Strange, Confusing, And Downright Heartbreaking Reasons Why People Broke Up With Their Besties
Best friends are just as valuable and important to most people as their romantic partners. However, for some reason, when you ‘break up’ with your best friend, it’s always a bit more painful and harder to explain.
It’s like no one really understands how much of a big deal it is since you shared intimate information, secrets, as well as your hopes and dreams with them. Plus, who do you run to after such a breakup? Besties are usually the ones who help you deal with a breakup, so when you lose them, it’s almost as if you’re lost.
The reasons for breaking up with a bestie are also far more complex since they can’t really cheat on you. But they can have some very toxic traits that are difficult to tolerate, so you have to put your foot down. Here are a few examples of those.
Happy Never After
This scenario is more common than you think, but it still doesn’t make sense to us. This person got married, and their best friend was actually their maid of honor. But after the wedding, every time they made plans, the friend would cancel at the last minute.
Sometimes this happens when the best friend feels like she’s been replaced by their friend’s husband. However, that’s clearly not the case here since the married friend made plans which means she wanted to hang out. We feel for this newlywed who gained a life partner but lost a friend.
Business Buddies
There is an old saying that you should never mix work with family. Meaning you shouldn’t employ or work for family because if something goes wrong, your relationship is ruined outside of work too. This extends to friends as well.
There are a few family-owned companies and businesses where friends came together that have found success. But quite a number of them have failed for reasons around working with someone you care about. You can either fire them and lose them like this guy or lose your business. Either way, it’s a loss.
Outgrown
It is very common for people to outgrow each other. However, that doesn’t mean that one person is better than the other. You just go your separate ways because you have separate goals, dreams, and aspirations, and when those don’t align, you drift apart.
These two realized they only had the past to talk about since it was the only thing they shared. Their current lives were too different. It happens more often than you think, and it is one of those ‘silent’ breakups where you just drift away. Sadly, it hurts just as bad.
Know When to End Things
Unfortunately, it happens from time to time that you get along with someone in the beginning, only to realize later down the line that your morals and values are not aligned at all. This often happens with empaths and narcissists.
This poor woman had an ‘energy sucker’ for a friend, which is often the case with someone who is a narcissist. They take all they can from their empathetic ‘friends’ for their own gain without feeling guilty. It is especially hard when you’ve grown up with them and only realize it much later in life.
Ego Issue
This is a highly toxic trait that this person’s previous friend had. Just because you got into college earlier than someone else doesn’t mean you are better than them. Perhaps you may think you’ll always be ahead of them, but that’s not necessarily true.
Life isn’t about excelling in just one area, and academics rarely mean you’re better than anyone else. When this girl got into college a few months later than their ex-bestie, she was ignored by her. Frankly, we think this girl was better off without her condescending friend.
Baby Blues
This woman’s previous friend decided that after having a baby, no other woman was good enough to hang out with unless they had also experienced that. We understand that it’s a life-changing experience, but this is madness, and we’re glad they’re no longer friends.
Sure, hanging out with people in similar life circumstances makes sense, but abandoning someone because they don’t have a carbon copy of your life is wild. People aren’t like toys you abandon because you got a new one; they have feelings.
One Way Street
It hurts to figure out that as much as you love someone, they aren’t putting in the same effort as you are in the relationship. You can easily fall into this trap, but luckily, you will recognize the warning signs in your next friendship and know how to navigate.
This person was the only one who put effort into her friendship with someone else. She explains that she felt like a filler friend, a term used to describe friends or acquaintances you only hang out with when you have nothing else going on. It always sucks to be in a one-sided relationship.
Conditional Friend
This person had the audacity to not only not invite their friend to whatever activities they were doing because she was. To make the sting even more painful, they added that she would only be allowed to join the group again if and when she got married.
The fact that this is still happening in this century is baffling. People are getting married much later in life. Also, don’t forget that divorce rates are at an all-time high, so you could be married now and single sooner than you think! She’s better off without them.
Jealousy
We can’t believe we need to explain this, but it’s totally okay to have more than one best friend! We understand that the term sometimes commands some kind of ‘exclusivity,’ but it doesn’t mean that you aren’t allowed to have other friends. It’s not ‘cheating’ to have more than one bestie.
