Would you be easily affected by a rumour?

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I have a friend in Holland who's married and I also have a friend who works in Japan who's still single. Both are former high school classmates of mine and I have not seen them in almost a decade. The friend from Japan spent her holidays here in our hometown so she arranged to meet with me and another high school classmate. My friend from Holland messaged me on Facebook saying, "Hi. How are you? Did you attend the high school reunion yesterday? Big news, RF replaced his wife. His new lover is JR (the friend from Japan)." I didn't instantly believe it was true. RF was a former suitor of my friend from Holland. The guy had a reputation of being alcoholic in the past. If I remember correctly theirs was a short relationship. I also knew he was not the type of guy my friend from Japan would mingle with. I met up with the friend from Japan and another high school classmate. Five minutes into the conversation, I asked them why my other friend had said that JR was the guy's new lover. Both of my friends replied that what actually happened was RF posted a picture of JR on his Facebook profile with the caption "My dream girl who would soon be mine". The wife of RF reacted to that post and immediately warned JR to stay away from her husband. JR was so shocked and was disgusted to be dragged into that kind of rumour. She told the wife she had no idea what her husband was up to and that she had never ever been close to RF. Eventually a few high school classmate of ours who were guys told RF to take down the picture as he was clearly stirring up a false rumour. JR told me our friend from Holland spoke to her about it. She told the latter, "You know very well what kind of person I am. We've been friends since high school and I'm sure you know me more than your ex-suitor." I have this feeling the friend from Holland is a little bit jealous and insecure because of the attention JR got from the ex-suitor. It's surprising what words come out from a secretly insecure person. She was easily affected by the rumour because of her own insecurity even though she may never admit it. I told her that I had confirmed with our 2 classmates that RF was the one making up stories. She didn't reply to me. Would you let a past relationship with a guy/girl take precedence over your long-standing relationship with a friend whose character you know better?