A throuple has opened up about how they make their relationship work.
Adam Lyons, Brooke Shedd and Jane Shalakhova have been living together in a polygamous relationship since 2014.
Shalakhova is currently pregnant with Lyons’ child, however the trio insists there’s no romantic jealousy when it comes to their relationship.
For those who aren’t 100% sure what a throuple is, journalist and sex educator Alix Fox previously told HuffPost UK that a throuple is an intimate, loving, equal relationship between a trio of people.
“It’s a play on the word ‘couple’,” she explained, “and indicates a close romantic bond shared by three human beings, rather than the more traditional two.”
So how do you keep jealousy at bay in a three-person relationship?
Speaking to ITV’s ‘This Morning’, Lyons said he experiences envy - but it’s not ‘romantic’.
“It’s the kind of jealousy you’d get if one of your friends was going on a vacation with a bunch of your other friends and you had to stay behind and work,” he explained.
“It’ll often come because I’ll be at work and the girls will be like, ‘we’re going to go and get our nails done’.”
Shalakhova, who joined the relationship later, reiterated this. “I don’t have romantic jealousy,” she explained. “I have jealousy on missing out on experience more. [For example] we planned this big cruise to go from America to England and I got pregnant and couldn’t come.
“As we’d pre-booked everything I said they should go together, and they did, but I was missing out. I was jealous because of all the fancy dinners and shows they watched.”
Initially, Lyons and Shedd were in a relationship together, however Shedd was always explicitly clear that she liked men as well as women.
“It’s a part of my personality and my sexuality that you can’t solve by yourself, I need that full spectrum and so he was like, ‘great, I will happily date more than one woman’,” she explained.
When the pair met Jane, things started to fall into place.
“We didn’t intend for it to be as serious as it is,” added Shedd. “And we’ve ended up building a family and a business and a whole life together, it’s crazy it fell together so easily.”
The throuple are thrilled that Shalakhova is expecting a baby, which is due to be born in July.
Shedd said the trio discussed the prospect of having a baby at length before Shalakhova became pregnant and added that it seemed like the natural step for her as she had “always wanted to be a mum”.
Shalakhova said Shedd, who has a child of her own, had been very supportive of her pregnancy and added: “It’s been such a pleasure having her in [my] life”.
The throuple is open to the idea of inviting another person into their relationship, however they’re also realistic that they’d all have to have some form of connection with that other person - both emotionally and sexually. And they are wary of the complications another person could bring to the picture.
“We’re taking this relationship as serious as any other couple takes their relationship,” said Lyons.
“What the future holds? I love the idea we’ll be together forever but you never truly know.”