History Main / SexlessMarriage

* In Philippa Gregory's ''[[TheCousinsWarSeries Cousins' War]] series, the Duke of Bedford arranges one of these with the much younger Jacquetta of Luxembourg because he believes a [[VirginPower young virgin girl]] can help him with his alchemical experiments. There's no RealLife evidence to suggest this, although their marriage was short and childless (and it certainly wasn't due to infertility on Jacquetta's part, as her second marriage produced ''fourteen'' children).

* ''MeanGirls'' - one of the secrets that Gretchen lets slip about Regina is "her parents totally don't sleep in the same bed anymore".

* In {{Literature/Tales Of Kolmar}} Lanen's cousin offers one of these to her after her father dies; he's the one with the passion to run the horse farm, she's the one who inherited. Lanen is offended by this and hits him, then decides to turn the farm over to him, keep a share of the profits, and go adventuring.
* In A.S. Byatt's ''Possession'', the wife of Randolph Ash is terrified of sex and can't bring herself to sleep with her husband. He's actually pretty good about it, and though he later has an affair with the poetess Christabel LaMotte (which makes up the crux of the book) he never considers leaving his wife, and ultimately tells her that they had a sucessful marriage since never once in all those years did they have an argument.

* Hard to say just how long it lasts, but definitely longer than it should: in ''[[{{Disgaea3}} Disgaea 3]]'', after [[spoiler:Almaz and Sapphire]] get married, and part-way through the honeymoon, [[spoiler:Almaz]] complains that he hasn't even had the opportunity to ''kiss'' his wife yet. Implied not to be because the couple is not in love, but probably because the husband is the universe's ultimate ButtMonkey.

* In the French comic Blacksad, the second arc features a preacher about whom rumors of pedophilia abound, because of further rumors that he and his wife have never slept together. [[spoiler: The former are false, but the latter are most definitely true: It's because ''she'' knows, but ''he'' doesn't, that he's actually her father; their marriage was part of an elaborate plan by the daughter to get revenge on him for the way he treated her black mother after he started buying into white supremacist rhetoric. In this case the romantic implications ''are'' brought up, but that was kind of the idea to begin with.]]

* Lucy and Stephen Steel of ''[[JojosBizarreAdventure Steel Ball Run]]''. Given their [[OldManMarryingAChild respective ages]] and the circumstances behind their marriage, this is played less as a demonstration of a lack of romance between them, and more as an incredibly strong IntergenerationalFriendship.

* As of 2002 in ''{{Baccano}}'', [[EternalLove Firo and Ennis]] take TwiceShy beyond humanly possible levels: they have lived under the same roof for seventy two years, have been married for about twenty of those, and still haven't gotten as far as second base.

* In ''FateZero'', the marriage Saber (aka [[KingArthur Arturia Pendragon]]) with Guinevere was devoid of sex due to the fact that [[SweetPollyOliver Saber had to conceal her gender in order to be King]]. It was because of this that Guinevere started looking for love in other places - Lancelot, for example.

* John [=McClane=] is separated from his wife, and thus not sleeping with her, in ''DieHard'' and ''DieHardWithAVengeance''.

