Wife and best friend got way too physical while drunk. Am I overreacting?

My wife and I were out drinking with friends over the weekend, including my best friend (let’s call him John).

As the night went on, we all got pretty drunk. At one point, my wife and John were hugging, all over each other, and from what I remember there may have been some groping too. It wasn’t just me who noticed either. One of our friends looked at me and said, “Ben… that’s your wife. What’s going on?” That moment really stuck with me and I felt embarrassed.

The thing is, this isn’t completely out of the blue. They’ve always had a very physical friendship. They wrestle, shove each other around, and act a bit like brother and sister. My wife has always said, “Don’t worry, it’s just John, he’s silly.” But if I’m honest, it’s always made me uncomfortable.

One thing that makes this even harder is that my own memory of the night has faded. Whether that’s because of how much I’d had to drink or because my brain is just blocking parts of it out, I honestly don’t know. I remember enough to know why I was upset, but some of the details are blurry, which has left me second-guessing myself while still feeling really hurt by what I do remember.

The next day my wife apologised straight away. I genuinely believe she didn’t mean to hurt me, and I know she feels absolutely awful about it. I don’t think she had any romantic intentions, and I don’t believe she’d ever cheat on me. John hasn’t apologised yet, but I honestly don’t think he’ll even remember much because he was so drunk.

I’m struggling because I believe her apology is genuine, but I also can’t ignore that this isn’t the first incident involving the two of them crossing a boundary that’s made me uncomfortable. While nothing like this has happened before, there have been several occasions where they’ve been overly physical, wrestling and grabbing each other, and I’ve said in the past that it makes me uncomfortable.
I don’t want to throw away my marriage over one drunken night, and I don’t think that’s the answer. I love my wife, and I know she loves me. At the same time, I can’t shake how embarrassed and hurt I felt, especially with someone else noticing it and commenting.

Am I overreacting for feeling this way? Has anyone else been through something similar where there wasn’t cheating, but trust and boundaries were still damaged?

tl;dr How did you move forward?

Posted Aug 5, 2026, 1:34 PM UTC

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