Relationship Affair's

What Is an Affair?

For many couples, greater emotional connectivity coincides with the placing of limits on outside relationships and, more specifically, a commitment to sexual exclusivity. Although genital contact with others is usually off limits, some couples renegotiate this agreement if, for example, one partner becomes seriously ill.

There are also cultural variations in these patterns; some cultures, for example, tolerate, if not encourage, men to seek sexual partners outside the marital relationship as a measure of manhood.

Finally, other couples may agree to an “open” marital relationship that acknowledges and allow for affairs outside the primary relationship. Given the increased risk for contracting incurable sexually transmitted diseases (for example, genital herpes or HIV disease) in today’s world, however, there is probably less flexibility around this issue now than there was perhaps 20 years ago.

For our purposes, an affair may be defined as an emotionally or sexually intimate relationship between two people that violates the commitment to a previously established relationship, most commonly a marriage. For many couples, even for some who accept the possibility of extramarital relationships, affairs remain a significant and painful problem.

Who Has Affairs?

Traditionally, men have been perceived to be more likely to have an affair than women. And yet, women are now nearly as likely as men to have affairs.

A particularly high proportion of affairs have been linked to certain professions. Business executives, health care professionals, salespeople, pilots, truckers, and sailors seem to be particularly prone to affairs.

Does an Affair Always Lead to Divorce?

Few couples decide to divorce because of an affair. But of the fewer than 20 percent who do divorce, 80 percent report regretting the decision. In one study of men, 80 percent stated that they would remarry their first wife if they could. The few who have affairs and divorce their spouses so that they may marry one another often divorce again.