Love comes in many forms, and while plenty of us are fans of monogamous, one-person-at-a-time kinds of relationships, there are plenty of others who don’t share this love of commitment.
These diverse opinions extend to Hollywood, where some of your favourite stars are proponents of a more open approach to relationships (some even condone not living together).
Whether that means they’re open to multiple partners, or merely open to the possibility that they may have more than one soulmate, they’re at least open to something beyond what many consider to be the typical constructs of a relationship.
Keep reading to see six celebrity couples who are in open relationships, or endorse something other than traditional monogamy.
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith
While these Hollywood heavyweights don’t necessarily actively explore relations with other partners, they’ve said the trust they share allows them to have freedom when it comes to fidelity. “Will and I BOTH can do WHATEVER we want because we TRUST each other to do so. This does NOT mean we have an open relationship… this means we have a GROWN one,” Pinkett Smith has posted on social media.
Nico Tortorella and Bethany Meyers
The Younger star and his wife have an unconventional marriage. They prefer to individually use the pronoun ‘them’ and don’t conform to gender norms. This individuality extends to their marriage, which they describe as a “queer polyamorous relationship”.
Of this unusual approach, Tortorella has said: “Cheating is bad… But I think that an open relationship or a polyamorous relationship or an understanding of sorts is acceptable in this day and age. And I’ve been in those relationships and sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. But cheating inherently is a terrible thing. If you’re going behind the other person’s back and if there’s any type of malice, you’re a bad person, end of story.”
Ethan Hawke and Ryan Hawke
Having been married since 2008, actor Ethan Hawke is very committed to wife Ryan, but has spoken about the unrealistic expectations monogamy places on relationships. “People have such a childish view of monogamy and fidelity. ‘He’s cheated so he’s bad, she’s cheated so she’s bad,’ as opposed to a recognition that our species is not monogamous,” he told Porter magazine. “Sexual fidelity can’t be the whole thing you hang your relationship on.”
Tom Ford and Richard Buckley
The fashion designer married Buckley, a fashion journalist, in 2014, after finding what he described as “love at first sight”. However, Ford has said that monogamy isn’t really their speed. “I think that monogamy is artificial. I do not think it’s something that comes naturally to us,” he told New York Magazine.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
Although they divorced in 2016, Jolie and Pitt spent 13 happy years together and, according to a report from New York Daily News, a lot of it had to do with a mutual understanding of freedom. “I doubt that fidelity is absolutely essential for a relationship,” Jolie reportedly told German magazine Das Neue. “It’s worse to leave your partner and talk badly about him afterwards. Neither Brad nor I have ever claimed that living together means to be chained together. We make sure that we never restrict each other.”
Tilda Swinton
Rumours have long alleged that actress Swinton is involved in a three-way relationship with the father of her children, John Byrne, and her boyfriend, Sandro Kopp. However, Swinton clarified the rumours in an interview with the Daily Mail, saying: “It’s all quite boring really. The father of my children and I are good friends and I’m now in a very happy other relationship. And we’re all really good friends. It’s a very happy situation. Life doesn’t have to be complicated. You just have to have compassion with yourself and stop blaming yourself when things do get complicated.”
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