Confidentiality Betrayal

Muriel: If Jimmy's such a sensation, why did [Bebe] sleep with a male exotic dancer... THE NIGHT BEFORE THEIR WEDDING!?
Tarnell: [gasps] She didn't!
Muriel: [gasps] Uh, well, Tarnell, that's actually a bit of a family secret. Really, you shouldn't tell anyone. Please don't tell anyone! Please!
Tarnell: Trust Tarnell, he won't tell... MRS. AVERY, WAIT UP!
Muriel: I TOLD YOU THAT IN CONFIDENCE... just like Bebe told it to me.

— The PJs, "Weave's Have a Dream"

Friends and acquaintances often share confidential information with each other with the intention that that information stays between the two parties. But sometimes one person gets loose-lipped, and all of a sudden everyone knows that information. There are many ways to react to it, but one of the easiest go-tos is the character responding "I told you that in confidence!"

This trope is split two ways. The first way is when it's Played for Laughs. Usually in that case it's a one-off joke and the offended party will use that exact phrase. There is no fallout, and the characters move on without issue.

The second, more serious way is when the trope is Played for Drama. While the above stock phrase could be used, the focus is more on the fallout. A relationship could be damaged, sometimes beyond repair, and the offending party deals with the consequences of what they said. Even beforehand, the reason why that personal information is publicly disseminated becomes a topic of discussion, as in, what could have possibly been gained by revealing that information.

Characters will often do this because they Cannot Keep a Secret. Compare They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason. Subtrope of Saying Too Much, Et Tu, Brute?, and Loose Lips. Not to be confused with Confess in Confidence, although it can be an aftereffect.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Elfen Lied: Played for drama and horror. In a flashback, Lucy shows the one human who shows her any kindness a dog that she cares for, and asks her to keep the dog a secret. When the boy who bullies Lucy finds out about the dog, they reveal Lucy's friend to be the one who told them about it just before beating the dog to death. This gets Lucy to absolutely lose it as she uses her powers to slaughter all of them in retaliation, her former friend included. This is also what causes Lucy to develop a huge hatred and distrust toward humanity.

Fan Works

• Birthday Breakfast: During a squabble, Lana says that her twin sister Lola is Not So Above It All, since she once went a week without changing her underwear. She replies, "I told you that in confidence, you jerk!".
• Just another one of those days…: In Chapter 6, Helen shows up at Brittas' house, having got it in her head that he and Laura were in a relationship. Helen, realising that Laura is in the house, decides to try to make her sound more unenticing by telling Brittas secrets told in confidence between her and Laura, such as the fact that Laura has a "hideous" scar on her abdomen, that she only had one sexual partner (Michael T. Farrell III) beforehand, that she was so nervous in regards to sex that she would keep reading a sex education book until the pages wore down, and that she ended up faking it when actually having sex with Michael, having not enjoyed it at all. Laura is not pleased and punches Helen in the face for it.
  Laura: You bitch! I told you those things in confidence!

Films — Live-Action

• Godzilla: In the middle act of the film, Nick Tatopoulous (The Worm Guy investigating Godzilla) invites his ex-girlfriend Audrey to his lab to have a cup of coffee and reminisce old times (she dumped him because she was too driven to become a reporter, but unknown to Nick has only been Charles Caiman's go-fer for the last few years). During that time, Nick tells her a few tidbits about Godzilla but discovers the monster is pregnant and leaves the lab to get further confirmation, and Audrey takes a classified videotape and leaves. The resulting media leak (which Caiman steals from Audrey) ticks off the military and Nick is kicked out of the project and the fact he just told them (Godzilla being pregnant) is ignored. When Nick meets Audrey again, she feebly tries to defend her actions by saying that Nick did not tell her to keep it Off the Record. Nick could not be more outraged at hearing that.
• Lisa Frankenstein: Played for Laughs toward the beginning of the movie in the service of exposition. Lisa and her new stepsister Taffy go to a Wild Teen Party, and one of Taffy's fellow cheerleaders asks why Lisa has been so reclusive and shy. Taffy remarks that she not only "pinkie swore" that she wouldn't talk about Lisa's Dark and Troubled Past, but that she's legally forbidden from discussing it...and then goes ahead and blabs the secret anyway (Lisa's mother was murdered by an axe-wielding maniac during a home invasion, and Lisa was Forced to Watch as she hid in a closet). The flashbacks to that night are intercut with shots of more and more people gathering to listen to Taffy share the story.
• You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah: Stacy considers Lydia to have "betrayed" her by getting together with a boy they both like, so she includes embarrassing video clips of Lydia in a slideshow to be shown at Lydia's bat mitzvah. She doesn't go through with it, deciding not to send the file, but her mom doesn't realize Stacy changed it and sends it to Lydia's mom anyway.

