losing partner and friends

how do y’all deal with losing your partner (already so so hard) and also losing people you thought were friends? and I don’t mean friends my partner had first that i met through them — these were people that were my friends well before my partner entered the picture.

some people have told me “well at least now you know who your true friends are.” and while that is hopefully true, it doesn’t make it less emotionally draining. these are people I considered actually friends, not just acquaintances. it just sucks so so much being talked badly about and thought badly about. and I’ll never be able to set the record straight. and i know that it shouldn’t matter to me if people believe the wrong thing about me, but I’m just an empathetic, sensitive person and simply do care what people think. how do i get past that?