5 Fictional Couples Everybody Loves That Actually Have an Unhealthy Relationship

When watching a tv show, we all have a favorite relationship that we fantasize about. However, the way they portray certain couples to us may skew our perception, causing us to fail to distinguish between what is normal and what is not. Viewers love drama, therefore it’s not uncommon for them to ship two characters that have done awful things to each other, such as cheating, being on-again, off-again, or verbally assaulting one other.

We at Bright Side constantly seek to share positive thoughts about love, but we also want our readers to understand that not all TV couples are shining examples of couple goals.

1. Bella and Edward, Twilight

Despite their success, the Twilight novels and movies have been fiercely criticized for years and also for many reasons, the major one being Bella and Edward’s toxic relationship. The tale revolved around the romance between vampire Edward Cullen and mortal Bella Swan, who overcome several challenges to be tied forever.

They found their relationship between fear and control, with him chasing her under the guise of “protection” and “compassion about her,” yet his influence over Bella was such that even when he departed, she was still under his command.

Edward often sneaks into Bella’s room and watches her sleeping. Then there are Bella’s severe anxiety episodes when she cannot be with Edward. Finally, she gives up everything for him and accepts to become a vampire in order for them to be together forever.

2. Noah and Allie, The Notebook

The tale of Noah, the poor young man, and Allie, the elegant aristocrat, who fought against their class and family to make their love succeed, made The Notebook a best seller. However, all that glitters is not gold, and many experts have classified their relationship as unhealthy.

Overall, the two lovebirds hardly knew each other; their romance lasted only a summer before they reconciled almost a decade later, yet all we witness is their infatuation and desire. As a result, there is no foundation on which to build a secure marriage that will last forever. In actual truth, their relationship is absolutely implausible.

To make matters worse for Allie, Noah has a strange attitude toward her: he writes her daily letters and builds her the house of her dreams to show himself as the perfect romantic guy, but in a different aspect, Noah is obsessive. He will not accept no for an answer, is verbally abusive, uses emotional manipulation, and even threatens suicide if she does not agree to go on a date with him.

3. Christian and Anastasia, Fifty Shades of Grey

Given that Fifty Shades of Grey began as fan fiction, we can certainly assume that the love tale between the lovely Anastasia and the gloomy Christian Grey is highly idealized. The trilogy and movie Fifty Shades of Grey romanticize an abusive relationship. A type of abusive behavior that comprises recurrent occurrences where one (Christian) humiliates, isolates, intimidates, and dominates another person (Anastasia).

Christian Grey is an obsessive control freak who wants to rule over Ana’s life. He is always aware of her movements and the people she is with, and he even bought the company where she worked. Whenever Ana conveys her concerns to him, he ignores her. Christian is highly possessive, but Ana always justifies his behavior because of his childhood trauma and tries to help him get over it. This underlines the typical so-called syndrome of the “Red Cross nurse.”

There are other situations in which the two exhibit gender disparities; for example, Christian Grey doesn’t even want her to work and therefore would rather her stay at home while he earns all the money. Also, their relationship in both the movies and the books lacks basic communication, respect, and empathy. Rather, most conversations are all about jealousy or sex.

4. Ross and Rachel, Friends

We all adore Friends and the drama that comes with it, and we’ve all wished for Ross and Rachel to get together at some point. Despite being one of the most popular couples in television history, their relationship has also shown many toxic behaviors.

Since high school, Ross has been the typical geek, hopelessly in love with Rachel, who, on the other hand, was the usual wealthy and popular girl who has always considered him as Monica’s loser brother. Their relationship had far too many issues. They both lacked the ability to trust and respect one another, resulting in blaming the other.

While Ross may be charming and helpful, he was more often than not that man who was insecure about his virility. When they eventually get together, Ross becomes jealous of Rachel’s coworker, and his enviousness leads to a split. He refused to accept responsibility for cheating on Rachel, stating that they were “on a break.” Ross lies to her multiple times: after they marry on a wild night in Vegas, he lies to Rachel about having the marriage annulled.

Rachel was exceedingly selfish with Ross and his relationships. She was constantly envious of Ross’ girlfriends. Rachel sabotages and destabilizes Ross’s happy relationship with Julie, only to reject him after he breaks up with her. She takes the baby and moves to Paris without informing Ross. She begged Ross to be with her whenever he was with someone else, but once he was single, she no longer desired him.

5. Carrie and Big, Sex and the City

They portray Carrie Bradshaw as an independent, free-spirited woman in Sex and the City, but when Mr. Big comes on the scene, she becomes a stereotype. She is pursuing a man who is heartless and sees her as insignificant. Although she provides him with more opportunities than he deserves, he never truly commits to her throughout the series.

They break up all the time, and neither of them truly moves on, which is unfair to both of them and the other people they date. The first wrong element of their relationship is the way they started dating. Carrie and Big are afraid of commitments, so when they met, they both cheated on their partners, and when Big married Natasha, it became a long-term relationship. This romanticizes the concept of adultery, which is not good in a relationship.

Big often refers to the gorgeous young women as throwaway pricey baubles. From the beginning of their romance, we see Bradshaw being emotionally tormented by Big, yet she remains dedicated to the relationship. He has been manipulating Carrie for years, making her feel full. Mr. Big appears to tear Carrie’s life apart and drag her back into his pretentious, condescending circle when she is actually happy, such as in her relationship with Aidan.

Do you know any other on-screen relationship that might display toxic traits?