Red Dobe:

What irked me a bit about it is that the LW's concern seemed to be only for herself/himself. Whether s/he likes it or not, these people are currently part of his or her so-called friends' lives now- however, all I heard from him or her is that the "others" don't matter to him/her, s/he doesn't want them in his or her home.

Amen. It was an odd letter and I think a lot of the people railing against Prudie's response missed a key component: These are people who now rarely see each other. So, it's not like the LW is going to see Bill's wife next week at some other party...she flat out has zero interest in meeting her ever. Imagine if somebody you haven't seen in a couple years invited you to a dinner party and specifically noted your spouse wasn't invited. You'd find that odd no matter how small their place was.

Now, if these people had remained in touch, I could maybe see having an event with just the old friends, but that's not the case. The LW seems to want to relive the good old days and pretend nothing has changed. But things have changed and she's no longer even in regular contact with these people.