A ‘POLYAMOROUS triad’ say that when it comes to raising kids, three heads are better than two.
Leo Barillas, 35, Mary Barillas, 31, and Kimberlee Slagle, 29, live together as a ‘thruple’ in Washington State, USA, with their four children, aged between 4 and 11.
Mary and Leo are childhood sweethearts who first got together at high school when he was 15 and she was 13.
But 16 years later they met and fell in love with partner Kim – and the trio have been inseparable ever since, sharing both a bed and parenting duties.
Kim said: “Having an extra body is so useful for parenting, it just means you’re splitting the work between three rather than two.” Leo and Mary married in 2005 and had two children.
Since they got together at such a young age, the pair decided to explore together – occasionally inviting another partner to join them in the bedroom, although with no plans to make that kind of arrangement permanent.
However, in 2016, when their youngest daughter was 11 months old, they met single mother-of-two Kim at their Crossfit gym, who a year earlier had exited a nine year relationship.
Kim started to fall for them, but feared getting involved due to the fact they were a married couple.
The three of them talked it over and proposed the idea of becoming a triad, making it official the following week in Vegas.
The three admit there was a bit of an adjustment period, with Leo confessing that he felt “like a third wheel” initially and feared he was going to lose his wife to another woman.
However, the trio credit good communication with keeping them together and have won the support of friends and family and say despite the abuse they receive online, they are like any regular couple – just with an extra person.