Is this even a relationship?

[Anonymous]

My sister has been in a long distance relationship due to Covid and visa problems. She has seen her boyfriend 3 times in 3 years. She visited him after nearly 2 years and then saw him again 6 months later and then again 6 months later. They will be together next year but would you even call this a relationship? They were with eachother for 5 months before the distance. Im just afraid that her boyfriend is cheating or something. Like even the most loyal guy would struggle with that distance and lack of intimacy. What do you think?

[quaranta]

A guy doesn't cheat because of distance or any other condition, if the guy cheats it's because he is a cheater in general and would cheat when the occasions come, with any girl, at any point in the life. Cheating is about how the cheater perceives his value as superior to the other person, who is seen as granted and less relevant, less deserveful of respect.
If the distant relation doesn't work, a normal mature guy would rather quit the relationship first, then get to know new women later, not disrespecting both and avoiding any sort of responsibility on that. There is a big difference between the 2 approaches in front of a distant relationship that doesn't work.
You can guess he is the type of guy who would cheat by looking at his previous relationships. Did he cheat in the past? If yes, then chances he will do that in this occasion too are very high, if not granted. Is he a liar in general? Another red flag. How good he is at dealing with conflicts? If he is bad at it, he might not be generally mature or responsible, so that's another red flag. It's more about the type of person he is rather than the framework the relationship exists in.
Either way, cheating or not, if they feel connected and into each other's life and stay in contact a lot, and they're the main person for each other, well, then yeah you can call it a relationship. They had intimacy anyway in the past and I guess they're using other methods to cope with it like photos and videos, waiting to get back together.
If the relationship stayed online without any meeting at all, for 3 years, then I would raise eyebrows about how solid it is and if it would ever survive the "real life" instance. But this isn't the case...

[LazerBean]

Yes. Proximity and sex are not what make a relationship "real".

[Circlesgames]

It's a relationship, as long as they communicate in their own way and it's satisfying to them, then there is no issue, soon they will start leaving together, you should know there are people who haven't even seen their love one, they started online and are still talking online tho, many end up seeing one day

[PositiveNote]

I say that you are on to something. Long distance is REALLY hard to maintain a relationship, and if it's not progressing in more communication, but in less... it's a goner.