A friend who admits “I was jealous of you” is handing you a rare kind of honesty.

Owning up to envy is one of the hardest sentences in any friendship. It makes the speaker look small in the exact moment they are trying to be honest, and most people choose coldness instead, which is easier to explain and harder to repair. Somebody who says it out loud has decided the friendship is worth more than their image. They are also telling you they have already dealt with it.

Do not make them pay for the honesty. Say thanks, do not reassure them too quickly, and do not bring it up later as a weapon. Then consider whether there is a sentence like that you have been avoiding.