AIBU to ask what's the worst thing you've ever overheard someone say about you?

When I was 23 I was really sick for 5 years, bedridden for some of it, housebound for most. My mother made me move back in with her so she could look after me she said. I overheard her telling my little brothers that I was lying about being ill and that she moved me back in to prove it to every one. She never did end up proving it..

That's one example out of hundreds anyway.

Overheard ex boyfriend’s sister commenting that I was nothing compared to his ex and expressing complete shock at why he’d go out with me. His Dad was in the same room as me and tried to distract me. The whole family was toxic so it was a relief when we broke up, knowing I wouldn’t have to see them again.
Worst was in hospital with DD when she was suicidal at my lowest point and overhearing the nurse loudly telling her colleagues that I was performative and DDs mental health was no doubt down to family issues. I was trying to put on a brave face for DD who was there when I spoke to the nurse. No doubt it came across as strange because I was trying not to fall apart for DDs sake. Heard her telling colleagues the next morning that she had no mental health training (but was working on a mental health ward) which was evident.

Wow, you honestly shouldn’t let this bother you in any way. It’s nothing to do with you and everything to do with how disgusting these men are. Unfortunately some men (especially in toxic male-dominated workplaces) talk like this about women when they think no-one is listening. They sound like thick, misogynistic twats who fancied you but knew you wouldn’t piss on them if they were on fire. I dealt with all this kind of shit too in the 90’s and it was rife.

But honestly don’t give it a second thought all these years later - every woman encounters men like this in her lifetime unfortunately.

Where I have I said that on this thread? (where it would actually be relevant).

I heard my Mum say she preferred my sister. I was four. I have never recovered. I can remember it like it was yesterday.

A guy at uni said to my friend 'imagine seeing happytap naked' and then did a vomiting face and my friend laughed and agreed. I had put on weight and was a size 16 but I really don't think that was called for! I still think of it sometimes when I'm changing.

These experiences shared are brutal.
Thoughts to all that have been spoken about like dirt.

Staying with a boyfriend’s parents and meeting them at the time. I’d been there the Saturday and thought we’d had a nice time, I’d bought then wine, asked about their new extension, been nice I thought.

Anyway as I was going in the kitchen to get something from my handbag, I heard them talking to each other about my weight, size 14. Saying I was a bit porkier than their son had dated before and that my dress wasn’t nice! I went in, they seemed embarrassed but I stupidly didn’t say anything. Made the rest of the weekend awful. Me feel awful. Our relationship didn’t survive and it was one of the main reasons!

This was around 20 years ago but I will never forget. Every morning before high school I used to meet a girl who got off the opposite bus to me and we used to walk to school. I genuinely thought we were really good mates. One day I got off and shouted her name as usual and I caught her doing the ‘🙄’ face at the other girls she was with. Really hurt and I never forgot it.

Oh yeah. I remember the first set of girls trying to “set me up” with one of the boys. I don’t know if it was serious or in a teasing way.

the boy said something like “I never said I liked her, I just said she had nice eyelashes and it’s probably just mascara anyway”

🤣 totally random, not really that bad but it just popped into my mind.

Some people are quite vile and hurtful about others.

I was a plain teenager. And shy and awkward. My mother had been a beauty and set great store on appearance .

My cousin was getting married and I was very excited to be going and was also asked to sing at the service ( went on to be my career so I was good). Far from being pleased, my mother could only think of the embarassment I was going to be be to be seen with.

Heard mother on phone to her sister ( they used to moan about me in lenthy phone calls) saying about the wedding " I mean how are we even going to make her even look human"

So that was nice.

Had moved schools, was quite lonely and finding it hard to fit in. The girls my form tutor had tasked with helping me settle in would run away from me at lunchtime. So I would spend lunchtimes by myself in the toilet. Form teacher was a bit useless, as I remember. I think I spoke to her and she suggested sitting somewhere else, with some other girls, to try and make different friends. So I did. I remember thinking the girl I had sat next to and her friends were nice. I remember feeling proud of myself for being brave and trying it. I look over at point and I see her trying to hide what she’d written, in a note to her friend—that she didn’t know why the new girl had “plonked herself next to me”. I don’t remember the rest of what she’d written but I do remember feeling pretty deflated.

Smirking when I asked a question that had already been asked and answered in a meeting.

I am deaf. Then there was the colleague who made a snide comment about me behind her hand in my presence. I don't know what she said but my manager roared with laughter. They refused to tell me what had been said.

That I was too intellectual and had no common sense - I was 10/11 FFS and had some anyway
Now I think I have loads

A couple:

A boy at school ‘fancied’ me and my ‘friend’ said ‘don’t bother with her she’s completely flat chested’. I mean it was obvious to anyone who looked at me but it made me feel like shit to hear someone say it.

At work when I was 18 an older man and woman a few years my senior were sat a few feet away from me, the woman said ‘god if it weren’t for her blue eyes she’d have nothing going for her, so thick!’ The man agreed ‘thick as shit! And plain!’. If it happened now I’d not stay silent!

Overheard a man in a bar say to his friend that I had a huge nose whilst I was waiting for my drink to be served. That was about 15 years ago and I still remember it like it was yesterday.

I was in the loo at work (single room with a door onto the entrance hall. Overheard my colleague point out to my boss that “everything I said was negative”. I had been trying so hard to be positive but I was having a desperately difficult time on all directions and all she cared about was throwing me under the bus to further her own end. Lovely.

Gosh, so many things from family. They’re not very discreet! Standout ones were about my acne, my eating disorder and my selfishness. Although they said the same things to my face. Unsurprisingly we’re not so close now. 😅

This is so sad.

Whaaat????? 😡😡😡😡😡

When I was 14, we had a day at school where we all had to do various sporting activities including a 800m run. I did my run and when I sat back down, I heard a guy behind me saying ‘blankcanvas3 is the fattest person to ever run an 800m’. I was already incredibly self conscious about doing the run in front of everybody and it hurt so much. I developed an eating disorder not long afterwards and ended up being sectioned when I was 19 and got fed through an NG tube.

I was in a queue at my local shop, having just registered the death of my son, and overheard the assistant and a customer talking about a murder.

A teenage girl got drunk and murdered her baby in my city, she was blazing drunk and she killed him, and had been charged with murder and assault and battery. I remember thinking in passing how awful it was.

However they carried on and it was the same night as my sons death, and then it was the same street that my soon took ill on.

They were talking about me.

I've never felt rage like it, and two very shamed looking women issued two shameful apologies by the time I had done with them.

And that's the story of how I never listen to gossip anymore.

Being essentially called boring.

I was working at a part time job in retail while at uni, it was mind numbing and I used to turn up, do my job and count down the minutes until my shift was over. I knew I'd only be there for a few months as I was graduating soon so didn't really bother chatting to other colleagues much, just hi bye etc. But I once overheard two colleagues say something along the lines of 'it could be worse, you could be stuck with Thesummer bored shitless all day' and giggle like idiots.

I tried not to let it get to me, these people meant nothing to me, they didn't know me at all, but it's stuck with me ever since and every time I meet new people I'm desperate for them not to think I'm boring. I agree with a pp, there are some comments that just alter your brain chemistry no matter how off the cuff or seemingly innocuous the comment is.