open marriage

plural open marriages

1. countableuncountableA marital relationship in which both partners mutually agree that each is free to have sexual relationships with other people as they choose.

   "Marriage is only possible for me if it's an open marriage".

   1975 March 17, “Suzy Chaffee: The Liberated Beauty”, in Beaver County Times

   3 more examples

   "Most people have been married more than once, and adultery is universally tolerated. Open marriage would simply legitimize what we already live."

   1973 January 8, “The Sexes: Swinging Future”, in Time, archived from the original on 18 Dec 2011

   Both said they had an open marriage, having sexual relations with others.

   2002 August 22, Barbara Whitaker, “Neighbor Guilty of Murder Of Girl, 7, in San Diego”, in New York Times, retrieved 05 Aug 2011

   While you can’t tell where poetic licence has been applied, its narrative arc traces accepting an open marriage along certain guidelines (“He had an arrangement, be discreet and don’t be blatant,” Allen sings on Madeline, “there had to be payment, it had to be with strangers”) only for the relationship to explode when it transpires that the husband isn’t abiding by the rules.

   2025 October 24, Alexis Petridis, “Lily Allen: West End Girl – a gobsmacking autopsy of marital betrayal”, in The Guardian, →ISSN