Simone de Beauvoir

The great existentialist philosopher and social theorist Simone de Beauvoir chose never to get married despite having a longstanding relationship with the fellow French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. She said marriage was impossible, to a certain degree. The iconic writer had no dowry, which seemed to allude to the marriage standards back in the day. The couple, instead, entered a “lifelong soul partnership,” which wasn’t exclusive and didn’t even require them to live together.

Simone and Jean-Paul remained partners for 51 years. She never initiated for them to build a family or set up a household. They, too, never had kids, which let Simone furthered her studies and joined political causes. The feminist continued her writing, teaching, and taking lovers as her relationship with Jean-Paul stayed open. She was into a number of romances, from the most famous, like the author Nelson Algren, to the most controversial, which was with younger women.