Dear Amy: My husband and I have become friends with another couple and have gotten together with them several times, either at one another’s homes or by going out.
Each time, over the course of the evening, the wife begins trying to pick a fight with her husband. She speaks to him in a belittling manner, her voice dripping with sarcasm and points out what she sees as his shortcomings, and though he ignores her, she doesn’t stop.
As you can imagine, this makes for an intensely uncomfortable time for my husband and me, to the point where we no longer want to socialize with them as a couple.
My husband thinks we should just continue to ignore her venting. I want to tell her either that we now charge for couple’s therapy or that if she’s going to continue in that vein, she’ll have to go home (or we will, if we’re out together).
I’d like to get your thoughts about how to handle this.
— At a Loss for Words
https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2023/06/23/ask-amy-married-friends-fight-wife/