It could be a bad sign of things to come

Jess Battison

Sure, you might just feel so strongly about someone that you want to introduce them to your mum and dad – and dog, and nan, and hairdresser.

Or maybe you fancy them so much you just want to rip their clothes off every time you see them.

But those feelings can often quickly disappear by them doing or saying something that throws it all off-course. And let’s be honest, that’s absolutely sh*t. You at least want to know what’s coming.

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So, experts often offer up questions to ask that could ‘make or break’ your relationship, or ways to . And one relationship coach has said you should just ditch the person you're dating if they say this ‘instant red flag’ line to you.

Louanna Ward is a ‘Master Certified Matchmaker’, and offers dating advice on Instagram – and she's got a video saying: “If you hear this line, get out now!”

But what is the mysterious line in question?

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Well, unfortunately, it might send some alarm bells ringing, as it's likely you’ve heard this at least once before.

“When somebody says, ‘I don’t want to hurt you’, what they’re really saying is that they believe you have more feelings for them than what they have for you,” the dating expert explains.

Yep, heard that one before? And if not, lucky you, I guess.

Ward says that there wouldn’t be a need ‘to hurt you’ if the person was ‘committed’ to being in the relationship ‘and they saw you as a future potential’.

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“The simple fact is, if someone doesn’t see you as potential for a long-term relationship, and they don’t have strong enough feelings for you, they can see that they’re potentially going to hurt you,” she says.

“And they’ve probably been guilty of doing this before.”

The expert adds that a person may also say it as it makes them come across like ‘they’re a nice, caring, kind person’.

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“They don’t have to feel guilty about it,” she continues, “because they warned you, ‘I don’t want to hurt you’.

“If you hear that line, ‘I don’t want to hurt you’, it is time for you to get serious and ask yourself, ‘What am I doing with this person?’

“If they don’t see you as somebody that they want to have a relationship with, and they can end it at some point,” she concludes, stressing that they’d never say that red flag line if they ‘don’t have intention of ending it’.

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So, basically, if they say they ‘don’t want to hurt you’, the likelihood is, according to Ward, they’re going to end up hurting you. The more you know!

Topics: Sex and Relationships, Instagram, , Social Media

Jess is an Entertainment Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include keeping up with the Twitter girlies, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021 and has previously worked at MyLondon.

@jessbattison_