Leonato asks Antonio to tell Hero that Don Pedro is in love with her because he wants to give her time to prepare an answer that she should say to Don Pedro when he would approach her at the dance.
Shakespeare in his play “Much Ado About Nothing” has used the theme of mishearing and passing the wrong information. The chaos created by this results in the misunderstandings throughout the play.
Though Leonato didn’t believe the rumors but still wanted to tell his daughter Hero about it so that she would be prepared how to deal with the situation.