# How many exclusive romantic relationships did you have before first marriage?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-exclusive-romantic-relationships-did-you-have-before-first-marriage/700001>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 30, 2014, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-exclusive-romantic-relationships-did-you-have-before-first-marriage/700001 "2014-09-30T19:43:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-exclusive-romantic-relationships-did-you-have-before-first-marriage/700001/21 "2014-10-03T09:58:37Z")

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> [@Maastricht](#):
>
> 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).

With that definition mind: 4 (two and a half year twice, three years, two months).

It’d be somewhat more complicated to count all flings and one-night stands. But not impossible.

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**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-exclusive-romantic-relationships-did-you-have-before-first-marriage/700001/22 "2014-10-03T14:47:08Z")

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I’m kinda surprised that I’m near the top of the distribution with 7 girlfriends before I met my wife. I didn’t meet my wife until I was 34, but it’s not terribly uncommon to not meet one’s spouse until one’s late 20s or later, which gives plenty of time for a good number of relationships before then.

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**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2014, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-exclusive-romantic-relationships-did-you-have-before-first-marriage/700001/23 "2014-10-03T22:41:28Z")

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Two, which seems to be the largest so far. One was excusive for a year. The second was exclusive on my part, but not hers. I knew about the other guy she was dating, who was a friend of mine actually. I am not sure if he knew about me. After about 8 months, it got to be too torrid for her and she broke with both of us. It was traumatic. Her best friend then hit on me, but I wasn’t interested and the best friend later married the other guy. About 6 years later, met my wife, we were married after about 6 1/2 months and, over 50 years later, I have never looked back.

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**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2014, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-exclusive-romantic-relationships-did-you-have-before-first-marriage/700001/24 "2014-10-04T03:09:04Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> So 0 means that you married your first love.

I would think from the word “exclusive” that 0 means married your first monogamous/faithful partner.

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