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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Partner wants me to sleep with other men…

375 replies

AnOddOne · 22/01/2026 18:40

I’ve nc for this.

Has anyone else had experience of this? I’ve expressed no interest in sleeping around and I’m perfectly happy with my partner. We’ve been together for nearly twenty years (I’m mid-fifties, he’s early 60s) and have a regular, fun and interesting sex life. He has ED which we’ve worked through together (with the help of Viagra) so that isn’t an issue and at no point have I said it is one. I’m post-menopause and while I’m confident in my skin and still enjoy sex I really have no urge to get involved with anyone new.

Increasingly regularly, he’s suggested I can sleep with other men ‘if I want’. He says he gets off on the idea. A threesome would make more sense to me (although it isn’t something we’ve done) but I just don’t understand why he’d want me to go off and do that. However hard I try to think about it rationally I can’t come up with anything because it isn’t rational. Like a lot of women, I couldn’t shag someone without becoming close to them.

Does anyone have any insight into why he’s suggesting this? I’ve asked if it’s because he wants to do the same but he says he has no interest in that and he just wants me to ‘enjoy myself’. But I do, with him! Everything else about our relationship is lovely, more so I suspect because we don’t live together and only see each other a couple of days a week.

When he makes these suggestions it makes me feel as though he thinks our most intimate times are unimportant. When I’ve put this to him he says I’m being silly and it doesn’t mean that at all.

Any insights? I really don’t want to ‘LTB’ because everything else about our relationship is great.

OP posts:
AnOddOne · 22/01/2026 20:35

@ChicJoker this kink is almost always linked to humiliation in some capacity

We do ‘play games’ along these lines sometimes so I could almost see it as an extension of that. I don’t know though. I feel there’s more to it now.

OP posts:
AleynEivlys · 22/01/2026 20:36

Yup. I finally left after six years of him ignoring the fact I wasn't into the idea and insisting that I was. In the end, I couldn't even go out with my family without receiving some disgusting text from him - e.g. 'Feel free to suck any big cocks you can find while you're out, as long as you film it for me' and so on.

He was highly abusive in every way except outright physical and the most manipulative person I've ever met.

After I dumped him, he stalked me for almost a year.

ChocolateCinderToffee · 22/01/2026 20:37

This happened to a friend of mine. She kicked the guy out.

Lillygolightly · 22/01/2026 20:37

Porn has a lot to answer for here I think.

In my opinion some men get so used to receiving and experiencing arousal and sexual gratification from watching porn and therefore watching another man have sex with a woman. This voyeuristic aspect of porn can reprogram some men into wanting to bring this fantasy to life in their own relationships, essentially wanting to desire you through another man’s eyes, experiencing you through another man’s experience of you.

Maybe this is the case for your partner, or maybe not. What I can tell you is that this is absolutely not about you having your freedom, or about your gratification or pleasure….thats just the carrot he dangles that he thinks justifies him asking and encouraging you to play out this fantasy in real life for him….for HIS pleasure, you possibly having a good time and enjoying this hypothetical experience is just a by product, a means to an end in him seeking his own gratification. THAT right there is what makes this creepy, that’s what’s giving you the ick!!

Disturbia81 · 22/01/2026 20:39

The only men I’ve fantasised about with other women are men I’m not really into. If I truly lust and love someone then no way do I want to share them. If a man suggested this to me I’d assume he wasn’t that bothered about me.

FigAndOlive · 22/01/2026 20:40

A bit surprised about most of the replies. If he’s an absolutely lovely husband in all other areas it could well be just a kink? I suppose the heart wants what the heart wants. If you’re not comfortable and interested just say no, but I guess there was no harm on him to ask!

AnOddOne · 22/01/2026 20:41

that’s what’s giving you the ick!!

Absolutely right. My ‘curtains’ are closed for the foreseeable.

OP posts:
shhblackbag · 22/01/2026 20:42

FigAndOlive · 22/01/2026 20:40

A bit surprised about most of the replies. If he’s an absolutely lovely husband in all other areas it could well be just a kink? I suppose the heart wants what the heart wants. If you’re not comfortable and interested just say no, but I guess there was no harm on him to ask!

It's not his heart that wants it, though, is it? And seems like she has said no. He's not listening.

AnOddOne · 22/01/2026 20:43

I guess there was no harm on him to ask!

Once maybe to test the water but then he’d have been wise to drop the subject rather than bring it up on several more occasions.

