From Sleep Divorces To Long-Distance Marriages: Inside The Rise Of Nontraditional Relationships

Out with the old, in with the new.

Black women are choosing nontraditional relationships where they can live and love on their own terms. They’re proving that romance doesn’t have to be one size fits all by building dynamics that serve them and their partners best. These choices are being made despite what society might expect from them.

Some Black women are opting not to limit themselves to monogamy. Others, happily in love, are podcaster. Her primary nesting partner is her new husband. She revealed that she practices polyamory on their first date. To her delight, he shared that he does the same.

“He gets me. And he has from day one. He’s never judged me for it. He he understands,” she says. “There was no pressure to change my life. There was never an instance where I felt as though I would have to give up or sacrifice something else for this relationship,” she continues. “Most people, most women, have to do that, and I did not.”

The couple is completely open with one another about their rise in the visibility of polyamorous relationships, but Leakes still thinks the practice is misrepresented. She rejects the assumptions monogamous people make about relationships like hers.

“They feel like you just want to cheat, and you’re just the kind of person who sleeps with everyone. And that’s the furthest thing from the truth,” she says.

Ethical non-monogamy requires transparency.

“There’s so much more communication that happens.”

Living Apart—Together

Some might assume that romantic partners who live apart are less committed, but research shows that is not the case. Shainna Tucker has been in a relationship with her partner for over six years. They don’t live together, but see each other often. She has never cohabited with a partner, and she doesn’t intend to in the future.

“Being around somebody else’s quirks all the time, to me, doesn’t sound appetizing,” she says.

This is not happening in a vacuum. love and sex The State of Black Love

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