“Being ghosted by my friends has happened twice now,” Nicola, a communications director, tells Stylist.

“It’s been 17 years since Sam* and I last spoke. We’d been really close since we were 12, meeting at school. We had an incredible connection. I could walk into a room, see them and we’d both dissolve into fits of giggles.”

But as soon as Sam got engaged, Nicola says that everything changed. “All of a sudden, they were endlessly ‘planning the wedding’ and had no time to meet up. After the wedding, I honestly never expected to see them again, but then a few years later, out of the blue, they got back in contact and asked to see me, but brought another friend along as a buffer. It was a really strange dynamic and after that Sam walked away from me for good.”

On another occasion, Nicola explains that she was ghosted by a group of fellow mums that she’d met in an antenatal group. “Individually, they were all lovely, but I was definitely struggling more than they were. I had undiagnosed postnatal depression and then severe separation anxiety, which made returning to work really hard. I guess I was always the one having to leave early from get-togethers and watching the pennies, whereas they could afford not to return to work.”

But then Nicola was ousted from the group without explanation.

“One evening, we all went for a meal in a pub as a group. I was feeling broken, getting up early to commute to a new job and struggling with other family issues. It’s fair to say I was broken when I arrived. I got through the meal but afterwards, the WhatsApp group seemed to stop. I knew that they were still seeing each other and meeting up, just without me, and I still see on social media that they’re in contact, even five years on.”

How to get over being ghosted by your best friend