Ned loved Cat, but I don't agree that he trusted her. In the books, he says at one point that Cat would never protect Jon if her own children were threatened.

Anyway, the best way to keep a secret is not to tell_ anyone._

@Mirabel said:

Ned loved Cat, but I don't agree that he trusted her. In the books, he says at one point that Cat would never protect Jon if her own children were threatened.

Anyway, the best way to keep a secret is not to tell_ anyone._

Really? You didn't pick up that he trusted her from the pillow talk scene in the book (absent from the show)? They got into a deep conversation about Ned going to King's Landing and the plot of Jon Arynn's death. I most definitely think he trusted her. And why should she protect Jon over her own children? No mother would do that. But at least she wouldn't mistreat him as being a reminder to Ned's infidelity.

That's why Ned couldn't tell her; he knew she'd give up Jon if her own children were at risk, and he'd promised Lyanna to protect Jon. He trusted Cat in most things, but not in that.

For example- don't you think she'd have told the Lannisters about Jon, if it meant she'd get her daughters returned? Of course she would, and Ned knew it. That's why I said that he couldn't trust her where Jon was concerned.

Ned was Robert's best buddy, but had Robert found out that Ned has been raising the son of the man he hated more than anyone else - I bet Ned would not have been the only Stark to lose his head in such case.

The chances for that were very low, but not zero. Maybe Catelyn wouldn't have agreed to spend the rest of her life worrying for the lives of Robb and future children. I guess that's the reason Ned never told her.