What is wife sharing?
Wife sharing is an informal term for a consensual lifestyle dynamic in which a married couple agrees that the wife may have sexual experiences with others, with her husband's knowledge and support. It overlaps with hotwifing and swinging, but labels vary. Everyone involved must agree freely; it is never one person transferring control of another.
Wife sharing is informal community vocabulary, not a clinical or universally standardized relationship category. This answer uses it for a consensual arrangement where a married couple agrees that the wife may be intimate with other people, with her husband's knowledge and encouragement. It overlaps with hotwifing and couple-anchored swinging, but individual couples may use those labels differently.
The phrase can sound one-sided when read literally, so some couples prefer 'hotwife,' 'stag and vixen,' or simply say they are 'in the lifestyle.' Whatever the label, the wife keeps full agency over her choices and her husband participates as an informed, willing partner. It is a shared agreement, not one person owning or transferring another.
A consensual version depends on direct communication, boundaries everyone understands, and each person's continuing right to pause or stop. Before involving anyone else, the couple can discuss expectations and screen a prospective partner together. Identity review can reduce uncertainty about identity, but it cannot establish compatibility, future conduct, or consent in the moment.
For the closely related dynamics and how couples set them up, see the JoinTheSwing hotwife lifestyle guide and the answers on hotwifing and wife swapping.
How this answer was checked.
This is a publisher-authored explainer, not a universal taxonomy or a claim of firsthand experience. We use wife sharing as informal community vocabulary, distinguish consensual non-monogamy from secrecy through explicit agreement, and check practical boundary guidance against public sexual-health and consensual-non-monogamy resources. Individual couples may use the label differently.
- American Psychological Association
Consensual Non-Monogamy Fact Sheet (opens in a new tab)
Defines consensual non-monogamy and swinging as broad relationship categories and cautions that definitions are not mutually exclusive; it does not define wife sharing as a clinical category.
- National Coalition for Sexual Freedom
Got Consent? Best Practices for Consensual Non-Monogamy (opens in a new tab)
Supports the equal-say, informed-consent, boundaries, safety-verification, and right-to-stop framing; it does not establish outcomes for any couple.
- Planned Parenthood
How do I talk to my partner about sex? (opens in a new tab)
Supports direct communication about preferences, boundaries, safer-sex expectations, and the continuing right to change one's mind.