This person’s previous bestie and maid of honor had a jealous fit and went crazy when she found out her best friend had more than one friend and didn’t ask her to hang out first! If this is how she is with friends, we wonder how her relationships are. Yikes, that is scary.
Scummy Friend
Friends are supposed to be there for each other. That means when you know the other person is going through tough times, you will do your best to support them. For this person, that meant allowing their friend to move in with them.
But after months of zero effort to get a job and essentially just sucking the life out of this person, they also stole their credit card and bought some unnecessary online game goodies. That is unacceptable and downright scummy. Good riddance, indeed.
Backstabbing
You would think that if you had a friend since the age of 15, who you would often visit, babysit their younger siblings and grow up together, they would treat you better when you needed support. But it seems the opposite happened to this person.
She had an unsuccessful marriage and became a single mom, but instead of getting support, all she got was criticism. When the friend got a taste of heartbreak, they lost their mind and started the same vicious cycle again. Luckily this woman had learned from her past and decided enough was enough.
Dramatic or just childish?
We think that once you finish high school, your love for ‘drama’ significantly reduces. YOU mature into a proper adult and essentially focus on learning how to be independent. However, that isn’t the case for everyone, as this girl found out.
It’s always a little bit cringe-worthy to realize the person you work with and are friends with outside of work is not mature. We can imagine her being involved in several ‘cases’ that necessitated her friend intervening. Sounds quite exhausting!
Competitive
A little friendly competition between friends can be healthy. You might motivate each other to do better in school, do better in sports, or just live a better life in general. But when the competition turns toxic, you should run away as fast as you can.
There is a difference between being competitive in a good way and always wanting to prove you’re better than someone else. Also, keeping each other’s secrets is basically rule number 1 in the bestie handbook, so this one just failed on all fronts.
Fairweather Friend
A fairweather friend is a type of person who only acts like your friend when it is in their best interest or when they need something from you. It can be difficult to notice such people, especially when you are all in for the friendship.
This toxic friend only got in touch when they needed help or advice and never gave any when the other friend needed it, which is just awful. On the bright side, at least the person realized what they were doing and stopped indulging them.
No Closure
We are sure that this one really hurt because when your best friend just ghosts you all of a sudden, you are left reeling with questions and the pain of being rejected and abandoned. The worst part is you’ll probably never get answers to your questions, which will probably hurt for a long time.
It is best to accept it and move on and realize that if they could do that to you, maybe they weren’t meant to be your friend after all. This person says they are still hurting 8 years later, and we can only imagine how bad it must have hurt in the beginning.
Test Failed
Sometimes you think your friend is just in a bad space or busy with life since you are the only one who ever initiates conversation. But often, that’s a sign of a one-sided friendship. This person suspected that the person they thought was a friend wasn’t really their friend at all.
They decided to find out what would happen if they stopped trying to get in touch. Ultimately the ‘friend’ failed the test since it had been months since they spoke. This just goes to show that some of the people you feel closest to might not be your friends after all!
Punishment
We might never understand, from a spiritual perspective, why some people have to struggle with genetic disorders or severe illnesses. But one thing you should never do is tell anyone that their child deserves to be ill because of their past sins.
This is exactly what this person’s ex-best friend said to them. What kind of a person gathers the courage and audacity to tell someone they call a ‘friend’ such a mean thing to their face? Anyways, we really hope that this person healed and found more love and better friends.
No Help
It’s kinda depressing how many cases we’ve seen of people not being there for their friends. When your friend doesn’t show up when you need help, and you are going through some kind of emotional turmoil, you know it is time to end things.
This is how these two friends grew apart. She ended things when her friend failed to show up for her. How do you even break up with a bestie? Do you sit down and have a conversation and then subtly hint that you’re not friends anymore, or do you just come out and say it?
Let Them Go
Oftentimes, when you grow apart from your best friend, it is difficult to face the facts because you keep holding on to the good times you had. No one likes losing people in their lives and let’s face it, making new friends as an adult is never easy.