Since we can't or at least should know, NoRealLifeExamplesPlease

[[folder: Real Life ]]
* This was the case with Louis XVI and MarieAntoinette for the first seven years of their marriage. Why is debatable, since some sources says Louis had a disorder where arousal was painful, others like Louis's brother say [[MissConception he simply didn't know how to]]. After getting whatever the matter was sorted out, they ended up having four children.
* Not to say Dr. Kellogg, who never slept with his wife ''at all''.
* CatherineTheGreat's husband Peter III, who is now thought to have been mentally retarded, was more interested in playing with his toy soldiers than he was in her. This was one reason many people thought that Catherine's son Paul was actually the son of one of her lovers, and Catherine herself implied this in her memoirs.
* King HenryVIII annulled his marriage to his fourth wife, Ann of Cleves, after six months on the grounds that it had never been consummated. (Which is said to have surprised her, [[InnocenceVirginOnStupidity as she apparently thought his kiss on her forehead each night counted.]])
* The conception of Louis XIV was called a miracle, because his parents haven't been having sex for years beforehand.
** One of the rumors for the "Man In The Iron Mask" legend is that the actual father was a paid substitute (neither Louis XIII or Richelieu wanted Louis' brother to inherit the throne), and that he was captured by his son and imprisoned in comfort to keep the secret safe. Probably not true (especially considering that the reconciliation lasted a while, and led to another son), but not the wildest theory either.
* The marriage between radical feminist activists Andrea Dworkin and John Soltenberg was most likely this, since they were both gay. Their arrangement is known as a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavender_marriage lavender marriage]].
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrika_Eleonora_Staalhammar Ulrika Eleonora Staalhammar]] was a Swedish [[SweetPollyOliver female soldier that pretended to be a man]] and lived and served as one for thirteen years. She fell in love with a woman and married her, but they did not have sex and her wife didn't even know Ulrika was female for some time, though she eventually found out and continued to be with her out of love. When Ulrika was put on trial for crossdressing and marrying a member of the same sex, her wife gave a testimony that they never had any sexual contact and their marriage was therefore viewed as one "of the purest, most spiritual kind, a union of virtue".
[[/folder]]

* ''InDeath'' series: ''Imitation In Death'' reveals that [[spoiler: Pamela and Niles]] have this sort of marriage. They pretty much hate each other's guts. Here's the kicker...[[spoiler: Pamela is an IceQueen with a total LackOfEmpathy who knows that her husband is ThePsychopath and a SerialKiller, as well as knowing that he rapes the nanny, using his wife's frigidness as an excuse. Pamela does not care, because at least it doesn't affect her own little world. To add to the heinousness of the situation, they have a kid, and while the kid hasn't been harmed, Pamela didn't even think about kid's safety and well-being once]]!

* Tobias and Lindsay in ''ArrestedDevelopment''.

* Klinger and his first wife, Leverne, from [[MASHTheSeries M*A*S*H]]. Klinger marries his Toledo sweetheart while in Korea, and the divorce happened before Klinger has a chance to return.

* The marriage between radical feminist activists Andrea Dworkin and John Soltenberg was most likely this, since they were both gay.

* Malcolm and Anna throughout TheSixthSense (if you've seen it, you know why.) He does seem willing and able in the first scene, but he doesn't get the chance.

* This was the case with Louis XVI and MarieAntoinette for the first seven years of their marriage. Louis had a disorder where arousal was painful, so that probably hurt his sex life. After eventually having an operation to fix this they ended up having four children.

Note that characters who are implied to have sex and simply aren't shown sleeping in the same bed for [[MoralGuardians propriety reasons]] are covered under SleepingSingle, although nowadays, the default assumption tends to be that a couple that doesn't sleep in the same bed falls under this trope, unless sex between the two is explicitly mentioned on camera. However, for this wiki's purposes, the reverse holds - unless it's explicitly mentioned that it's a Sexless Marriage, it goes under SleepingSingle. If it's subverted, then there still needs to be an explicit mention somewhere in the work itself that the couple is thought to be in a Sexless Marriage. There are a few cases where sex is not included in a marital relationship in order to demonstrate [[CourtlyLove the purity of the love the couple has]]. That can go under here, but only if the couple in question have actually gotten married to each other.

* In ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}} After Story'', Nagisa and Tomoya sleep on separate futons, and it was implied that they only started having sex when she wanted to get pregnant. [[CourtlyLove Otherwise they]] ''[[CourtlyLove really, really]]'' [[CourtlyLove love each other, so apparently they are just that chaste.]]

* There are some recognized Catholic saints who were married, but did not have sex. They are admired because they chose to sacrifice Earthly pleasures in order to better serve God.

* There are some recognized Catholic saints who were married, but did not have sex. They are admired because [[SexIsEvil they chose to serve God through some ministry or other rather than enjoy earthly pleasures.]]

[[folder: Truth In Television ]]

* [[spoiler:Jacky]] and Higgins in ''[[BloodyJack The Wake Of The Lorelei Lee]]'' - which is to be expected, since Higgins is gay and [[spoiler:Jacky is [[CatchPhrase promised to another]].]]