DEAR NATALIE: My partner and I have been together for almost a decade. The love we have for each other is real, but our desire feels, well, optional at times. We are still affectionate. We cuddle, we function as a team, but I feel like the sex has dissipated over the last several months. My partner doesn’t see anything wrong and says we have a great life together. While I don’t disagree overall, our last child is about to move out of the house, and it’s starting to feel quiet. While I don’t want to blow up my marriage chasing some idealized version of what a passionate relationship is supposed to be, I am also too young to be in a sexless one. I take care of myself, and so does my partner. I think we both still are fairly attractive people, and so I’m not sure what the problem is. Can intimacy be rebuilt once it has faded or is fading, or is this just a story we tell ourselves to avoid the hard truths? – INTIMACY MATTERS

DEAR INTIMACY MATTERS: There appears to be a great deal of love here and a relationship worth fighting for. The fact that you still show physical affection is a positive sign that the relationship could be repaired before it is too late. While your partner may not seem as concerned about your sex life diminishing, it’s important to share the same vision for the future to continue moving forward together. Have you told your partner that a sexless marriage could be a deal-breaker? Have you clearly expressed how you feel, or do you minimize it to avoid hurting their feelings or rocking the boat? Sometimes, full transparency is necessary to prompt an honest response from the person you need to hear from. If your partner responds to that and recognizes the need for a more complete connection, take small steps. They may have reasons for avoiding intimacy that they have not shared. Stress, feeling overwhelmed or hormonal changes could be affecting their desire or how they view their body, so be willing to listen to understand and not to simply respond. Maybe the youngest child leaving the nest is hitting them harder than you realize. Be gentle with expectations and move slowly toward rebuilding intimacy. If you are both willing to work on the relationship and still nothing changes, consider seeking a sex therapist who can help you reconnect. As long as the desire to work on the marriage remains, it is worth the effort.

DEAR NATALIE: I’m definitely a monogamous person and have always been that way in my relationships. I’ve been married for seven years, and I’ve never been the kind of person to have a wandering eye. But my marriage has been challenging over the last year, with complications due to health issues my partner has experienced. I feel like it has led to a dry spell in our sex life, and whenever I bring it up, they don’t want to talk about it. Couple this with the fact that a new person at work has started paying attention to me in a way my spouse hasn’t in years. We have long conversations, and they give me little compliments that I should be getting from my partner but I’m not. Nothing physical has happened, but I fantasize about it. At home, my marriage is stable but I feel like we’re friendly roommates who share a loving history but not a present. Then I feel guilty for wanting more when nothing is technically wrong. Is this how affairs begin, or is this a warning sign that my marriage is starving for something I’ve been pretending not to need? – NEEDING MORE

DEAR NEEDING MORE: Whatever these health issues are that your partner is going through, it sounds as though they need you to be present with them right now, even if they are pushing you away. Perhaps their situation has led them to feel uninterested, undesirable or physically unable to engage in sex right now. Have you talked to them in any detail about what they are going through? You shared that you feel like “friendly roommates.” Why is that? Why has the emotional intimacy dipped along with your sexual relationship? Attraction often starts in the mind, and if your partner is feeling unseen, unheard or unloved, you can’t expect them to want to engage in sex with you. As for your crush at work — that’s what it sounds like to me: a crush. Water the plant you have at home if you want it to bloom. If you continue to neglect it, don’t be surprised if it withers on the vine.

Please send your questions to Natalie Bencivenga to

asknatalieadvice@gmail.com.

Watch her video series with Pennsylvania Capital Star, Week in Focus: www.penncapital-star.com

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DEAR NATALIE: I’m pro-therapy. Enthusiastically. I think everyone should go. I’ve recommended therapists to friends. I’ve even considered going myself. This is not an anti-therapy stance. That said: my girlfriend screenshots our text arguments and sends them directly to her therapist. Every time we disagree. Not selectively. Not the big, scary fights. All of them. Tone debates. Misunderstandings. The petty stuff that starts with “I didn’t mean it like that” and somehow escalates into a 40-message spiral. She says it helps her “process” and “gain perspective.” Which, sure. Fine. Growth. Love that for her. But now every disagreement feels like it’s being transcribed for the emotional Supreme Court. I’m no longer just arguing with my girlfriend. I’m literally pre-arguing with an unseen, licensed third party who will later review my wording like evidence. I don’t know when our relationship became a case study, but I’m suddenly hyper-aware that everything I text could end up in a therapist’s inbox, stripped of context, tone, and the fact that I was hungry when I sent it. I’ve started rereading my messages like I’m preparing for cross-examination. I don’t want to police how she uses therapy. I don’t want to tell her what she can or can’t share. But I also didn’t consent to being a recurring character in her sessions, especially one whose dialogue is pulled from screenshots taken mid-fight. So am I being unreasonable for feeling weird about this? – STOP THE SCREENSHOT

DEAR STOP THE SCREENSHOT: As a former therapist, this behavior from your girlfriend would annoy the hell out of me. What kind of therapist even has the time to read and decipher screenshots outside of your therapy sessions? Is she being compensated for this insanity? And now because of this situation, you can’t even enjoy the relationship because you are worried about how everything you said may be used as fodder for your next session together. I would literally hate this. On every level. As both you and as a therapist. She needs to cool it and I would bring this up during your next session. You aren’t comfortable with this. It’s crossing boundaries. It’s creating a sense of mistrust. Whatever you are feeling, bring that to everyone’s attention. This isn’t therapeutic, it’s just mean girl nonsense. 

