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Why Marrying Your Best Friend Isn’t a Great Idea

It’s a nice sentiment but not one without concerns.

Vanessa Torre
5 min readJun 24, 2020
Photo by Eric Ward via Unsplash

Last week, I saw pictures of a couple, wrapped up in each other’s arms and beaming with love. Her in a white dress and him in a nice suit. There was the proclamation from one of them of how lucky they were to have married their best friend. It’s sweet. It feels nice.

I have concerns.

Marrying our best friend seems like the ultimate meeting of our needs. We’ve found that person we know will be by our side no matter what. After all, how many times have we been told that romantic partners may come and go but friendship lasts a lifetime? Combine the two and magic happens.

But does it?

The biggest issue I have with declaring your spouse, or soon to be spouse, your best friend is boundaries. It’s a lot to place on one person.

I am a very independent person. I’m now in my first relationship since my second divorce and every day I work on this fledgling relationship. It’s not hard work but, having failed miserably at two marriages, I know where and why my train has come off the track. I want this train to stay where it is.

I adore my boyfriend, but I don’t want to be his best friend and I don’t want him to be mine. He’s dating me…

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Vanessa Torre
Vanessa Torre

Written by Vanessa Torre

Top 10 feminist writer. Writing, coaching, and relentlessly hyping women in midilfe. linktr.ee/Vanessaltorre Email: vanessa@vanessatorre.com

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