Relationships
My AI boyfriend turned psycho
Last week it was reported that a 14-year-old boy, Sewell Setzer, killed himself for the love of a chatbot, a…
The death of widowhood
There were many tributes paid to the Jersey aid worker Simon Boas when he died of throat cancer in July,…
Whatever happened to Lionel Shriver?
For many readers, my absence from these pages may have gone unnoticed. Those few who’ve detected my disappearance might have…
The rise of the ‘divorce influencer’
On Woman’s Hour recently, Anita Rani and her guests set out to celebrate the positive sides of a woman’s midlife.…
Help! I’m on a dating blacklist
There’s a online blacklist of men you should avoid dating and I’m on it. I discovered this over the summer…
Life with Low Life: my happy years with Jeremy Clarke
Jeremy Clarke’s wife on their happy years together
The ancient art of love spells
An Oxford don has raised the prospect of producing a cocktail of hormone pills that would help you to fall…
Dear Mary: Must I call my new partner my ‘boyfriend’ when we’re in our seventies?
Q. My girlfriend and I have started using a personal trainer for some joint sessions at our local gym; the…
Brought me to tears: Tortoise Media's Sweet Bobby podcast reviewed
Eleven years ago, Kirat Assi received a message on Facebook from a man named Bobby. There was a family connection…
Reassess every relationship you’ve ever had before it’s too late
‘Reading is a celebration of the mystery of ourselves,’ according to Elizabeth Strout, who writes to help readers understand themselves…
Why do some women find killers irresistible?
Why do some women find killers irresistible?
A podcast that will rescue your relationship: Where Should We Begin? reviewed
Let me give you a free piece of relationship advice: just break up. If it’s more work than pleasure, if…
For lovers who live apart, it’s been a long year
When will it be legal to hug my girlfriend again?
What’s happened to all the lesbians?
Where have all the lesbians gone?
Dear Mary: How can we set up our single friends in lockdown?
Q. My husband and I have two single friends who we believe should be introduced. In days gone by, we…
Do divorces really increase after Christmas?
Now and then Were households allowed to mix at Christmas during the plague? Samuel Pepys’s diary entry for 25 December…
I’ve started a dating site for lockdown sceptics
I started a dating site last Sunday. Not words I ever thought I’d write, but I’ve become a kind of…
How Covid has changed the dating game
Covid has changed the dating game
The antibody test that proved my wife wrong
Back in April, The Spectator ran a feature in which the partners of regular contributors wrote about what it was…
Why is it that age limits never apply to men?
I’d never have thought I’d be good at doing nothing. Or rather walking the dogs, loafing in the sun, trying…
Coromance is blossoming
Being stuck at home will make our relationships stronger
Did anyone really believe what my wife wrote about me?
One of the nice things about having a column in The Spectator is that I get a chance to reply…
Why do we write dedications in books?
When my siblings and I were clearing out my dad’s bookshelves (he died earlier this year), I made sure to…
Dating apps are full of ‘woke’ profiles – no wonder we’re no longer having sex
I interviewed a prominent 1970s women’s liberationist recently and ended up discussing the sexual culture of her political heyday. ‘Everyone…
A friendship in flux: Normal People, by Sally Rooney, reviewed
‘Marianne had the sense that her real life was happening somewhere very far away, happening without her, and she didn’t…
