There are things people who are afraid of confronting someone say to you seeing you are close to that person hoping you will mention it to the said person.
Their real purpose is to use you as the channel to hurt the said person with those words and also be in a position to deny their intent when the person whom you transmitted the message to confronts them.
They will deny they said what was repeated to the hearer and blame the transmitter of the message.
This will leave you the carrier of the said words "holding the bag" wondering how you are the one caught up in the middle, now seen as the bad person.
When you encounter such people who want to use you, just tell them to go say it by themselves and that you won't be mentioning it to the person.
Sit and watch the hypocrisy as they hug and smile when they meet the said person they spoke so ugly about to you not even mentioning a thing.
You just dodged a bullet through wisdom, you were about to be used by a manipulator.