Few things hurt as much as lifelong friendships abruptly coming to an end. As James Blake sang, “As many loves that have crossed my path / In the end, it was friends who broke my heart.” Many of us have experienced friendship breakups, whether in middle school or as adults. In general, people prefer to be upfront about ending friendships, as 52% of Americans say it’s better to be direct than to slowly distance yourself.
But not all friendships end with a polite conversation. Sometimes, your friend does or says something so out-of-pocket or insulting that you know you can no longer be friends with such a person. Bored Panda has collected answers from three online threads where people were sharing the reasons they cut off their friends for good. Some of them were unexpected, others kind of deserved, but most are still heartbreaking.
#21
One-sided behaviour where I was the trauma dump ground and the generous one and they just took, took, took.
12points
#22
Someone not understanding that I needed to cancel on them for an event because my dog just had surgery and I wanted to be with my dog.
11points
#23
I stopped asking to hang out when they moved back to the town next to mine. We were friends through middle school, high school, and college. He officiated my wedding. When I asked for like the 12th time to hang and he said he couldn't. I stopped calling. Haven't heard from him since.
11points
#24
I stopped instigating the hangouts and never heard from them again.
11points
#25
My first son’s godfather and my former best friend went full MAGA in 2016. Never had a mean bone in his body for the 10 years I’d known him, then started being openly racist and sexist to the point of embarrassment.
He also purposely tanked his team in our 10 year long fantasy football keeper league because “you’re all a bunch of libtard f*ggots”. That’s besides the point, but a poignant example.
I still miss who he was, and it’s why I despise that movement more than any other reason; it stole my best buddy from me and my family.
He also purposely tanked his team in our 10 year long fantasy football keeper league because “you’re all a bunch of libtard f*ggots”. That’s besides the point, but a poignant example.
I still miss who he was, and it’s why I despise that movement more than any other reason; it stole my best buddy from me and my family.
10points
#26
Getting ghosted out of nowhere. She messaged 10 months later saying she had an "identity crisis", moved to a different province and changed her name. We were then talking again for like 3 more months until she ghosted again. After 3 months of being ghosted the second time I told her to never contact me again.
9points
#27
He got drunk and got into my face, then proceeded to threaten to hit my dog.
It was a reminder of why I quit drinking and revealed him to be a POS. This just happened 2 weeks ago.
It was a reminder of why I quit drinking and revealed him to be a POS. This just happened 2 weeks ago.
9points
#28
Time and distance -- after years of living a different life from my childhood best friend, we no longer have those shared experiences that keep us together. We just drifted apart -- phone calls and texts became less frequent, visits became infrequent, until I woke up one day and realized haven't seen him in 10 years.
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8points
#29
I noticed how little consideration he had for me. And I really gave it my biggest thought when he didn't come to my birthday to cheat on his girlfriend with a girl in my class instead of coming. Just sad what he did.
7points
#30
She got a boyfriend and a started being unavailable all the time unless her annoying partner was included.
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7points
#31
She took my friendship for granted and never celebrated my wins and always jealous of me secretly.
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7points
#33
We were room mates. He moved his girlfriend in and it became a disagreement over the allotment of bills since she lived there full time. I got over that. Then he got engaged and somehow planned a wedding all before I knew it and I wasn’t the best man. So I just cut contact. I miss his son. He was like my kid. I helped raise him for 5 years but I don’t really miss my friend at all. Getting away from him allowed me to grow in a lot of ways.
7points
#34
Didn’t show up for my younger brother’s funeral.
7points
#35
She couldn’t see my true nature and was always paranoid about me or accusing me of things I wasn’t actually doing despite the power in the friendship being extremely tilted in her favor and me always giving her the benefit of the doubt.
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7points
#36
They stayed with a SUPER toxic partner. Disrespected him all the time, belittled him all the time and also tried to put him in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He would constantly talk about her issues and all I could say is I told ya so, and I got sick of it.
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7points
#37
I unfriended my longtime friend on Facebook, which was in its infancy at the time. He didn't post at all, so I figured he would not be offended. Later, I found a message from him in my junk folder that explained how hurt he was. I wrote back to him, but the damage was done. Never heard from him again. I deeply regret that, but I later saw his name in a news article, and it sounded like he was doing well. That's good.
6points
#38
She treated someone else so poorly, I couldn’t ignore it. I won’t be friends with people who hurt people.
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6points
#39
She stopped putting in the effort. Conversations were one sided, one word answers to questions, she rarely called, I was always the one to suggest doing things.
She stopped so I stopped.
She stopped so I stopped.
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6points
#40
I lost two best friends based on the fact that I hired them for a job at my work. That is the biggest lesson I could teach everyone, do not hire your friends because they will try to take advantage of you and then you will have to fire them.
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6points