.

Until now, we weren’t aware that women in their 20s were avid collectors of plastic dinosaurs. But hey, now that we know, who are we to judge? In this story, one plastic dinosaur collector lent their extensive plastic dinosaur collection to a friend. When they decided to retrieve them, their friend locked the door. Suspicious.

This person had to spend loads of time tracking down her own possessions. When she eventually managed to get into the thief’s room, they had hidden her dinosaurs.

The beginning of this post outlines just how close a relationship the people in this story had. They went to game nights together for goodness sake. However, at some point, something must have gone wrong. Suddenly, one friend and colleague double-crosses the other, inventing lies and creating a plot to get the other one fired.

Shockingly, the villain in this story then sends a text message to her ousted colleague to tell her that no one cares about her. How cruel!

Many young people in Europe take advance of the continent’s railways, and buy a ticket that can be used in multiple countries. They hop on and off, spending time in hostels, seeing the sights, and meeting new people.

That was the plan for the people in this story, and one friend loaned the money for the trip to the other. Unfortunately, these friends fell out while on vacation, and one of them walked away with a free trip around Europe.

Disappointingly, there are a bunch of stories like this one on this list. For some reason, people must get a kick out of running off with other people’s partners. Incredibly, the person in this story hooked up with their friend’s boyfriend and then argued that the friend should be grateful. Can you even?

Apparently, this person’s boyfriend wouldn’t have cheated if he really loved his girlfriend. Now, this is a top-tier betrayal.

Betrayal is bad enough as it is, but it’s even worse when you have to look back and recognize a long-term betrayal. This poster found out in her mid-20s that her long-term best friends pretended to pity her in school. Supposedly, this person’s “friends” told everyone else that they only hung out because they felt sorry for her.

Understandably, learning about this betrayal really shook this person’s trust. After all, if their closest friendships are based on lies, how could she still have them around?

Usually, people that play music together share some sort of bond. Sure, there are inevitable disagreements and arguments, but in general, band members look out for each other. These people share a creative connection, and they usually treat each other with openness and generosity.

That’s why this guitarist lent his instrument to his bass player, and why he expected to get it back. Instead, the bassist took off with the beloved guitar, leaving this musician without a precious and sentimental object.

People that went to school in the ‘90s know that Pokémon took over the world at one point. Kids were collecting and trading cards with such ferocity that many schools eventually banned the game. Of course, that just made it all the more appealing.

This person got their hands on a holographic Charizard. For those not in the know, that’s an orange dragon Pokémon that’s evolved from Charmeleon, and is the final evolution of Charmander. Regrettably, someone else stepped in and swiped it.

Fantasy-mystery series Supernatural follows two brothers who hunt monsters, demons, and other ghostly creatures. The series has been on air a long time, and is actually the longest-running live-action fantasy TV series in the US. As a result, some people are really, really into Supernatural. Like, they really love it.

When this person watched an episode of the show and commented that it was “alright,” they got a pretty frosty reception. In fact, they got whacked with a lamp.

Anyone that’s watched teen movie Mean Girls knows all about The Burn Book. The book is a scrapbook created by “The Plastics” to start rumors, chart gossip, and generally be really mean to the other girls in the school. From the looks of things, this next poster ran into something similar.

Unbelievably, this person had a friend who would manipulate their love life in order to prove a point. Then, she’d keep track of it with her sister. Yep, that’s betrayal.

Here’s some more horrible high school type behavior. This person was betrayed by their own sister, which is a type of betrayal that can have a profound impact. Basically, one sister liked a guy, and the other sister encouraged them to be their secret admirer.

The sister took the advice, and sent romantic cards and notes. Of course, we know how this is going to end. The evil sister makes out with the guy, and the other sister’s heart breaks.

This particular story about betrayal makes us really mad. Essentially, a guy and a girl were friends, and one day, the guy tells the girl that she’s really annoying. For the girl, this came out of nowhere, and it made her paranoid about how others viewed her.

For years, this girl — now woman — tried not to talk too much so they don’t annoy anyone. And this is all because some guy in theater class was rude one day. Outrageous.

You would think that there are some subjects you just don’t gossip about. Elderly grandparents, for example. Or, newborn babies. According to this post, this first time mom was in the hospital giving birth and her so-called friends were spreading vicious gossip to anyone who would listen.

Thankfully, this new family cut the toxic so-called friends out of their lives, and went on to live their own happily ever after. In many cases, especially after a betrayal, that’s the best thing to do. Cut them loose!

Disappointingly, this story is the first of several like it on this list. It goes a little something like this – person makes plans with friend, friend bails on plans, friend is later discovered hanging out with other people.

In this particular case, someone’s “buddy” said they were too sick to hang out. However, they were later spotted having a pool party with a group of friends. This poster, now in his 30s, still hasn’t forgotten the betrayal. That hurt, Greg!

Everyone knows that when you and a friend like the same band, you go to see that band together. It’s a recipe for disaster to invite someone else along instead, which is why this story shows such a clear betrayal.

In this story, a friend bought tickets to see Good Charlotte and brought along a non-fan instead of her pal who loved the band. This just seems like manipulative behavior. Our bet is that they were trying to impress the new friend somehow.

