“I regret very, very deeply indeed carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done.”
But that’s the whole point, sunshine. You perhaps couldn’t help having been introduced to him, but you didn’t have to turn him into your “best pal”. And do best pals really not have an inkling as to what each other are up to?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yevwvvneyo