If someone gossips about you and part of it is true, don’t waste the useful part just because the delivery was rude.

Gossip stings enough that the content gets lost in the insult. But cruelty and accuracy are not opposites, and sometimes a person who does not like you has still noticed something real. Throwing out everything they said because of how it reached you means the only thing you keep is the hurt.

Separate the two before you respond. Write down the claim on its own, without the tone, and ask whether anyone kind has hinted at the same thing. Keep what turns out to be true, deal with the rudeness separately, and do not let either one stand in for the other.