By Martin Ruffell
JUST MONTHS after getting engaged this couple invited a THIRD person into their relationship – and STILL plan to get married even though trolls tell them it will never work.
Media management student Larissa Mader (24) and vehicle painter Patrick Friedrich (31) from Bad Camberg, Germany, have been a couple for the past six years.
On January 4, 2020, they decided to take their relationship to the next level and got engaged.
However, just months prior to this, in December 2019, Larissa met nurse Laura Hinsche (24) at a friend’s birthday party and the two became close friends.
With Larissa introducing Laura to her long-term boyfriend soon after their engagement, the trio began to realise that they had a growing mutual love for one another.
Despite none of them having considered polyamory before, in April 2020 Larissa and Patrick invited Laura to form a throuple after both deciding that Laura would bring even more love and intimacy into their relationship.
Laura split with her boyfriend at the time in order to join their new relationship.
Luckily, their families have been largely supportive of their decision to enter a three-way relationship, wanting the best for them however unconventional this may be.
Despite this, their relationship hasn’t always been easy and the throuple broke up at the end of May 2020. They put this down to a lack of communication causing needless misunderstandings, leading to all three feeling left out of the relationship at one time or another.
Whilst Larissa and Patrick remained engaged, their feelings for Laura never went away and in August 2020, the trio reconciled and decided to give their polyamorous lifestyle another shot.
Learning from their previous mistakes and improving their communication, they are happier than they have ever been before and say that polyamory has just multiplied the love they give and receive.
Some strangers online have been critical of the throuple saying that their relationship is too ‘complicated’ to last and that one of the trio will inevitably be left out. However Larissa, Patrick and Laura have every confidence in the love they share and are busy making plans for the future.
Larissa and Patrick are still planning their wedding for 2021 and would be marrying Laura too if three-person marriages weren’t illegal in Germany. They also have plans to start a family.
“The three of us have only been in contact since December last year when me and Larissa got talking at a friend’s party” Laura said.
“At first it wasn’t the intention to fall in love but we can’t always control our feelings.
“From April to the end of May, we tried to make our relationship work but everything went wrong.
“The biggest mistake we made was actually that we talked far too little about the little things that bothered us.
“You have to be very careful not to make someone feel left out when you’re in a throuple.
“The reason for the separation wasn’t that our love ever diminished, but that it got to the point there were so many misunderstandings.
“In August, we got back in contact again because the feelings we had for each other just never went away.
“Since then, our relationship has been wonderful and we enjoy every second of it.
“We live together and choose to do everything together.
“For us polyamory is not about having to share a partner with someone else because everyone loves everyone equally.
“Loyalty and honesty are just as important to us as in a relationship with two people.
“We try to educate people on Instagram so that they can see that being happy is the most important thing in life regardless of what anyone else thinks.
“Life is far too short to be unhappy and to do what society considers best.
“The most important thing in the poly relationship is communication because misunderstandings often arise much faster with three people than with two.
“The only negative comments we get from people are those telling us that we have no future in the long run or that one person will end up loving one partner more than the other.
“When we’re out and about together we are often looked at in a strange way, especially when we are all holding hands.
“However, nobody has said anything mean directly to us.
“There are of course practical problems like pavements not being wide enough for us all to hold hands and rollercoasters only having two seats but these problems are tiny.”
Larissa, Patrick and Laura are keen to show others online that being in a three-way relationship can work just as well as a conventional relationship.
“We just want to show that love works in a threesome,” Laura said.
“Of course there are some hurdles to overcome with communication in a throuple being even more important than in a couple.
“However, you shouldn’t give up. You should fight for your love because polyamory is so special and unique.
“Oftentimes, people who live a polyamorous lifestyle themselves don’t dare to share it openly which is really sad.
“Everyone should live as they like and we hope that by sharing our story others will have the confidence to do the same.”
