Love & Sex 13th September 2017 by Grace McGettigan
This Is The Reason Why Married Women Cheat And It’s Definitely Not What You’d Think
It's got nothing to do with unhappiness.
Usually when you hear that someone’s been cheating, you assume they’re unhappy in their relationship and are looking for a thrill elsewhere.
However, sex therapist and author, Esther Perel, has studied infidelity and says that this isn’t really the case, particularly with women.
Sharing her findings in The Atlantic, Esther wrote, “People who describe their marriage as ‘pretty happy’ are twice as likely to cheat as those who describe their marriage as ‘very happy’”. Wait, what?! “They are in that wonderful ambivalent state, too good to leave, too bad to stay,” she continued.
Esther gave the example of a woman called Priya, who’s happily married to a man she has no complaints about at all. He’s great at his job, is good looking and good in bed. But she’s having an affair with a truck driver.
For Priya, her affair is about self-discovery. She’s looking for a new self. Having been ‘good’ all her life, she wants to know what life is like for people who aren’t good. “As she nears the mid-century mark, she is having her own belated adolescent rebellion,” Esther concludes.
So even happy relationships aren’t safe… That’s, um, comforting…
What do you make of Esther’s findings?
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