Live-Action TV

• Community: Dean Pelton explains to the class that Señor Chang has a crippling fear of frogs. Chang whispers in horror "I told you that in confidence!"
• The plot of Feud: Capote vs. the Swans is kicked off when Truman Capote, desperate to prove to people that he can still write despite his worsening alcoholism, publishes La Cote Basque 1965, a short story about a socialite whose husband slept with the wife of the mayor. While he uses pseudonyms, nearly everyone in New York society realizes that he's writing about Babe Paley, his best friend, whose husband Bill is a known womanizer. As one can imagine, Babe is pissed that Tru aired her dirty laundry, and she and her friends all choose to shun him, setting off the titular feud.
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024): Jane becomes even more upset when it turns out John told his target Bev about the two of them actually being spies along with some personal details about Jane and their relationship.
• Once Upon a Time: In the first season, it is revealed that when Regina was younger, she was in love with a stableboy named Daniel and planned to run away with him. After getting betrothed to young Snow White's father, she tells Snow White the truth and swears her to secrecy. However, Snow White is then manipulated by Cora, Regina's mother, into telling the truth. Cora then confronts the two lovers and kills Daniel, kickstarting Regina's path to the dark side.
• Picket Fences: Sheriff Brock has apprehended a criminal, and brought him to trial. The defendant's counsel, Douglas Wambaugh, puts the sheriff on the stand and asks him how he determined the defendant was the culprit. The sheriff replies that his wife, the town surgeon, patched up wounds on the defendant that are consistent with his crime. When Wambaugh asks the sheriff if he sought a warrant before this information was divulged, the sheriff answers no, to which Wambaugh declares, "Tainted fruits," and retires his defense. The judge reminds the sheriff that a physician's confidence is sacrosanct, and cannot be divulged unless under warrant. The whole case is dismissed because Jill broke her vow of patient confidentiality.
• In the Son of a Critch episode "Details Are Scanty", Fox reluctantly tells Mark that her father is the "Beef Bandit" who got arrested while trying to smuggle a load of stolen meats and cheeses in his pants because his dad is set to announce the arraignment live on the radio and Fox dreads the prospect that her classmates will all find out about it. She asks Mark to convince his dad not to report on the arraignment but forbids him to tell anyone else about her dad. To his credit, Mark manages to keep their classmates from finding out the true identity of the Beef Bandit, but he accidentally reveals the information to his mom and his grandfather, and Fox thus wonders who else he told. She does forgive him at the end when Mike Sr. declines to reveal her dad's identity on the air.

