Whether or not you've been cheated on in the past, it can be difficult to know what exactly your friend needs to hear when they call you crying because their partner has been unfaithful. Your natural impulses regarding how to respond in the heat of the moment may not be as helpful as you want them to be. Many people have the immediate urge to tell their friend to leave their cheating partner, but you should stay away from going this route (via HuffPost). While they very well may choose to breakup in the future, it's important that your friend has time to process what happened before making any major moves or choices. By the same token, avoid immediately jumping to pushing your friend to move on. Resist the desire to say something like, "you'll find someone new." It's possible that they will, but let them do this on their own time.
You may also be thinking that you're not surprised. Even if you've had a bad feeling about your friend's partner or you're not shocked that they were unfaithful, this is definitely not the time to voice that (via Glamour). Keep in mind that your friend may stay with their partner and work past the issues. Avoid saying things like "all men are bad" or "if they cheated once, they'll cheat again." Not only are these things not necessarily true, but your friend likely isn't ready to hear you fully turning against their partner.
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