It’s one thing to take someone else to a Good Charlotte concert, but it’s another to go off with the guy they’re interested in. This person was hanging out with a guy from their art class in college, and they were at the stage that they spoke every day.

One day, this loved-up lady stops by this guy’s home, and goes inside to leave him a note. Unfortunately for her, she then spotted her friend’s purse sitting in the kitchen.

This story is about a pretty massive betrayal, and it all begins when a couple agrees to move into their friend’s spare room to help out with rent. They live in the place for two months, and during that time they find out they’re pregnant. Hooray!

Eventually, the couple is going to take over the whole place, but they come home one day to an eviction notice. It turns out their friend was stealing their money the whole time, so this helpful couple was left homeless and pregnant.

You can read the first sentence of this next post and instantly know what’s going to happen. Of course, if someone’s friend is also their girlfriend’s confidant, there’s bound to be a couple of issues.

In this specific case, the issue was that the friend and the girlfriend were awful people who got together and eventually ended up getting married. Naturally, the friend was whispering mean things about his friend to the girlfriend the whole time, paving his way to step right in.

Unfortunately, kids aren’t particularly good at keeping secrets. Of course, they should know when information is too serious and sensitive to share, but sadly that’s rarely the case. This poster told one of his classmates that he was struggling with his mental health and was seeing a therapist. Instead of keeping it on the DL, the friend told everyone.

This betrayal led to this person losing all of their friends — not ideal when you’re struggling. Thankfully, they did get over it, and “blossomed into a bearded man with no fears.”

For some reason, people often think that’s it’s OK to not show up at an event and not tell anyone about it. In decades past this would be a huge etiquette mistake, and would definitely irritate the host.

Nowadays, people assume that everything is casual and that no one will notice if they don’t show up. The problem is, if everyone thinks that, then no one will be there. And let us tell you — the host will definitely notice that.

School pranks can get pretty mean, especially if they lead to the destruction of property. Sure, that might sound pretty serious for a pair of jeans, but we happen to be pretty serious when it comes to good denim. This person came to school in their new pants just for their “friends” to put glue on their chair.

Then, when they were called into the head teacher’s office, they tried to blame the person wearing the jeans! That’s a multilayered betrayal.

So far on our list, we haven’t had any betrayals relating to religion. But our time has come, because this person’s friend said they had to stop being friends with them because a higher power said so.

Far be it from us to comment on people’s religion, but we’re pretty sure it’s not cool to cut people out and blame it on your beliefs. This person provided support, money, and a shoulder to cry on. In return, they were told that they were getting cut out.

Well folks, here we are with another relationship betrayal involving a romantic partner and a best friend. Can you guess where this is going? In this case, someone took a 22-hour train to visit her boyfriend at his work. For traveling 22 hours alone, this person deserves so much better.

Once they arrive, this person notices that their partner is acting weird. They take a look at the emails on their phone, and quickly uncover a bunch of incriminating messages.

Some people are so insecure that they need to keep others down in order to make themselves feel okay. These people aren’t confident enough in their own personalities or opinions, so they need to criticize others. Rather than just being themselves, they need to draw negative attention to somebody else. It makes them feel powerful, and it gives them control.

Obviously, these people don’t make great friends. This poster was sick of being the butt of every joke, and eventually walked away from their toxic friendship.

We’re starting to feel twitchy about our relationships with each new story on this list. This is especially true because people keep getting betrayed by life-long friends or actual family members. In this story, someone had a friendship with someone else for years, to the point that they were in their wedding party.

That history seemed to disappear when this friend decided to appear in court as a witness during a custody battle. When it comes to betrayals, that one is really personal.

Surely most people have been afraid of this type of betrayal before. It’s personal, it’s cutting, and it happens at a time that’s supposed to be happy. It’s just the worst. Of course, we’re talking about when someone has a birthday party and doesn’t invite you.

As well as missing all the fun, you have to listen to everyone else talk about how great it was. The person in this story missed the party, and then was told that they were forgotten about. Charming.

We’ve seen it before and we’ll see it again — in this story, someone gets stood up by an entire group of friends. As with the last example, this often happens because each individual person thinks they can get away with not showing up. Nobody ever seems to communicate with each other, leaving the organizer all alone.

It’s undeniably tragic to be sitting alone at an event that no one else showed up to. After a betrayal like this, we’d never organize anything again.

OK, in this story we have a couple, and the godfather of their son all living together. As you might expect, the friend is “a good bud” with the husband, but managed to become even better friends with the wife. What other way could this go?

When this trusting spouse returned from a six-month work trip, they came home to find their wife pregnant with twins. Surprise, surprise, the twins weren’t theirs. Now that’s a real knife in your back moment.

We didn’t expect to hear about betrayals from the bowels of med school, but this is a pretty harrowing tale. According to this pre-med student, everyone in their class was friendly and seemingly supportive. However, this all changed when it came to exam time. People started tearing out pages of textbooks, and giving each other purposely terrible interview advice.

