My best friend keeps trying to gaslight me into giving him co-ownership of my business by claiming things like, “I was there when you started it” or “I helped you the entire time.” Both of these claims are completely false. I’ve done all the work myself: building the website, writing the code, creating the Terms of Service, etc. The only thing he’s done is a little bit of advertising.

What’s worse is that he’s been telling people, including his family, that he’s the owner and played a major role in creating the business. He even told them he’s the “main creator” of the site, which is simply untrue. He even started his own website under the same name as mine and has literally copied the code from my site. I know I have copyright over the site, but I don’t want to escalate this into something ugly.

I don’t want him working with me, mainly because he has no experience in programming or writing, which are the core components of my business. I don’t want to lose our friendship, but I also don’t want to feel like I’m being manipulated or have my work undermined. How should I approach this situation?