But the reality is that if you don’t let some of these bad friends go, you’ll only waste more time and get hurt. This guy had a flaky friend; you know the type. You can’t count on them for anything, let alone showing up for a random hangout.
Toxic Boyfriends
This guy’s best friend was a girl, and she, unfortunately, started dating a toxic guy who didn’t allow her to be friends with any other male. So, he got blocked and lost contact with the girl, which was awful since they had a friendship before that relationship.
She’s going to have to learn the hard way about not letting her friends go for the sake of having a partner. It is a major red flag when you have a jealous partner who forces you to block friends just because they are insecure. We know this is a hot take but tread lightly.
Bridezilla
This poor woman sounds like she poured her heart, soul, and everything else she had into this friendship and on her ‘friend’s’ special day. Unfortunately, all she got for that was a slap in the face. We feel so sorry for her.
When the bride and groom were getting ready to leave, the woman told her maid of honor to get everyone together so they could show her the respect she ‘deserved.’ We don’t even know what that meant, but it sounds like she got everything she needed and decided to show her true colors.
Spiteful friend
This one is a sad story, too, since both of these women were super close and were even at each other’s weddings. However, as soon as one of them got a baby, the other just avoided her altogether without warning.
The mom confronted the friend and was told they had nothing in common anymore, yet it was just one part of her life that had changed. To make matters worse, the friend kept in contact with her husband. That’s just a big no-no if you ask us.
Friendship growing pains
There are many reasons why you would outgrow your best friend and even your family, for that matter. When you experience life differently, get your priorities in check, or have goals and are actively trying to reach them, and your friend happens not to be in sync with that, it always spells doom.
However, that doesn’t mean you should slow down or feel guilty for growing up. Sometimes you just tolerate it for as long as you can until the friendship dies a natural death. It may sound easy but trust us, it’s not.
Still heartbreaking
This situation of outgrowing friends seems like it happens to most people after high school. This particular one doesn’t sound as heartbreaking as some of the other stories on here since it seems like it was a mutual decision on both ends.
After high school, your life truly begins, so you start working on your career and life ahead of you. If you and your friend have different goals and both don’t find it important to maintain the relationship, it is going to wither away.
Organized Friendship
You often share the same religion or outlook on spirituality with the people in your life, especially your best friend, like these two guys did. They were each other’s best man at their weddings, but when one of them decided to leave their cult, things turned sour.
In our opinion, the cult he mentioned must have been a huge part of their lives and something they had in common. So, when that was no longer the case, the friendship suffered the consequences. It’s understandable but sad nonetheless.
Long Distance
Long-distance relationships, whether romantic or friendly, are difficult but not impossible to maintain. It just gets twice as difficult to maintain it if it is only one person who makes an effort to keep in touch with each other’s lives.
This person tried their best to keep in touch with her best friend but unfortunately didn’t receive the same effort in return. In fact, she was told to her face she wasn’t considered a best friend anymore! Yikes! We really hope she found a better bestie.
Only Friend
We all have a friend that we only speak to every now and then because it’s hard to speak to them at all when they don’t listen to what you have to say. They take over the entire conversation and make it all about them.
But if that is your only friend, it feels even worse when you aren’t being heard as you should be. This person luckily ended things really quickly and moved to a different school where they found better friends that cared about them and listened.
The consequences of being selfish
When your friend chooses your partner over you, even though you have been friends for years before their relationship, it really hurts. It feels like a slap in the face since they are essentially telling you that you’re second-best and have been replaced.
You can easily include both your best friend and partner in your life, but this person chose to ignore their bestie. When the relationship ended, they tried to run back to their friend. This should be a lesson to everyone not to abandon the people in their life because of a new relationship.
15 Years
This person’s best friend of 15 years didn’t support her for the few months her father was terminally ill, which is quite shocking. Naturally, she stopped reaching out to her friends as she was focused on her father, but the friend checked in.
You don’t want to be friends with these sorts of people. When someone’s loved one is dying, you know they won’t think to talk to you, so you have to reach out and just check in with them. You don’t ghost them and break up with them when they’re grieving. That’s just incredibly mean.
Premature expiration date
Some relationships have a shelf-life, and when you reach it, things just seem to suddenly end. Sometimes it leaves one person distraught and lost, or it can be mutual. For this person, he sadly never got closure when the friendship ended.
