Sugar Daddies: Love Or Exploitation?

By Tammy Nelson. Posted on Jan 8th 2013.

hugh hefner and crystal harris private jet — Hugh Hefner with his runaway bride, Crystal Harris.

A new website facilitates relationships between beautiful, young woman and wealthy, older men.

Meeting an older, richer man and marrying him for his money is purely opportunistic ... according to some. Others have a different view. They believe that love is love at any age and in any tax bracket.

Hugh Hefner and Crystal Harris were recently inducted recently into sugardaddie.com's "Wall of Fame." The website is the original sugar daddy dating website, an online service designed to help would-be "sugars" meet wealthy and many-times-older "daddys." The site named icon Hugh Hefner and his bride Crystal Harris "the Consummate Sugar Couple of the World."

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Sugardaddie.com is the first ever sugar daddy dating website and was launched in 2002 by former Wall Street executive Steve Pasternack. Pasternack says marriage is not common in the sugar daddy world. Press director Jeffrey Smith said that "[m]embers join the dating site to search for relationships that 'fit their specific needs and expectations.'" There are eight women for every man on the site.

Can a sugar daddy relationship work? Is it exploitation? For some, a successful partnership means finding a certain level of material comfort, and there are websites that make that easier. Maybe sugar daddy relationships are just out in the open about what they are. Trading beauty for brains, youth for money ... Who is to say what makes for a happy partnership?

Dr. Tammy Nelson is a world renowned expert in relationships, a psychotherapist in private practice and a trainer and seminar leader worldwide. She is the author of several books including Getting The Sex You Want; Shed Your Inhibitions and Reach New Heights of Passion Together and ther newly published The New Monogamy; Redefining Your Relationship After Infidelity. She can be found at www.drtammynelson.com and her Facebook page Getting the Sex You Want.

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Tammy Nelson

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Tammy Nelson, PhD, LPC http://www.drtammynelson.com/ email me at tammy@drtammynelson.com

Location: Ridgefield, CT

Credentials: LPC, PhD

Specialties: Couples/Marital Issues, Sex Therapy

Website: http://www.drtammynelson.com

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