A Russian man in a polyamorous relationship punishes his three ‘wives’ for annoying him, by banning sex for a month.
34-year-old Ivan Sukhov has a legal wife, Natalia, as well as two other partners by mutual consent – but he dreams of heading up a big family achieved by having even more women on his arm, as well as at least 50 children.
This guy must really think a lot of himself to aim to have more than three wives – not to mention the fact he’s confident enough to use lack of sex as a weapon against his wives’ annoying habits.
Sukhov, who lives in the city of Vladimir in Russia’s western Vladimir Oblast region, can only have one official wife by Russian law, but the couple have agreed to have the two extra women become a part of their relationship.
Sukhov lived with his legal wife Natalia Sukhova, for 11 years before becoming a polygamist.
Imagine how their conversation might have gone down; ‘sorry love, one’s not enough for me any more – I need at least two more women to keep me satisfied’.
His wife, who works as a nurse in a local hospital, explained how she wasn’t on board with polygamy at first:
I was against the idea at first. I could not imagine such a situation, but then I changed my mind because he really wanted to have a large family.
Sukhov is now a father to nine children, with his tenth on the way. Six of his kids belong to Natalia, while the other three – soon to be four – are mothered by his second partner, Anna.
More recently his third ‘wife’ Madina joined the family, even though she had to go against both her parents and her religion in order to be with him.
Madina is a Muslim while Sukhov is Russian Orthodox, and she explained:
I saw [Sukhov] on TV and fell in love with him. I decided to be with him no matter what [my parents] said.
The family all live together in a three-bedroom flat, but the ambitious father is considering moving to a big house in the suburbs – which will probably be necessary if he reaches his goal of having 50 little ones running about the house.
Every evening, Sukhov invites one of his partners to spend the night with him, usually in a row. But if they do something which annoys him, he withholds sex and doesn’t invite his wives to his bedroom.
Sukhov explained:
If one of my wives does something wrong, I will not invite her to bed for a month.
Despite their unusual living arrangements, the family reportedly all live in harmony.
All of the adults work, providing the large family with a good standard of living and ensuring their many children have a good, if strange, start to life.
Whatever works for you, I suppose!
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.