How many exclusive romantic relationships did you have before first marriage?
So 0 means that you married your first love.
I put six, but that’s not super detailed.
I dated six different women exclusively for at least a month and up to a year. There was another woman I dated but not exclusively (although neither of us were dating other people) for a couple of months. And in high school I had a couple of less than a month relationships that may technically have been exclusive but it never got anywhere.
So, I’m a six, possibly up to a seven if you not the semi-exclusive girl. Although, by now I’ve been married to my wife (4 years and counting) longer than all my other relationships put together.
Does dating the same girl twice with another monogamous relationship in between count as one or two?
bup, let that count as one.
Eight. But bear in mind that I’m older than most of you, and I lost 3 of my partners to AIDS.
Two.
You think someone might have 50? I’m a zero.
Does “exclusive” mean “we agreed to be exclusive” or “we actually were exclusive”? Because I’ve been in a couple that I thought were monogamous, but it turned out that they weren’t.
And if you’re in a committed but open relationship, does that count?
And if you’re very good friends who deeply love each other and have sex but aren’t romantically entangled, does that count?
And if they really had a huge crush on you and pestered you and pestered you until you said okay, I’ll be your girlfriend, and you slept with them and everything, but you were never really into them much, does that count?
And if you have a huge crush on them and they have a huge crush on you but you’re both exclusive with other people so you never actually get together, does that count?
And if you were in junior high and thought it was True Love, but it only lasted two weeks, does that count?
Relationships are confusing.
I think I’ll use my own definition, which is “did I apply the word ‘Boyfriend’ to them at the time.”
The answer is twelve, with my husband being the thirteenth and final.
My definition: we called each other boyfriend or girlfriend to other people, for a period more then a month. By that definition, four exclusive romantic relationships before my first common-law marriage (that lasted 15 years and had us move in together).
Whoops, I voted before I read the post. Make one of the 1s a 0.
I figured 0 meant you drunk-married a stranger in Las Vegas. Which brings up the question, what should we vote if that is the case?
I think the answer must be “I don’t know” if the answer has to account for another person instead of just you.
“Does ‘exclusive’ mean ‘we agreed to be exclusive’ or ‘we actually were exclusive’? Because I’ve been in a couple that I thought were monogamous, but it turned out that they weren’t.”
You know what they say about assumptions (including assuming someone’s telling the truth), whether one is talking emotional and/or physical monogamy. That said, even where there’s an explicit agreement, knowing how well people communicate and how they’re willing to misinterpret X as Y even when it comes to something benign and unimportant, this doesn’t mean one is in fact “exclusive”.
Bottom line is, you can never know whether someone “exclu[des]” all others. You can only know what *you *are or are not doing. (Even if your partner is a quadriplegic who never interacts with the outside world at all – online or otherwise – even then (s)he might have a one-sided emotional intanglement with, say, George Clooney.)
“And if you’re very good friends who deeply love each other and have sex but aren’t romantically entangled, does that count?”
OK, what’s your definition of “romantically entangled” in this scenario? 
Yeah, relationships are complicated.
Five, I think.
Never mind – too many windows open!
I’ve not been married.
I have never been married!!
Crap, crap, crap!
First the no-go on passed-out college chicks and now this?!?
What did I do to get in the universe’s cross-hairs?
More importantly, what do I do to get out?
1, or 5.
I fell in love with a girl and we dated exclusively for 3 years, then broke up.
Then I dated (not counting hook-ups or FWB’s) 4 women for more than 3-4 months each, exclusively, although I wasn’t in love with any of them.
Then my first love and I fell in love again, and we married.
Five, if you count the one where I thought we were exclusive, but apparently weren’t.
Regards,
Shodan
I consider myself to have had 2 prior relationships. I briefly dated a couple other guys in between, but I don’t really count anything under 6 months.
One.
Married at 21. Now 37 and getting divorced.
Does high school count? If high school doesn’t count, then the answer is 0. I was 19 when my husband and I started dating. There was one guy in the preceding year but our attempt to date lasted all of three days and we never even made out so I’m saying it doesn’t count.
Married my first exclusive relationship. Divorced a few years later.
I’ve had three girlfriends in my life. Ended up married to one, engaged to the other two (later broken off). Guess I tend to not get exclusive unless I feel like there’s an end goal of marriage. Two other LTRs (current one soon going on three years), but never got to the point of declaring them girlfriends.