Dating expert reveals the one 'red flag' line you need to listen out for from your partner

A dating expert has revealed the one tell-tale phrase that means you should be wary of a potential partner - and it's something that's all too common to hear.

Dating can be difficult at the best of times - from scouring the apps to find someone who actually wants a real connection among the many people just seeking hook-ups, to getting past the honeymoon stage and actually still liking each other at the end of it - and it turns out sometimes even the people that seem perfect aren't actually all that.

And sometimes, the person you've been seeing might just exhibit behavior that gives you the ick - or a big fat red flag that makes you think twice about seeing them again.

Dating expert Louanne Ward, who is a ‘Master Certified Matchmaker’, has revealed one such instance that should have you running for the hills.

One particular phrase can be a massive red flag in relationships. Credit: Vladimir Vladimirov/Getty Images

Louanne, who shares love advice with her followers on Instagram, shared one clip telling daters: "If you hear this line, get out now!"

She explained: "When somebody says, 'I don’t want to hurt you’, what they’re really saying is that they believe you have more feelings for them than what they have for you."

Well, that's a pretty devastating blow, given that most of us have probably heard that particular line in the past.

According to Louanne, if the person was "committed" to the relationship and "saw you as a future potential" there shouldn't be any need for them to worry that they would inevitably "hurt you" during the course of your time together.

She explained: "The simple fact is, if someone doesn’t see you as potential for a long-term relationship, and they don’t have strong enough feelings for you, they can see that they’re potentially going to hurt you.

"And they’ve probably been guilty of doing this before."

She added that the use of the phrase may also have an ulterior motive of making them come across as a "nice, caring, kind person", when in reality they know they're going to ultimately do you dirty in the long run.

"They don’t have to feel guilty about it," she revealed. "Because they warned you, ‘I don’t want to hurt you’.

"If you hear that line, ‘I don’t want to hurt you’, it is time for you to get serious and ask yourself, ‘What am I doing with this person?’"

Louanne warned: "If they don’t see you as somebody that they want to have a relationship with, and they can end it at some point.”

Her theory is, if someone isn't planning to hurt you, they wouldn't have any reason to warn you of that. Credit: Witthaya Prasongsin/Getty Images

She added that people who "don't have intention of ending it" would never have a reason to want to say that line in the first place in the earlier stages of the relationship.

So, in a nutshell, if they're saying they don't want to hurt you, the likelihood is that they believe that they will end up hurting you in the long run and want to preemptively take some of the burden of guilt off themselves when it eventually does happen.

Consider yourself warned...

Featured image credit: Vladimir Vladimirov/Getty Images