This episode originally ran on Monday 29 April 2024

When Molly Roden Winter stormed out of the house one evening, fed up with her husband returning home too late to help with their children, things took an unexpected turn. She went to a bar with a friend and ended up meeting a much younger man. But instead of an affair, she tells Helen Pidd, her interest in this other man sparked a surprising conversation with her husband – and led to them opening up their marriage to other people.

Non-monogamous marriages and polyamorous relationships are hardly new or unheard of. But Winter’s book seems to have hit a chord because her family and her marriage looked so conventional – and she says we still seldom hear stories about mothers in relationships with more than one person. Winter explains what she learned about herself and relationships from her open marriage. And how she discovered her mother had also had an open relationship but had kept it hidden.

In the UK, another mother of young children has written a book inspired by her open marriage, while the therapist Andrew G Marshall says non-monogamous relationships are not the taboo they once were. He discusses what the pitfalls and joys can be.