In a Reddit post shared to r/AskReddit, site user u/bigbumbabehappy (good for them!) asked: "People who have had a 'friends with benefits' relationship, how did it end?" Here are some of the most-upvoted responses:
1. "We both married the next people we dated."
2. "It ended with a wedding and the birth of my daughter."
"A spouse with health benefits."
3. "Still friends, no 'benefits.'"
4. "We broke it off, then started again. Then I realised I couldn’t live without her. We’ve been married 14 years this year."
5. "She went to a party during COVID which turned out to be a swingers party. I got COVID from an adult event I didn't get to attend. Still salty."
6. "We ended up catching feelings, and now we're navigating this weird space between friends and something more... it's like a rom-com, but messier."
7. "I caught feelings. They asked me to try and stuff that way down because they needed the connection due to some personal stuff. It was a bad suggestion, but I did that. Months later they caught feelings. Tough luck, 'cause I had shoved it so far down that it was never coming back. I told them, I’m out."
"Ruined a friendship of 8+ years."
8. "We graduated, said 'That was fun,' and happily said goodbyes. Life went on and we didn’t keep in touch. Three years later he texted me to say he was vacationing with some friends in my city. Now it’s nine years later and we are watching Bluey — married with a kid."
9. "We were both rebounding off other relationships and we were not meant to be together at all. But we enjoyed each other's company and we cared about each other. We were actually friends. When we ended things, he sang me to sleep and we cuddled all night. Love and care doesn't have to be committed."
10. "It ended badly. Very badly. We had a relationship that just didn't work."
11. "It was a dumpster fire. But it taught me a lot and over time I was able to accept my part of the responsibility for it ending the way it did. Now I steer clear of these situations as I know they don’t work for me. Most people don’t get out of these 'situationships' unscathed."
12. "It ended on a non-dramatic note. Still friendly, but just sort of fading away from one another."
13. "I married him, LOL. We were FWB for about six months before we realised we were actually in love with each other and wanted to do the official thing. We got married about six years later. We've been married for five years now, I still love the guy."
14. "They’re now one of my best friends with no benefits. I’m a firm believer that relationships can evolve."
15. "He ghosted me after saying he thought he might want a real relationship with me, got back together with his baby mama, had another baby with her, married her, divorced within a year or two, and throughout all this continued to send me random messages trying to meet up for10 YEARS after."
16. "It ended horribly when I was informed that she preferred me to her boyfriend. She was cheating on him with me. I walked away and didn't look back."
17. "It ended fine. I just texted her and said 'I have a girlfriend now,' and she said 'okay, best of luck, you deserve it.'"
18. "It ended terribly because I liked her too much. But she was also a liar. I ignored a bunch of red flags. But she also knew how to play me."
19. "We ended up in a relationship after about a year of being friends with benefits. We're still together after 13 years."
20. "It just fizzled out due to distance and moving on with our lives."
21. "We are married now, so it worked out great/terribly depending on how you define success in those situations!"
"Generally, one of the goals in a FWB is for neither party to get feelings for the other. On that basis, I will label this as a 'task failed successfully.'"