Ethical non-monogamy — it’s something you’ve probably talked about with your friends over a drink or possibly even seen listed on someone’s profile on a dating app if you’re single and looking. But do you actually understand what it really means within a relationship?
In this segment from the Tamron Hall show, Tamron catches up with Ellecia and Rob Paine, who open up about their ethical non-monogamous marriage and what it looks like to invite other partners into their long-term partnership.
To clarify, ethical non-monogamy can also be referred to as consensual non-monogamy, and it involves a type of open relationship in which everyone involved understands that they’re not exclusive.
Ellecia and Rob discuss how things work within their open marriage, as they have been married for nine years. They also have other individual relationships as well as long-term relationships for both of them with a woman named Salena.
Tamron couldn’t help but ask the couple why ethical non-monogamy has worked for them both all these years, because even Ellecia notes that it can seem like “a lot.”
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“It teaches us to trust each other more. And we’re with each other for reasons outside of feeling like we need each other,” Rob explains. He goes on to outline that their other relationships can involve both emotional and physical relationships with other people, but at the end of the day, they have one another to come back to because they both proceed with full disclosure.
To find out what Ellecia’s boyfriend of three years has to say about being involved in a long-term relationship with Ellecia while she’s also married to Rob, check out the full video posted by the Tamron Hall show.
