Has anyone continued living with an ex-partner after separating?

[OneCheeryLimeExpert]

I’m a sociologist at UWE Bristol researching experiences of continuing to live with an ex-partner after separation. I realise this is more common than people often talk about, especially with housing costs where they are. I’d really value hearing from anyone currently navigating this.

We're not separated but I'm forced to stay in a marriage due to cost of living. If we were to separate (i.e. if I was to be honest about not wanting to stay married to him) he'd force me to sell up and I wouldn't have enough to live on with my salary.

Yes, I did this when I was younger. He stayed in my flat for about a year after I ended the relationship.

My wife and I decided to split up but try and continue to live together until our youngest child moved to high school. This was for financial and practical reasons - high house prices and the high school is in a neighbouring town, so a move at this point made more sense.

It was an amicable split and we were open with the kids, but it proved too hard to carry on and decided to sell the house. We managed almost two years in the same house but it did get a bit awkward towards the end. I'm glad we did it, I think it helped support one another as a family.

I don't think I could do this. But growing up 70s/80s I had a friend who had a lovely mum. Her parents were split up but he lived in the box room and you hardly saw him. I could never get my head round it. Then my stepdad after being with my mum for 18 years returned to his ex-wife to live in the spare room and support their family when their daughter died. Which really peed me off because he could have just kept the fuck away from us in the first place but hey ho.
I couldn't do it though hard enough enduring a relationship in the same house before the split.