‘WE GOT STUCK IN A SEXLESS RUT – NOW WE’RE DOING IT NIGHTLY!’
Charlotte Brooke, 32, is an events manager and lives in Thanet, Kent, with her boyfriend George, 37, a care manager, and her six-year-old son Jacob-clarke.
I was a single mum when we went into lockdown in March 2020. My previous relationship had ended four years earlier, and my love life became non-existent once dating was off the cards.
In the summer of 2020, I got chatting to George at a local beach and we hit it off. I liked his sense of humour and we saw each other again the following week.
At first we met outdoors, going to the park and the beach. Then, as restrictions were relaxed, we met inside and first slept together that August.
I was really attracted to him and the sex was great. We carried on dating and sleeping together regularly.
Waning intimacy
Everything was going well until the third lockdown hit in January 2021. We both had family support bubbles, so unless we moved in with each other, we couldn’t see each other indoors at all.
We decided to do lockdown together, splitting our time between one another’s homes, my son staying with us.
In some ways, our relationship flourished. We got to know one another really well and I was sure I’d found ‘the one’. But at the same time, after a few weeks of sitting around in joggers, the intimacy between us waned.
Living together 24/7, stuck at home and unable to go on romantic dates, with the responsibility of caring for my son, all led to the honeymoon period ending abruptly.
Eleven months into our relationship, I felt like we were an old married couple.
We both lost interest in sex as the weeks passed, instead watching TV
in the evenings and then just going to sleep. We didn’t argue about it, but we got stuck in a sexless rut.
Thankfully, however, as life returned to normal and we were able to go out again, things started to improve naturally.
I’ve made a conscious effort to embrace my sexy side, investing in nice lingerie, getting my nails done and glamming up both for work and when I’m at home.
George finds it a real turn-on when
I get dressed up and
I love having that effect on him.
He’s making more of an effort, too, and I find him really sexy. He takes real pride in his appearance to go on nights out together – I really like that in a man.
Catching up
All this means we’re having a lot more sex – we can’t keep our hands off each other and we now do it every night.
Meeting in lockdown meant we hit fast-forward and missed the sexy, early stage of our relationship, but we’re definitely making up for lost time.
‘I’ve made a conscious effort to embrace my sexy side’
Caroline Parsons, 62, is a teaching assistant and lives in Cardiff with her partner Dean Jones, 64, a retired police officer.
After tying the apron of my saucy French maid’s costume, I applied some lippy and felt a thrill of anticipation. Downstairs, my partner Dean was waiting for me and I was excited to see his reaction.
Dean and I met in 2016 through a bereavement support service, after we were both widowed. Before COVID-19 hit, sex was an important and frequent part of our relationship. We did it daily, often more than once – we couldn’t keep our hands off one another.
In March 2020, we caught COVID-19. Dean had a fever and a cough, and we were both left exhausted. Needless to say, our sex life stalled, as we were feeling wiped out. Several months passed without us sleeping together.
In July 2020, we talked about how our sex life had been hit hard by COVID-19. We both missed it and we agreed we didn’t want to be an older couple who slipped into a happy but non-sexual relationship.
In the past, we’d tried dressing up in sexy clothes, and Dean had loved it, so we agreed to give that another go.
I ordered a £7.99 French maid’s outfit online, and the first night I put it on, Dean was thrilled. The sex was out of this world, just like the PRE-COVID-19 days, if not better.
I named myself Angelique Crumpete and we began to role play, with me the sexy maid who comes to clean the house in skimpy outfits and Dean the excited homeowner. It worked a treat and immediately our sex life was revived
– we felt young and sexy again.
Now, we’re back to having sex several times a day. Sometimes I dress up,
sometimes I don’t – we like to keep it varied.
We do it all over the house, on the stairs and in the kitchen. Doing it outside the bedroom makes us feel naughty.
Never too late
We’re very open about our active sex life, though my grown-up daughter has made it clear she doesn’t want to know! My friends also get embarrassed if I bring it up. Most of them have been married a long time and don’t have the same sex life as Dean and me.
My advice to older couples who think their best sex is behind them is, it’s not! It’s never too late to spice things up between the sheets. Just because we’re in our 60s, why should we not enjoy our lives and our bodies? Talk openly about what you want and have fun with it. You won’t regret it.
‘My skimpy French maid’s outfit worked a treat’