INLSA

02/02/2012 ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu briefs the media prior to the start of the ANC NEC meeting held at St Georges Hotel,Tshwane. Picture: Phill Magakoe

The smile was sympathetic, the restrained pat on the arm comforting.

Then my friend’s husband murmured softly: “Nasty business, but I hope you’re feeling okay.”

For a moment I was perplexed. And then the penny dropped. His wife – my so-called confidante – must have blabbed a secret I’d entrusted her with.

It concerned a distressing e-mail I’d received from an acquaintance.

When I gave a bit of a weepy account to my friend, I’d finished by stressing that my story was to go no further.

She nodded – and then went on to spill the beans to her spouse.

I was fuming. But when confronted, my friend barely flinched. “Yes, you said: ‘Don’t tell anyone’,” she demurred. “But my husband isn’t just anyone.”

Since when did husbands get an opt-out clause in terms of their wives breaking a confidence?

Men seem to be genetically geared to speak without thinking.

I remember a friend divulging to another that she was having a baby, asking her confidante to keep the news to herself.

At a dinner party a few days later, the mum-to-be was about to accept some ice cream when her confidante’s husband boomed: “Should you? It’s got raw eggs in it.”

She was mortified. – Daily Mail