Sorry this is long winded... I've been with my partner 7 months, at the start of the relationship we spoke about previous relationships and asked if I'd ever slept with a friend, I had when I was late teens (we are late thirties) and told him this and he seemed a bit put out saying he would never do this. I told him we were good friends it happened as a one off was a bit awkward and we both knew it wouldn't work and we were friends after until I met a previous partner. When I split with my previous long term relationship this friend messaged me (we have mutual friends and we were friends when I got with ex although we haven't spoken in years) to see if I was okay, general chat about what we had been upto asking about family etc nothing ontoward and said we should have a catch up in person when we could, we haven't spoken again since. Unbeknown to me partner saw these messages (they were about 3/4 months before we met) on my message feed, he didn't say anything at the time but a month or so later mentioned he'd seen a message on my phone. He had mentioned it seemed like a previous bf which at that time I had a few messages from a guy I had dated, didn't realise he meant this as was not flirty in anyway. He then asked a few times about this message and asked me directly if it was him and I lied, mainly because it was before we met and I thought it would just cause more issues. Fast forward another month and he tells me he knows it was him and he's upset I've lied - I'm disappointed in myself however it wasn't meant to hurt him. Obviously it has and has caused some trust issues. It's now been 2 months since he said and I confessed and he still brings it up a lot, questions me messaging etc. I am not sure if he's over reacting, if this means the relationship won't recover. To me it's such a small significant thing however he sees it as the lie which I understand and the extent I kept the lie up to cover myself. I have never cheated in my life, would never entertain it at all and respect and trust this man so much and feeling a bit upset I have probably messed this up before it even started.