As the number of people dating in midlife and post-divorce increases, many are moving away from traditional relationship patterns. Alana Kirk speaks to committed couples who choose to live in separate homes
Lucy O’Reilly has stayed living in her own home in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, while her partner has done the same up North. Photo: Steve Humphreys
As if midlife dating wasn’t daunting enough, navigating relationships may now require a dictionary of explainers for the expanding menu of possibilities: there are friends with benefits; LAT (living apart together); being single with lovers; and blended families to navigate – a smorgasbord of options that are redefining romance and relationships in 2026.
Among them, LAT is emerging as a particularly compelling model for midlife couples, who may have been there and done that already, but still want intimacy and companionship without the domestic, financial or logistical entanglements of living under the same roof.