Western Animation

• Amphibia: Played for Drama to tragic effect in “True Colors” when King Andrias purposely lets slip that Marcy got the girls stranded in Amphibia on purpose.
  King Andrias: Oops! Looks like I “spilled the tea” as you kids say… well, that’s what you get for pouring your heart out to me over flipwart.
• Fairly Oddparents: In Wishology, in order to get Dark Laser to join in his Star Wars movie, Timmy Turner posts a video of a flatulent Dark Laser. Dark Laser sees the video and is incensed, going so far as to come to Earth and angrily chastise Timmy that he told him he had irritable bowels in confidence. It doesn't help that during this confrontation a group of kids stop and mock Dark Laser, calling him "Fart Laser".
• Family Guy:
  • In "And I'm Joyce Kinney". After Lois befriends Joyce, she confides in her that she once starred in an adult movie. Joyce promptly announces this on the local news station and is soon after revealed to have done so to get payback on Lois for a cruel prank she once played on her (back when she was overweight and had a different name).
  • In "Christmas Guy", after finding out that the Christmas display in the Quahog mall is canceled, a security guard tells Peter and Lois that he's just a small cog in this operation. Chris then quips to Peter that he's not the only one with a small cog, to which Peter and Lois respond "I told you that in confidence, Chris!" They then look at each other in shock.
  • In "Brokeback Swanson", When Joe is sent to an insane asylum, Peter, Cleveland, and Quagmire come to visit. When speaking with him, a seemingly insane patient runs up to them and yells "YOUR MOTHER'S A WHORE!" Joe responds, completely deadpan, "I told you that in confidence, Gary".
  • In "Cootie and the Blowhard", Peter starts off Brian's birthday roast by roasting him about his supposed erectile dysfunction, Brian not only refutes it but upon realizing who the jokes were intended for, asks Peter if this is related to Peter's inability to perform on their anniversary. Peter snaps back, "I told you that in confidence!"
  • In "Lifeguard Meg", after Principal Shepherd takes over the coffee shop from Stewie and Brian and gives it a teachers lounge theme, he loudly proclaims to the patrons, "Let's all talk about things that parents have told us in confidence".
• Futurama: In "Less Than Hero", Fry, Leela, and Bender become superheroes, and Leela stresses the need for their secret identities to remain secret. However, when her superhero work forces her to miss a planned day out with her parents, Leela cracks and reveals the truth to them on the condition that they not tell anyone. Morris promptly blabs to his friends, who blab to their friends, and soon the knowledge finds its way into the hands of their Arch-Enemy the Zookeeper, who kidnaps Leela's parents as leverage. This one goes both ways: Leela is annoyed at her parents for not keeping the secret, but Fry is equally annoyed with Leela for telling her parents in the first place.
• The Ghost and Molly McGee: In one episode, Scratch is accused of eating a cake that Pete baked for Sharon, despite the ghost swearing innocence. Molly proves Scratch innocent by showing that he's allergic to carob (one of the cake's key ingredients), as it leaves him with terrible swelling. While happy that he's proven innocent, Scratch is upset because he told Molly about his allergy in confidence.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: in one episode where the trio look into their future, Mandy is a worm monster that rules over all and makes clones of Billy due to Billy constantly being Too Dumb to Live. It is believed she has no weaknesses but then Mandy reveals a secret to Billy that her weakness is frogs. Subverted as it later turns out Mandy knew Billy would be incapable of keeping his mouth shut and told him a lie to lure those against her into a trap.
• The PJs:
  • In "Boyz 'n the Woods" Thurgood tells a ghost story on the spot to try and scare Calvin and Juicy, as part of an effort to salvage an already lackluster camping trip. He refers to Red Moley as "the bastard son of a hundred maniacs", to which his friend Walter Burkett protests by saying "Thurgood, I told you about my childhood in complete confidence!"
  • In "Weave's Have a Dream", Muriel lets it slip that Bebe had sex with an exotic dancer the night before her wedding to Jimmy, not realizing that Tarnell is behind her getting his hair permed. She begs Tarnell not to say anything, which he does before yelling after Mrs. Avery. Muriel protests that she told Tarnell that in complete confidence, before admitting that Bebe trusted her with that secret. This sets in motion a feud between the two sisters.
• The Simpsons: In "Homer vs. Patty & Selma," Homer lost his and Marge's lives' savings when he invested in pumpkins, and instead of selling his shares right before Halloween, held on to them into November. Since there was a real risk that the bank could repossess the house he tried asking for a loan from anyone, including Moe, who said he had to break Homer's legs since Homer had no collateral to offer. In desperation, he goes to Patty and Selma, who recently got a promotion and a major pay raise, who loan him the money. As Homer is celebrating solving the money issue at home, Patty and Selma drop in for a visit, and Homer acts cordial towards them, but when Marge steps out of the room, he bluntly tells them to leave, only for them to show him an I.O.U. he signed, and threaten to tell Marge. When forcing to Homer embarrass himself in front of Marge ends with her seeing the I.O.U., they tell Marge that Homer lost all of the family's money on jack-o-lanterns, which prompts Homer to angrily kick them out of the house since they told Marge of his screw up before he could pay off the debt.
• Teen Titans: Played with. Terra thinks Beast Boy betrayed her trust by telling the others she was having Power Incontinence — but he actually didn't. She just had so much rejection sensitivity that she jumped to a conclusion and stormed off before he could explain himself.

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