Author

Dr. James Whittard, PhD

James Whittard

I hold a PhD in the social sciences, and have spent 13 years in a fully monogamous marriage, and 13 years across two open marriages. My first wife and I were open for the last 10 years of our relationship. The first few years were rocky. We needed this book to help us to identify the conversations that we should have had. Instead, through trial and error, and thousands of hours of talking, we slowly excavated from our series of experiments, all of the things we needed to think about in order to make our open relationship work.

We had independent relationships outside of our marriage, and even shared a live-in girlfriend for several months. We went to sex parties, picked people up at cubs, and had a shared profile on Tinder, all in the interest of uncovering the conversations that open couples like us would need to have.

My second wife comes from a previous open marriage as well, and she has added new dimensions and color to my investigation of the qualities of a strong open relationship. We too are open.

I have tackled the topic of open relationships as any professor would, by studying them, most keenly my own. My hope is that the stories, tools, and conversation starters in Open will help you to find the adventure and fun of an open relationship without the fear of pain, betrayal, and deceit that many face who attempt it.