My husband colleague introduced herself as my husband work wife and I’m not comfortable with it

A woman has gone online to seek advice after her husband’s colleague introduced herself as his work “wife.”

Posting on Mumsnet, she expressed her anger about the situation and mentioned that this colleague knows everything about her through her husband, “John.” 

She wrote: “We went to a summer work event yesterday afternoon hosted by DH’s work. It was a catered dressy garden party sort of thing and I’d been looking forward to it for ages, bought a new dress etc. 

“About 10 mins in a woman came up to us (well actually more to him as I was two steps away getting a drink at that precise moment) and said hello. When I turned back round she gave a very effusive “so lovely to meet you” and then rolled straight into saying “but I do have a bone to pick with you – you need to stop packing John so much to eat as its going straight on here!”. 

“She bloody patted his tummy!!! Then carried on saying something about maybe she should bring his lunches in from now on, followed by the most awful laugh that made me want to punch her in the face. 

“I think I said either “what the hell?” or “who the hell are you?”, I can’t remember which. Either way her face fell and she started trying to soothe me.’ 

“She said that she clearly came across wrong, it’s just that she’s his work wife and she was just being relaxed as she feels like she knows me already from John talking about me so much. The whole interaction was maybe 20 seconds. She suddenly ”saw a friend she wanted to catch” and made a very fast exit.

“Today he’s said very coldly that my behaviour is making him question things, which I assume to mean question our marriage. I can’t decide if I’m furious with him or devastated that he’s upset with me, or both. 

“I still have no idea who this woman is who feels comfortable enough to be patting my husband on the tummy. Am I that unreasonable to have reacted like I did?