Do you invest in your relationship?
A best-selling author has caused controvsery by suggesting that all relationships are a 'form of prostitution'.
Helen Croydon, who is also a journalist and a leading relationships commentator says that behind every long-term relationship there is a non-spoken deal made with money which 'needs to be satisfied' for a sexual partnership to work.
She expressed her outspoke views in a column for The Erotic Review and interview with YouTube channel Joy TV about her critically-acclaimed book, Sugar Daddy Diaries: When a fantasy became an obession.
She says: "All relationships are an arrangement. There is no line between relationships and prostitution - ther are all on a sliding scale.
"We all have - subconsciously or consciously - a goal in mind for a relationship. We give up a lot for a relationship in terms of tiime and freedoms and we wouldn't do that unless it didn't benefit us in some way."
Her views have enraged some people who wonder how she can claim such a thing.
Married Helen Baxter, from London says: "Like a lot of women, I am married with children. This doesn't mean I'm out for what I can get from my husband, or vice versa - it's about love, plain and simple."
It's not the first time Croydon has managed to make headlines either, stepping into the limelight when her book was serialised, Sugar Daddy Diaries is a confessional memoir about her year-long stroll around the world of cash-allowance based relationships.
She explains that the men she dated were emotionally unavailable, but they considered giving her material items instead of emotional.
Croydon told the interviewer for YouTube channel Joy TV: "In the sugar daddy type relationships that I had, the man is saying 'I don't have the time or emotional ability to invest in you but I still like you, and I still want to keep continuity with you, so to compsensate for what I can't give you emotionally, I will give in material rewards'."
Croydon claims that a relationship is far less likely to fail if partners identify the key benefits from the outset.
Another person who agrees with what the author has to say is young professional Jenny Williams, she says: "It's about time someone had the nerve to say what most men and wome are secretly thinking. Love is a fluffy term meant to hid the truth that we are, at heart, selfish. That's no bad thing - it's human nature."
What do you think - can you consider you relationship a form of prostitution? Let us know by commenting below.
Femalefirst Taryn Davies
tagged in Love Life