OP posts:
Jellybunny56 · 22/01/2026 20:43

One of my friend’s had an ex who had the same kink (not sure if kink is really the right word to describe it but can’t think of a better word so happy to be corrected), he suggested it initially as just he would like her to sleep with another man then come home and tell him about it, she did do that and they both enjoyed that aspect. It then moved onto he wanted them to go to a bar together, her seduce another man, flirt, kiss, go home with this man and again tell him about it the next day. He was aroused by the sight of another man wanting what is “his”, having what is “his”, not for me personally but everyone has there thing I suppose! It worked for them, they eventually progresses to swinging as a couple.

shhblackbag · 22/01/2026 20:44

This is absolutely not about you having your freedom, or about your gratification or pleasure….thats just the carrot he dangles that he thinks justifies him asking and encouraging you to play out this fantasy in real life for him….for HIS pleasure, you possibly having a good time and enjoying this hypothetical experience is just a by product, a means to an end in him seeking his own gratification

👏

ShawnaMacallister · 22/01/2026 20:45

mathanxiety · 22/01/2026 20:34

This is an enormous red flag.

Look up the case of Dominique Pelicot in France and hopefully you'll see the slippery slope your husband has stepped onto, probably via pornography, which probably caused his ED too.

Do not do this.

Oh fuck this. It's a harmless fetish if both partners are involved, it is not a 'slippery slope' to mass rape. Please don't be so bloody ridiculous.

ChicJoker · 22/01/2026 20:45

AnOddOne · 22/01/2026 20:35

@ChicJoker this kink is almost always linked to humiliation in some capacity

We do ‘play games’ along these lines sometimes so I could almost see it as an extension of that. I don’t know though. I feel there’s more to it now.

Yeah I’d honestly put money on it that it’s that. You could try and test the waters by giving him little insults and see his reaction? I fear you’ve just scratched the surface with this.

usually they’ll secretly have this kink for years because telling their wife would be a bold and risky thing to do (naturally your reaction is wtf) that usually means they’ll have been satisfying the kink with either porn or online sex chat.

im not trying to worry you OP but just be wary about this, keep an eye on it

DrinkFeckArseBrick · 22/01/2026 20:50

This is a fairly common kink. There are whole sub sections of swingers sites dedicated to it. It doesn't usually mean he is cheating/ wants to cheat / is gay. And not being involved isn't that unusual either, lots of men like to hear about it and enjoy being 'second' and find it makes sex with their partner more interesting.

Why he has just suggested it after a long time together no one can know but him

However the first time you said no should have been the last time it was mentioned (unless he just likes talking about it with you as a fantasy and you're OK with that)

TheTipsySquid · 22/01/2026 20:55

Some men who have erectile / and or orgasm issues feel defective and therefore feel their partners will be more satisfied having sex with other men

For others, it is a way of increasing their own sexual pleasure

AnOddOne · 22/01/2026 20:55

Why he has just suggested it after a long time together no one can know but him

This I don’t understand. I kind of feel like it’s been his ‘thing’ for a lot longer than I’ve been aware of and now he’s decided to include me. I’m very open-minded and love trying new things usually so it’s weird of him to hide this, if that’s what he’s been doing. It’s the ‘on my own’ aspect that’s disturbed me the most. Incidentally, what’s he planning on doing while I’m shagging someone else?

OP posts:
Cleo65 · 22/01/2026 20:59

This is why I live on my own with a cat.
Yuck....

TY78910 · 22/01/2026 20:59

I have noticed how a lot of posters that referenced him wanting to be with men means he’s gay. He could be bi / bicurious - a lot of men are, which is how they can hold down conventional relationships.

Imdunfer · 22/01/2026 21:01

AnOddOne · 22/01/2026 19:04

Run fast and far. He wants to do things sexually using your body as his proxy body. He'll be bugging you about it, then about telling him all the details and he won't take no for an answer.

I’d like to be clear that this won’t be happening. I’m my own mistress and will not be pushed into anything. At my age ffs! I just need insights into why he’s started this grim behaviour as I know for sure it’s not for my benefit.

You might not like this one. I know he's young for it, but disinhibition is an early sign of dementia, and this is so out of character for him that I would be looking hard at his cognition.

AnOddOne · 22/01/2026 21:05

@Cleo65 This is why I live on my own with a cat.
Yuck.

So do I most of the time. It’s how I stay sane.

OP posts:
zanahoria · 22/01/2026 21:05

tell him your fantasy is for him to STFU about it

questioning123 · 22/01/2026 21:07

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines.

Slowdownyouredoingfine · 22/01/2026 21:07

It’s actually a pretty common fantasy, but it wouldn’t be for me and if it’s not to you he needs to accept that and stop pestering.

AnOddOne · 22/01/2026 21:07

@zanahoria tell him your fantasy is for him to STFU about it

Sound advice.

OP posts:
pipthomson · 22/01/2026 21:07

Maybe he is compensating for his ‘perceived inadequacy’ by suggesting alternative solutions to ensure that you are not unsatisfied he may not be perverted as pp ‘s have suggested
l