Intertwined Friendships: How Older Women Navigated Couple Friendships and Individual Friendships Alongside Romantic Partners

This study examined how older women's friendships were intertwined with their opposite-sex romantic partners, and their friendships, via interviews using a constructivist, grounded theory approach. Participants (<i>N</i> = 19) were women from the Northeastern United States, had at least some college, and all were non-Hispanic White. Theoretical coding led to two main themes: <i>Friendship Level: Couple Versus Individual</i> and <i>Conflicts and Differences: Gendered Dynamics.</i> Within <i>Friendship Level</i>, couple activities such as vacations and dinners were mentioned as key activities, along with the women's role in crafting couples' friendships. Reasons why friendships remained separate were also discussed. For <i>Conflicts and Differences,</i> women talked about how they had more friends than their romantic partners and that their romantic partners' friendships were largely work-based. Women also discussed instances in which a romantic partner misbehaved. These findings have implications for how romantic partners navigate friendships together.