Married people living apart is a great idea – but I absolutely couldn’t do it | Emma Beddington

Actor Sheryl Lee Ralph has said she and her husband have been living separately, and happily, for 19 years. When my husband goes away, I get sad and eat nothing but crisps

“When I go to see him, love to see him. When it’s time to leave, bye-bye, see you soon. Life is good.” That’s actor Sheryl Lee Ralph, who plays Barbara in the lovely school sitcom Abbott Elementary, telling People magazine about her 19-year long-distance marriage to “Senator Vincent Hughes, Seventh Senatorial District of Philadelphia”, as she describes him, gloriously enunciating every syllable.

It is a sign, I think, of how our attitudes to relationships have evolved that the reaction globally has been positive. When Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton lived next door to each other, it was seen as evidence of their extreme eccentricity, and Gwyneth Paltrow made waves when she revealed in 2019 that she and her TV producer husband Brad Falchuk weren’t cohabiting full-time (though some saw the advantages. “One of my best friends was like: ‘That is my dream. Don’t ever move in,’” Paltrow said in an interview, after they had moved in together).

Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist

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Married people living apart is a great idea – but I absolutely couldn’t do it | Emma Beddington

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