Dear Amy: I was close friends with a woman, "B," for 10 years. Six months ago, our friendship began to unravel because of her sudden racism, spreading rumors about me, her husband being grossly sexual toward me, her narcotic addictions, and the amount of time I spent watching her children while she and her husband were fighting in the next room.
Leaving that friendship was the best thing I could have ever done. A few weeks ago, a mutual friend sent me a link to a pornographic video that involved her husband and a different woman.
I was stunned, grossed out, and my first thought was, "OMG, we have to tell her." Since I don't have a relationship with her, I asked our friend to deliver the bad news — but she does not want to.
I e-mailed the website hosting the video and asked them to take it down. It seemed wrong for this to be put online. Regardless of how awful he is, he doesn't deserve that, nor does his wife — or the woman in the video.
The website responded that unless I was a participant (and could prove it) they couldn't take it down.
This could ruin a lot of lives. His wife works in marketing, where image is everything.
I just feel like it would be weird to e-mail her out of the blue with this really bad news. Plus, she will definitely shoot the messenger.
I would want someone to tell me, but I don't want to be dragged into her wild drama or get blamed for this.