DEAR NATALIE: My best friend dropped an emotional grenade and walked away. Right before my wedding, she told me she’s been in love with me for years. Years. And she chose to tell me this twenty-four hours before I was supposed to stand in front of everyone I love and promise my life to someone else. I didn’t call off the wedding. I didn’t run. I didn’t dramatically reconsider everything at dawn. I put on the outfit, said the vows, kissed my partner, and got married. I love my spouse. I chose them. I still choose them. But, now I keep replaying old memories, wondering if I missed something obvious or rewrote history to make it safer. Was there ever a moment where this could have been real? Or is this just the human brain romanticizing an impossible scenario because it arrived wrapped in high drama and terrible timing? I haven’t talked to her about it since. We act normal. We text. We see each other in group settings. It’s all fine in the way things are “fine” when everyone is politely pretending nothing irreversible happened. I don’t want to hurt my marriage. I don’t want to disrespect my partner or introduce doubt where there doesn’t need to be any. But, this all feels too big to hold and never share. So do I bring it up again and risk reopening something that could unravel everything? Or do I let this secret die, swallow the what-ifs, and protect the life I chose? – BEST WORST FRIEND

DEAR BEST WORST FRIEND: I don’t like this at all for you. Why did she wait until the very last minute to share something that is so life-altering? It was selfish and disrespectful. Selfish in that this was all about her feelings and her need to center herself in what should be your moment. Disrespectful not just to you, but to your relationship with her and the relationship you have with your partner. I would take a big step back from her. This isn’t about what she said but when she said it. She has now planted seeds of doubt in your mind about your marriage when there didn’t need to be. What kind of friendship can you have at this point, anyway? Put some distance between you and her for a while until things cool down. And ask yourself this: If the tables were turned, would you have done that to her? And if not, why? It’s 2026. We aren’t pouring into people anymore that only care about themselves. 

Please send your questions to Natalie Bencivenga to

asknatalieadvice@gmail.com.

Watch her NEW video series with Pennsylvania Capital Star, Week in Focus: www.penncapital-star.com

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DEAR NATALIE: My fiancé’s ex-wife still has a key to his house and uses it whenever she feels like it. I recently moved in with my fiancé, and last week his ex-wife let herself in while I was home alone because she “needed a file.” He says it’s not a big deal because they co-parent peacefully, but I feel like a guest in my own home. We have plans to get married this fall, and I am worried she will still expect this level of freedom once I am his wife. Is this harmless co-parenting, or a red flag the size of a divorce decree? —NO KEYS, PLEASE

DEAR NO KEYS, PLEASE: You need to put your foot down on this issue immediately. This is not her house anymore, and there have to be boundaries set. It’s nice that they get along well, and I can understand his desire to keep the peace, but he also needs to recognize that the relationship has to shift in order to move forward. He needs to ask her for his key back. If she asks why, he can simply say that since he’s getting married, it’s a bit weird and awkward for you. There is truly no reason for her to have a key at this point, anyway, so he might as well just do it now. Happy wife, happy life, right? Hopefully he’s figured that out this second time around.

DEAR NATALIE: My partner of 11 years and I are currently in a good place. We went through a rough patch over the summer, and I became pretty close to his best friend during our separation. Nothing happened, but we talked constantly—and still do. We have chemistry that feels impossible to ignore at this point. What do I do with feelings that threaten to blow up everything, especially now that I’m back in a good place with my partner?�—CONFUSED BY LOVE

DEAR CONFUSED BY LOVE: Are you in a good place or do you think you were in a good place in the absence of fighting? Is this just the lull between battles with yourself or with him? While you might be going through this existential crisis, your partner’s friend might just be thinking this is all in good fun. Don’t assume he’s on the same level of emotional connection. Talk to him about how you feel. If he doesn’t have these feelings, then you need to cool it. If he does have these feelings, then you both need to decide whether you want to blow up a relationship of more than a decade and whether he wants to ruin a friendship. Either way, this probably isn’t about his friend but about you wanting to escape your reality in some aspect. Ask yourself what is missing in your relationships. If you can work on repairing it, then do that. Otherwise, it isn’t fair to keep your partner on the line.

Please send your questions to Natalie Bencivenga to

asknatalieadvice@gmail.com.

Watch her NEW video series with Pennsylvania Capital Star, Week in Focus: www.penncapital-star.com

Follow Natalie on Instagram and TikTok @NatalieBencivenga

Subscribe to her newsletter on Substack: Facts Over Fear