[Chickensoup]

One notes that this was not an ex-spouse, but an ex-boyfriend. Without a legal contract, one hasn’t a legal contract.

........

The big problem with all the shacking up is there are marital level expectations, emotions and connections without the ties. So everyone feels divorce level pain without any societal justification.

Leaves everyone twisting.

I tell people ending long term shack ups that they just went through divorce level pain.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

--- "The big problem with all the shacking up is there are marital level expectations, emotions and connections without the ties. So everyone feels divorce level pain without any societal justification."

Yup. Contract law, from a formal perspective, is legal, but human nature -- "you promised me" -- is also a deep sort of contract law well outside the purview of societal controls.