Friend likes me but I have a boyfriend???

I became friends with this guy back in early January and he has never shown any interest throughout our whole friendship. All of a sudden he confesses that he likes me and that he feels us meeting wasn’t a coincidence. I told him there’s not much I can say as this was completely out of the blue and I’m in a relationship. He understands this and has known I’m with someone. It really sucks because I do like having him as a FRIEND and this was all out of the blue so now I’m just losing a friend?

My boyfriend trusts me to handle this and I don’t want to continue this friendship as I feel it would be disrespectful to him.

The friend seems to get mad and angry with ME if I even say my boyfriends name and I can’t put up with this. I’ll say his name and he just goes, “who? Oh, I’ve completely repressed that memory.” I want to kindly tell him our friendship can’t continue but I’ve always hated hurting people.

Can you guys give me a little help on how to approach the situation easily?