They were best buds and shared everything about their lives with each other, but one day it all stopped, and no one knows why. Every now and then, his friend would still text him about random things, which we think hurt even more. Would you reply to such a message?
Distance
This is another example that proves that sometimes distance does not make the heart grow fonder. Instead, it simply makes the relationship fizzle out slowly until, one day, you realize you just aren’t friends anymore. This realization always sneaks up on you when you least expect it.
When you have a new home to explore and build, thousands of miles from your friend, you either share every new detail with them, or you get caught up in the shiny newness of your life and just pay them no mind.
Different Mindsets
Some people have kids and continue with their lives as usual. They might just have to adjust a few things in their lives, like saying no to some drinks or going home a bit earlier, but they are still fun to hang out with.
This person’s friends didn’t think she could have fun with them since she had a kid, which we all know is not true. It is great that they found a new group of friends who understand this and still include them in their plans.
Double Loss
This one had to sting really badly since this person lost both his best friend and girlfriend. We are not sure if the guy was really his best friend because what he did was straight-up shady. Be safe out there, guys; the streets are merciless!
At the end of the day, it is both their girlfriend’s and their friend’s fault because they both decided to hurt this person by screwing around. It might have taken a while to heal, and the scars will definitely affect his future relationships, but we hope he’s in a better space.
Rejection
Rejection is something that not everyone can handle well, as this person’s ex-friend proved. And whilst we do feel for him, after a while, we can not blame his friends for giving up. Sometimes you have to be willing to accept help when it is offered.
You can only try for so long before you have to start moving on. If a friend didn’t want to go out or speak to you after multiple attempts for years, what would you do? Either way, it’s totally heartbreaking to lose friends like this.
Double breakup
They say your partner should be like your best friend since you spend most of your life together. But what happens when you start dating your best friend and then break up? We can’t even begin to imagine how that feels.
It is sort of like losing two people. Who do you even turn to when you grieve this loss because they would have been the perfect person to console you? Well, as they say, time heals all things, so we can only hope this person got loads of it.
Bad Advice
Friends are people we go to for advice on our own relationships. Sometimes you get good advice, sometimes they give you bad advice, and sometimes they give you crazy advice! Regardless of the kind of advice you get, you have to make the decision on your own.
This person’s ex-friend told him that he had to break up with his girlfriend when he asked them for some advice, which he followed. Then a while later, his friend started hitting up his ex-girlfriend! What is up with guys and their friends’ girlfriends?
Choose Wisely
The last thing you should say to anyone who is going through any sort of trauma is that it is better that way. You might think it is a good thing to say, but sometimes that makes the person feel like it’s their fault somehow.
These so-called friends told this woman that it was God’s plan for her to not have a baby and that she should leave her husband due to a slew of reasons. When someone is that vulnerable, it’s not okay to push your opinions on them. Instead, listen to them and be comforting and reassuring.
Zero boundaries
This is a prime example of someone being an awfully bad friend and a gas-lighter. This person’s best friend would sleep with their mutual friend’s partners and make it seem like it wasn’t an awful thing to do since they were unhappy anyways.
That is never an excuse to be a bad friend. Even when she slept with her best friend’s ex-partner, her best friend still chose to be her friend since their friendship was so important to her. We hope she never speaks to this awful person again.
Too Much Drama
You would think that if you were on your deathbed, the people you love would be right beside you, holding your hand and trying to cherish every last moment with you. But for this person’s ‘friend,’ that was too much to ask.
She didn’t want to support her dying friend because she could not handle the ‘drama’ – how convenient. It isn’t drama; it is your friend! Luckily, it seems she recovered and immediately removed this person from her life permanently. No need to bother her with more ‘drama.’
Three is a crowd
This is a unique breakup since it involves three friends. These two ladies had a best friend that always seemed to stir up trouble wherever they went. She also never wanted either of them to outshine her with their clothes.
It sounds like she was a massive narcissist, and we are relieved they both booted her. She not only lied to them when they looked great in clothes so she could look better, but she also went after two of their love interests. As we said, be careful who you consider your friends.