Study: Relationships start to fade after about three years

Romance begins to fall flat at this point as couples take each other for granted, argue ever more and lose their sexual appetite, researchers say.

Those in three-year plus relationships row for an average of 2.7 hours per week compared with 1.2 hours for those still in the first flushes of love.

They also have less than a third as much sex than newer couples and more than half – 55 per cent – admit they are so busy that they have to ‘schedule’ time together for romance.