My Wife’s Got a Princess Syndrome and Our Family Is Falling Apart Because of It

A man, 38, has shared his concerns about his family life in his letter to our editorial. His wife has been behaving so weirdly that the man has even invented a name for her behavior, "princess syndrome." He explained that his spouse hasn't been capricious, entitled, fussy, or spoiled. The case was that she suddenly became obsessed with her looks, which had never been an issue for her before. This led to severe consequences for the man's relationship with his wife and even jeopardized their happy marriage.

The man's wife has always been a moderate person without any weird hobbies.

A man named Adam, 38 has shared his story with our editorial and asked our readers for a piece of advice.

He opened his letter, saying, "I have been married to my wife, Ashley, for over a decade now. We started as casual friends in college and we began dating after she graduated. Soon after this, we got married, and we've been living our happy lives together and getting along well."

Adam explained that his wife has always been a family person and she has never demonstrated any wish for living a bohemian or extra-posh and luxurious life. She hasn't been obsessed with trendy clothes, and prefers casual outfits. Adam wrote, "Ashley is an extremely beautiful woman. She has never needed any makeup to look gorgeous, and her casual clothes only highlighted her beauty in every way. She has always known that she'd an attractive woman and her self-confidence has never been affected by what she was wearing or what kind of makeup she was putting on."

One day, Ashley's behavior changed drastically.

Adam revealed, "Ashley and I are both lawyers by occupation. We take top-management positions in legal firms and have an extremely good reputation in our professional circles. Our occupation presupposes some dress code, and we've been both keeping it up until recently."

The man explained that since last year the situation for both spouses changed drastically. He wrote, "Ashley has started demonstrating a very weird behavior since last year. She's having a thing that I'm calling a "princess syndrome". By saying this I don't mean that Ashley has become spoiled, entitled, impudent, or fussy. Not at all. Her character remained the same. But, now her clothes seem to take over her life."

Adam revealed, "Ashley started to dress like a sort of fairytale princess on a near daily basis, including at work. She started wearing long, frilly skirts, lacey blouses, and many other outfits like that. I noticed that it works for her because she is very beautiful. At first, I even found it to be very attractive, but then I just noticed how much time she started spending on her outfits."

The man added, "Such extravagant clothes have become an issue at work, and Ashley's reputation and being a valuable employee are only saving her from having troubles at work now. But I can feel that it's temporary and sooner or later she will be confronted by the other top managers and the rest of the staff. To crown it all, Ashley now runs a blog that has a huge amount of followers, and she is constantly posting outfit photos, links to clothing items, and whatnot. She spends a lot of time now on her blog, and it's becoming a huge problem, too."

The situation is escalating gradually and bringing bad consequences for both spouses.

Adam wrote, "I've always been very supportive of all hobbies that my wife had and I never criticized her choice of clothes and accessories. But now, it's becoming too much even for me. When we go out together, we get a lot of stares from other people. They look at what she's wearing, and I feel uncomfortable. I've also seen people sneaking pictures of her on their cell phones. This attention makes me annoyed. I asked Ashley multiple times to tone it down a bit, but she didn't take it seriously."

Adam explained, "I always emphasized that I love her just the way she is, but Ashley just seems to brush it off. I had hoped that the negative reactions from people in her office would make her more serious, but some of her co-workers even started to encourage her. I just worry that at some point people won't take her seriously."

Adam mentioned one more thing that has also become a kind of problem for their family. He wrote, "Ashley started talking about an open marriage recently. I don't know how it's related to her "princess syndrome", but she has never raised this subject before. Now, she brought it up for discussion several times, she tried to put it as a joke first, and then she started talking about it more seriously. I clearly explained my position against any sort of open relationship to her, but she keeps bringing this topic up again and again."

Adam doesn't know what to think or do in his current situation.

Adam confessed, "I feel like Ashley is suddenly not Ashley anymore. She does look like my wife, but what I can see is a different person who's now living with me under the same roof. I have no subject left to be discussed with Ashley. Whenever I try to share something interesting with her, she changes the topic to one of style and clothes. We used to have very vivid, interesting, and intellectual debates with my wife, that were related to legal cases we were dealing with. It has always been a pleasure for us both to share opinions and help each other find some intricate solutions for non-trivial legal cases. But it's all gone now. I have a princess at home, and my wife is gone."

The man revealed that he's balancing between decisions now. He seriously thinks that they both need a break in their relationship and some free space for thinking things over. But Adam confessed that he's afraid about how Ashley will use her "free time" without him in her life temporarily.

The man concluded, "I'm not even sure now that Ashley isn't cheating or not going to cheat on me in the future. With all this attention she's getting from men now, and with her thoughts about an open marriage, I think everything has become possible. I sincerely don't know what to do with Ashley's weird "hobby" that has already brought so many repercussions to our family."

And here's yet another story about a woman, who didn't have any "syndromes", but her husband was obsessed with the idea of her body odor. he kept telling her that her body stinks, and one day she found out the real reason why he was doing this rude thing to her.