A labour of love – and then third time lucky (so we’re told!)

There’s a theory doing the rounds online and it seems to have struck a chord with sceptics and hopeless romantics alike.

The Three Love Theory is centred around the idea that over the course of our lifetime, we will fall head-over-heels in love three times.

As we progress through each love, we grow, evolve and inevitably get our hearts broken. That is until we land on our third love, who some might consider “the one”.

According to the theory, each love will feel completely different because it signifies a different stage of life. Here, we break down the three types of love and what they mean.

FIRST LOVE

The first love is intense. It’s an allconsuming puppy love that we think will last forever. This relationship is likely to develop in high school or early adulthood and while it might feel like true love, we usually haven’t hit maturity yet. As far as break-ups go, this one hurts but, fortunately, hearts mend.

SECOND LOVE

A rollercoaster filled with dizzying highs and devastating lows. By the time we meet our second love, we’re a bit more worldly.

We’ve been through some stuff (see: No.1) but we’re still ready to fall head over heels.

In this relationship, we spy a few red flags right at the start but choose to ignore them because we’re having too much fun.

This relationship turns our world upside down; we could even see it as a forever love.

However, over time, those red flags we ignored turn into big arguments. This break-up can rock you to your core. But it’s a learning experience: now we know what we do and don’t want in a relationship.

THIRD LOVE

The unconditional love.this one usually happens when we least expect it – probably because we’re a bit jaded from our first and second loves.

By this point, we know what we will and won’t put up with. We realise that no one is perfect but are happy to find someone that brings out the best in us and vice versa – or that’s the idea, anyway!