Monogamy isn’t for everyone, and these celebrities in open relationships show that for some couples, non-monogamous relationships work better. Here are 13 celebrities who have been in open relationships—Or are still in them.
1. Bella Thorne
While the trio is no longer together, Bella Thorne was publicly in a throuple with rapper Mod Sun and influencer Tana Mongeau from 2017 to 2019. She alluded to the relationship in an interview with Cosmopolitan US in 2019.
“I love loving two people at once.”
2. Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton and Carl Dean have one of the most successful relationships in showbiz, having been together for 57 years and married for 55. In an interview with Life & Style, Parton discussed their “don’t ask, don’t tell” relationship with her husband.
If one of them cheats, “I don’t want to know it… If I’m cheating on him he wouldn’t want to know it.”
3. Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith
In 2003, rumors sparked that Jada and Will had an open marriage.
She stated in an interview: “I’ve always told Will, ‘You can do whatever you want as long as you can look at yourself in the mirror and be okay.’
Will also confirmed in an interview with GQ in September 2021 that he and Jada are in an open marriage, admitting they decided against monogamy because they were “both miserable and clearly something had to change.”
“There were significant endless discussions about, what is relational perfection? What is the perfect way to interact as a couple?” he said. “And for the large part of our relationship, monogamy was what we chose, not thinking of monogamy as the only relational perfection.”
“We have given each other trust and freedom, with the belief that everybody has to find their own way. And marriage for us can’t be a prison.”
“I don’t suggest our road for anybody. I don’t suggest this road for anybody,” he noted. “But the experiences that the freedoms that we’ve given one another and the unconditional support, to me, is the highest definition of love.
4. Nico Tortorella & Bethany C. Meyers
Younger actor Nico Tortorella told Cosmopolitan in a 2016 interview that they were in a “queer polygamous” relationship with spouse Bethany C. Meyers.
“Cheating is bad, right,” said Tortorella. “But I think that an open relationship or a polyamorous relationship or an understanding of sorts is acceptable in this day and age… And I’ve been in those relationships and sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. But cheating inherently is a terrible thing. If you’re going behind the other person’s back and if there’s any type of malice, you’re a bad person, end of story.
5. Willow Smith
Back in April 2021, Willow Smith opened up about her approach to relationships during an episode of Red Table Talk. The Wait a Minute singer revealed she’s polyamorous, telling her mother, Jada Pinkett Smith, and maternal grandmother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, “With polyamory, I feel like the main foundation is the freedom to be able to create a relationship style that works for you and not just stepping into monogamy because that’s what everyone around you says is the right thing to do,” per Insider.
“So I was like, ‘How can I structure the way that I approach relationships with that in mind?’ Also, doing research into polyamory, the main reason why divorces happen is infidelity.” Although some, like Willow’s own grandmother, admittedly assume that the appeal of a polyamorous relationship (in which a person engages in multiple romantic relationships with each partner’s consent) is sex, Willow explained in her “friend group, I’m the only polyamorous person, and I have the least sex out of all my friends.”
6. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
Although they divorced in 2016, Jolie and Pitt spent 13 happy years together and, according to a report from New York Daily News, a lot of it had to do with a mutual understanding of freedom. “I doubt that fidelity is absolutely essential for a relationship,” Jolie reportedly told German magazine Das Neue. “It’s worse to leave your partner and talk badly about him afterwards. Neither Brad nor I have ever claimed that living together means to be chained together. We make sure that we never restrict each other.”
7. Yungblud
In 2020, musician Yungblud opened up about his sexuality in an interview with Attitude and discussed how his ex Halsey, who is openly bisexual, helped him explore his sexual identity.
“I probably would say now, I am polyamorous. Before I didn’t f***ing know what I was.”
8. Ezra Miller
The actor opened up to Playboy in 2018 about the importance of finding ‘queer beings who understand me as a queer being off the bat” and integrating them into their polycule (an interconnected network of people in non-monogamous relationships with one another).
“Then they are in the squad—the polycule. And I know they’re going to love everyone else in the polycule because we’re in the polycule, and we love each other so much.”
9. Tilda Swinton
AT one point Tilda, 60, lived in Scotland with her twins and their father, playwright John Byrne, 81.
But the family was also joined by her lover, Sandro Kopp, an artist nearly 20 years her junior.
“There are some myths,” she told the Daily Mail of living with two men. “The reality is so much more boring, fun and good, but so much more boring. People like to believe all sorts of magical ideas.” She added: “It’s not something I try to promote as a radical lifestyle choice. But it’s a situation I find very healthy. I can maintain my life with my children and their father and spend time with the man I’ve become very fond of. I am very fortunate there has been a lot of understanding by the men.”
10. T-Pain and Amber Najm
The rapper and his wife, Amber Najm, have been married since 2003 and have revealed their marriage is open in a way that’s a little different than others: basically, other girls are welcome in their bed. “Me and my wife just sleep with other girls together. It’s not like we can just go off and have relationships with other people,” he said in an interview. “People were assuming we got married for nothing.” He continued: “It’s that mind frame that has us together… It’s not just the smashing of the women. Before any of y’all heard of me, I was married.”
11. Shailene Woodley
Actor Shailene Woodley explained that she has been in both monogamous and non-monogamous partnerships in her life while speaking to The New York Times in 2020.
“Listen, I’m someone who has experienced both an open relationship and a deeply monogamous relationship in my life, and I think we’re in a day and age where there should be no rules except for the ones designed by two people in a partnership—or three people, whatever floats your boat!” she said.
“But there has to be a level of responsibility in any relationship dynamic, and that responsibility is simply honesty and communication and trust,” she added. “Apart from that, it’s really none of our business what people choose to do with their lives.”
12. Leilani
In 2018, musician Kehlani wrote on Twitter that they were a “lil poly pansexual” though fans were left unclear if they were identifying as polyamorous or polysexual.
Later, in 2020, they appeared on The Breakfast Club and revealed that they had been in an open relationship with ex-flame YG when asked about alleged pictures of him “cheating” by kissing a woman outside of a club.
“That wasn’t a rule-breaking situation…”I’m lowkey saying sh*t can go down, as long as everything is communicated because everyone’s adults.”
Kehlani also said that no one open relationship looks like another, and couples have to decide if dating, kissing, having sex with, or having another relationship with someone else is acceptable or not. “I think it’s whatever boundaries that you guys set with each other.”
13. Frankie Grande
While they split amicably in 2019, the influencer and former Celebrity Big Brother contestant spoke to Access Live in 2018 about his relationship with a married gay couple.
“I was very open to the possibilities of what love looks like, or what love could be, and it just happened.”
