FWB to a relationship. Is it possible?

[YellowPetal]

Started from sex. Amazing. Best we ever had (we are in our 40s). Great fun and connection outside. I am interested if anyone had a successful relationship developing from it, and what were the main pitfalls? Is it possible at all?

Geverally speaking- Don't go there. And if you're remotely considering going there, it's probably time to end the fwb too.

That being said, why not just ask him? If its such an amazing connection then you should just be able to go 'hey, out of interest, what you you think about us becoming an item? Do you like the idea of that?'. If they umm and aww and look sheepish then you go 'that's a no then, fair enough, let's just keep it as just fun and friendship then'. Provided you havent fallen for him or something. But either way at least you have an answer.

Over on the dating thread a few people in the past went from FWB to full relationship.

I am one of those people, I had a crap marriage and vowed to be single forever so just had some FB/FWB.
The guy I'm with now was similar, I think it wasmore about protecting ourselves from further hurt which was why we didnt want a relationship.

We've been seeing each other 2 years and had the chat just over a year ago although we acted like a couple before that but neither of us spoke up.
We don't plan to ever live together or merge lives, my kids are adults and know about him and like him, his son is younger and thinks I am just a friend.

The only pitfall is that he is emotionally unavailable and in reading up on that I realise I am too although we've both been cheated on so its understandable we would both be unwilling to be vulnerable.

Another pitfall might be views on relationships/cheating but you get that whatever your starting point.

It is possible, but only if you both definitely want that. If it's just one person that does (and it nearly always is in my experience), then the risk is that the other person just takes advantage (either blindly or intentionally), leading to the person with feelings getting even more hurt.

I'm now in a proper relationship that started out as FWB, although I caught feelings very quickly, but it took my partner much longer. In fact, we actually broke up the FWB and didn't see each other at all for several months. That was me trying to get over it, but the break ended up making bringing us back together for a committed relationship.

Also had another FWB that started out when a friend threw themselves at me (offering FWB). I didn't really fancy them but the sex was good so it worked for a while. But it became obvious that they had always wanted more and the FWB offer was an attempt to forge a relationship. I was very clear from the stat, but they'd convinced themselves that I was just not yet ready for a relationship (not over my ex), which I'd repeatedly pointed out wasn't the case. I just wasn't attracted to them in that way.

I've been in a relationship with my last FWB for over two and a half years now. I don't think there are any pitfalls - you already know the sex is great ....

I tried it, I caught the feels, he didn't as he was never interested in a 'real' relationship (which I knew, but I assumed as I liked him he would begin to like me as we were great friends and then lovers)

Thank you all for your views, great to hear them

@altmember - similar situation where he caught feelings v early on, mine developed slowly. due to the circumstances / hurt I caused him unintentionally, he slowed down just when i was ready to speed up! Glad to hear it worked for you. I am hopeful we will get aligned again - we both said we wanted a relationship and will not date others.

@SortingItOut that makes so much sense re emotional unavailability when someone got hurt before. I didn’t quite appreciate that if only one party is cautious it might not be necessarily obvious to the other person