I took the fear of marriage from my parents' relationship because I didn't want to end up in a relationship like that whereas my brothers and sisters learnt a lesson from it and made sure they didn't carry it on into their own marriages.
A lot of people seem to want to make the institution of marriage substitute for a real relationship.
It's only fair that stable gay relationships of long standing should have the same rights and responsibilities as married couples. I know the image of gay marriage is to some people horrific and ludicrous.
I think long-lasting healthy relationships are more important than the idea of marriage. At the root of every successful marriage is a strong partnership.
I've exchanged messages and photos of an explicit nature with about six women over the last three years. For the most part these communications took place before my marriage though some have sadly took place after. To be clear I have never met any of these women or had physical relationships at any time.
I honestly believe you can never tell if a relationship is going to last. In my own marriage which is going on 14 years I don't think of it as 'I'm going to be with this person forever.' Instead I think of more like 'I'll probably be with this person for the next six weeks. Then I'll re-evaluate.'
My relationship with Dean was great but ultimately it wasn't a fulfilling marriage for either of us.
Every society in the history of man has upheld the institution of marriage as a bond between a man and a woman. Why? Because society is based on one thing: that society is based on the future of the society. And that's what? Children. Monogamous relationships.
I believe I went through a divorce. My relationship with Ellen is no less significant as a marriage than my relationship to Coley.
My parents had a great marriage. Interestingly it made it harder for me in relationships because I knew what a good relationship looked like.
If someone talks about union fidelity a monogamous relationship love blessing I would say it sounds like marriage to me. And blessing you see I think is undermining our sacrament of marriage.
Since 1970 relationships can be more volatile jobs more ephemeral geographical mobility more intensified stability of marriage weaker.
Success is hard in general for most women. We now have such busy lives and we're told we can do everything - you know we can have the relationship and the marriage and the kids and the career.
I don't know what my version of a relationship or marriage is yet because the typical model seems a little broken to me.
But I will agree that I think that things happen with people in relationships that you might have been able to enjoy Morocco say if you weren't getting out of a bad marriage. You know what I mean?
In marriage compromise nurtures the relationship.
In December 1998 I considered myself an expert on love. I was almost a year into a relationship one that had grown more slowly than I had wished but once it flowered it was much more stimulating than any marriage or relationship I had known.
I've had two terrific relationships but both ended in marriage.
Now I'm a wife and a mother of two. It's a really different role. I always referred to No Doubt as a marriage because that's what it's like to be together for so long and go through what we've been through. I can't really have that relationship with them anymore.
Marriage is a very sacred institution and should not be degraded by allowing every other type of relationship to be made equivalent to it.
There was a time in the marriage when I could no longer look at myself in a mirror couldn't feel I was a nice person. A bad relationship can do that can make you doubt everything good you ever felt about yourself.
Unfenced by law the unmarried lover can quit a bad relationship at any time. But you - the legally married person who wants to escape doomed love - may soon discover that a significant portion of your marriage contract belongs to the State and that it sometimes takes a very long while for the State to grant you your leave.
I never had a policy about marriage. I got married very young in life and I always think in all relationships I've always thought that it's counterproductive to have a theory on that.
The mark of a good marriage is partnership and continuing to feel inspired by your spouse. I had that with Tao. But the end is not necessarily the tragedy. Staying in a relationship that is no longer working is the tragedy. Living unhappily - that's the tragedy.
Strangers are exciting their mystery never ends. But there's nothing like looking at your own history in the faces of your friends.