The first time we met The Ashley Madison Agency was on network television during a commercial break. Amidst jingles for fabric softener and liquid eyeliner, the booming phrase "Life is too short. Have an affair!" jerked us into consciousness. Life is too short? Have an affair? Is this cheating or a second helping of dessert? Cheating Keeps Us Together

We've written about The Ashley Madison Agency—a dating site for itchy married folks—and have always meant to check it out for giggles. After all, what kind of person advertises his/her infidelity online? Are they … Read More

Thank you all for your comments and questions about my recent blog "Open Marriage Benefit: A Three-Parent Household." I thought that this week I would answer one of the questions I received based on that piece.

MaliMali asked, "Is she mainly your girlfriend? Is it like he comes home to two wives? Have you ever shared a boyfriend in your marriage?"

Jemma is actually only my girlfriend and not my husband's. Although the two of them are very good friends. They have a lot in common, in fact—food, wine, books, theater. It's nice because she is often over in the evenings … Read More

Sometimes I forget things. I don't mean my keys or why I went into the kitchen, although I forget those too. I mean I forget bigger things. I forget to be thankful, to marvel, to bask in my life and the people I live it with.

This economy has driven my husband out on the road. He's working as a consultant. He leaves on Sunday afternoons and comes home on Friday nights.

When he was home, he did the grocery shopping and the cooking. He got our daughter up and out to school in the morning and off to bed at … Read More

A writer from AOL interviewed me a month or so ago. The interview was posted on their health page for a week or two and then when a piece on polyamory came out on Newsweek.com, AOL moved my interview to their homepage. Within a matter of minutes, my inbox was bursting with comments and questions; the interview itself had more than 1500 comments posted on it. I would love to be able to email every single person individually, but since that would be humanly impossible, YourTango.com has been gracious enough to let me answer questions and reply to comments … Read More

For the first time ever, Bonnie Fuller, former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, has interviewed Helen Gurley Brown, creator of the women's love and sex bible. The original Cosmo queen dishes about sex, love, work and how to have it all.  

According to Fuller, women today are in debt to Gurley Brown for "her once-revolutionary ideas and her bold determination to relentlessly articulate a better, more self-fulfilling life for women, which she did in every issue of Cosmo during her thirty-year tenure." With the release of Jennifer Scanlon's new book, Read More

Open marriage is a hot topic on this site. We often get people from both sides of the experience and with strongly held opinions, sharing their often rather vehement feelings on the subject. While we don't censor people's opinons, I think the best way to get people to understand where you are coming from is telling your own personal story. In response to "4 Types of Infidelity and How Affairs Help Marriage", stargazngal writes:

After nearly 25 years of complete monogamy with my husband, I expressed desire to him to be with another man. This was something we discussed … Read More

Oh, what times they must have been. In the '70s writer Gay Talese was in the throes of research, working on a novel. This wasn't just any reporter's notepad, though.

His research involved scouting out massage parlors and trailing orgies with a crew of New York City couples. He set out to "write about sex and the changing definition of morality," he tells Jonathan Van Meter in a recent article for New York magazine. Thing is, he was married to publishing pro Nan Talese all the while. In 1980, Gay Talese's book, Thy Neighbor's … Read More

According to RadarOnline.com, Kate Gosselin gave her husband Jon a contract saying he could date outside their marriage so long as he showed up for filming of their hit reality show, Jon & Kate Plus Eight. Talk about an open relationship.

It's been speculated more than once that Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith are both gay, that they openly sleep with other people, and that the only reason they're together is so they can continue to get non-gay film roles.But it seems that Jada has had enough of the rumors. And in a new interview with National Public Radio, she addresses them head-on, stating: "I don't have an open marriage and no, we're not gay – and you don't trust that? Well then there's nothing that I really have to say to anybody about anything, because at the … Read More