When Suzanne Hartington, an attractive divorcee in her early 50s, placed her advert on an internet dating site, she knew exactly what she was looking for: someone roughly the same age to share her love of cooking and country walks.
There are thousands of similar requests out there, jostling for space in online forums and lonely-hearts columns.
But Suzanne, a paralegal from Devon, chose this particular dating site because she knew its male subscribers would meet her one essential dating criteria — that they, too, wanted a meaningful relationship forged on an entirely platonic basis.
Difficult though it is to believe, in our seemingly sex-obsessed era, Suzanne is far from alone.
In fact, in recent years a growing number of dating sites have sprung up aimed at bringing together both men and women looking for an affectionate, cerebral connection with a member of the opposite gender — without a sexual element.
Suzanne’s preferred site, platonic partners.co.uk, promotes entirely celibate relationships, while another, nosexdating.co.uk, was set up for those who cannot have sexual relationships, whether for physical or psychological reasons.
Meanwhile, creativesdating.com is, as its name suggests, a forum for creative types to meet kindred spirits, with romance a happy bonus.
Platonic Partners was set up eight years ago by Suzie King, a counsellor from Cambridge who is now 59, after she realised there was no forum for people like her who craved companionship and affection, yet had lost interest in the sexual side of life.
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