Talking Honey: Should you tell the kids about cheating?

Cheating is a major deal breaker in most relationships, but when an affair ends a relationship with children involved, things get even trickier.

But how do you tell the kids that mummy and daddy are splitting up because one of them cheated?

Most of the time the parent who cheated will want to keep the kids in the dark to avoid being blamed or made out to be the 'bad guy', or to avoid hurting them.

Meanwhile the parent who was cheated on may want to let the kids know what happened to make sure that they understand why the split happened.

But should parents actually tell their kids about cheating?

And which parent should be in charge of revealing the truth to the kids?

A scorned parent may let their resentment and hurt cloud their judgement, and make the other parent out to be the worst person imaginable.

But on the flip side, the cheating parent may downplay what they did or try to shift blame.

So how can parents deal with one of them being the 'bad guy' in the eyes of their children?

And when are kids old enough to be told that one of their parents cheated on the other?

Host Shelly Horton chatted with Jane de Graaff, Jo Abi and Ben Fordham to get their takes on the topic, and let's just say this one was divisive.

If you have a question for the panel, please email us at 9honey@nine.com.au