A house for sale in Pasadena, California. Picture: AFP / Frederic J. Brown
A popular US television show that follows potential home buyers as they search for their dream property has created a buzz for featuring a “throuple” in one of its latest episodes.
The episode that aired Wednesday night on HGTV show House Hunters followed Brian, Lori and Geli on their quest for a home big enough for the trio, including a master bedroom with three sinks.
The house in the western US state of Colorado also had to accommodate Brian and Lori’s two kids aged 10 and 12.
The show, titled “Three’s Not a Crowd in Colorado Springs”, marked the first time the long-running series has featured a throuple — or three people in a polyamorous relationship.
The show explained that Brian and Lori were married and immediately fell in love with Geli after meeting her at a bar.
Picture: HGTV
The trio sealed their relationship in a commitment ceremony in Aruba before moving to Colorado for a fresh start.
“The past four years, I’ve been living in Lori and Brian’s house, so buying a house together, as a throuple, will signify, like, our next big step as a family of five rather than all four of them plus me,” Geli said
The show created a buzz on social media with many giving it a thumbs up.
“I was legit about to change the channel until I heard throuple,” Twitter user Melanie Hawkins posted. “You have my FULL attention now lol #HouseHunters.”
Bad Feminist author Roxane Gay also gushed over the episode in a series of tweets.
“Oh my god. A throuple on House Hunters,” she wrote, adding, “Great episode!!! Educational.”
Picture: HGTV
Another woman joked on Twitter: “My husband has suddenly taken an interest in this show.”
“The normalization of polyamory rolls down the track, just as I and others predicted it would,” Princeton University professor Robert George said in a tweet. “It was, as I said, less a ‘slippery slope’ than a simple unfolding of the logic of social liberalism.”
But not everyone was enthused about the groundbreaking episode.
“I’m disappointed in #HGTV for promoting this as normal,” said one Twitter user.
House Hunters premiered in 1999 and since then has aired nearly 2,000 episodes.
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