Because of this hyper-competitive behavior, relationships broke down and never recovered. When it comes to studying, it’s best to just focus on your own goals.

Next up is a couple that helped a friend get back on their feet. They paid off some of his tickets, made sure he had his license, and even sorted him out with a well-priced car. From where we’re standing, that’s supportive and generous behavior.

Sadly, this couple was betrayed by their friend. They offered him a home and a job and in return, he stole their customers, telling them he could do the work for less money.

According to our next betrayal story, this person’s brother noticed a kid with a huge pile of textbooks in his locker. Considering there were a bunch of missing textbooks in the school, this person’s brother advised the kid to return them. Yes — rather than ratting him out, he gave the kid an opportunity to just give the stolen books back.

Instead, the book thief told his teacher that this person’s brother encouraged them to steal the books. Now, that’s no way to pay back some friendly advice!

It’s difficult to read this post because it’s so cruel. Unfortunately, many kids and teens just don’t have the emotional maturity to understand something as complex and serious as grief. Without the ability to understand it, they can’t treat it with the sensitivity it needs.

This can lead to painful comments, like telling someone to “grieve better.” It goes without saying that there’s no correct way to grieve. We hope this person was able to recover from this betrayal.

As well as lacking emotional maturity, some young people don’t have great communication skills. We’re not trying to criticize them — we’re just pointing out that betrayals can sometimes happen because people aren’t properly explaining their actions. And when people don’t explain themselves, it hurts.

Let’s take this example where someone moved in with their friends. After a few weeks, their roommates kicked them out and then ghosted them. With better communication skills, these friends could have at least given some context.

School can be particularly difficult for some people, especially if they’re subject to bullies and manipulative people. This person had one friend at school, and wouldn’t even hang out with them at school in case they got bullied too. After a while, this person discovered that their so-called friend was actually the one telling everyone to bully them.

We can’t imagine what would make someone betray their friend like this, but we have to assume they were going through their own issues.

We’ve already pointed out that some people on this list suffer from a serious lack of communication skills. In this case, a group of women drove to look at new apartments but planned to kick one person out of the group before they moved in.

Understandably, this massively affected the person who was told she was no longer wanted. If someone had just said something before they looked for a place to live, maybe this wouldn’t have hurt so bad.

So far on this list, someone was told that they needed to “grieve better.” That’s essentially the message here, where someone was told they were “too emotional” after their father passed away. For the record, it’s impossible to be too emotional in that situation. That’s a time where it really makes sense for you to be emotional.

This person ended up losing their entire friend group at this difficult stage in their life. There’s no wonder this betrayal has stuck with them forever.

We’ve already had some examples of people getting left out of parties, and here we face yet another. It seems that as long as friend groups exist, people are going to cattily invite certain people to their parties and leave others out. It seems like part of the natural ecosystem.

This person’s friend told them they had no plans for their birthday, but what they really meant was that they had no plans to spend it with them. Thanks to Facebook, they were eventually caught out.

Oh dear, here’s another tragic tale right away. This person planned a movie theater birthday party to celebrate their 16th birthday. When their friends eventually pulled out, they decided to go see the movie anyway — good on them! Devastatingly, when they arrived, their friends were all heading home.

Obviously, this person is way better off without these awful friends. Hopefully, they shook off this betrayal and had a great birthday the next year. And, hopefully, those kids learned some manners.

Much like our other sorry stories of betrayal, this person invested three years in a relationship and came away heartbroken. Firstly, his girlfriend broke up with him for apparently dumb reasons, and then his best friend took her side. How could you not feel betrayed?

We’re not sure how to avoid these sorts of situations, except to choose your friends wisely. If they’re likely to betray you like this, then just don’t even bother.

This story of betrayal will undoubtedly make you feel better about your own relationships. In this case, someone asked a friend to live with them in college. When they agreed, they asked someone too, and this kept happening until the original person was left with nowhere to live.

This is a pretty roundabout way of ditching someone, and must have felt pretty awful. Thankfully, this person got over the betrayal and got some much better friends.

Betrayals can happen from a young age, which is particularly sad as children are often unprepared for them. Well-meaning kids can answer questions with total honesty, and won’t feel skeptical about why they’re being asked in the first place.

In this case of this story, someone’s so-called friend asked them various personal questions, and they replied with the truth. Unfortunately for them, their “friend” just wanted to log into their RuneScape game and steal all their stuff.

Lots of people will tell you that it’s not a good idea to lend money to friends. To be fair, others have had good experiences loaning money to their loved ones. But, is it worth the risk? This next story would suggest not.

This person lent a significant amount of money to a struggling friend, but never saw a cent of it again. Worse still, when this generous friend asks about the loaned cash, his so-called pal has a tantrum and blames it all on his ex-wife.

Annoyingly, some people’s idea of revenge is ordering a bunch of pizzas to somebody’s home. While we get that this can be confusing and inconvenient, we’re not convinced it’s that great of a punishment. Oh hey, we brought a hot delicious meal to your home — joke’s on you!

Anyway, this person got the blame for somebody’s smashed phone screen and refused to pay for it. As a result, their group of friends started ordering pizzas, throwing stones, and calling the cops.