In a bizarre attempt to save their on-again, off-again relationship, one couple in Ukraine hatched a plan to spend over 100 days handcuffed to one another. The stunt, unfortunately, appears to have been unsuccessful, as the couple split immediately after their cuffs were removed.
Alexandr Kudlay and Viktoria Pustovitova decided to start the experiment on Valentine's Day of this year, hoping it would force them to confront their constant habit of breaking up and making up, Reuters reported.
Over the course of the past 123 days, the duo did everything while attached at the wrist, including everyday tasks like shopping and private activities, like using the bathroom. Rather than using traditional handcuffs, the couple was attached via chains that had been welded together, according to LADbible. Now, having shed their bonds, the couple has decided to part ways.
Speaking with Reuters, 29-year-old Pustovitova advised other couples against attempting the same experiment. "I think it will be a good lesson for us, for other Ukrainian couples and couples abroad not to repeat what we have done," she said.
"We stayed together all day. I did not receive any attention from Alexandr because we were constantly together," she added. "He did not tell me: 'I miss you,' while I would like to hear that."
The failed attempt was not entirely useless, according to Kudlay, a 33-year-old car salesman. In trying to save their relationship, the pair made important realizations about each other, namely that they are not "like-minded people." He said: "We are not on the same wavelength, we are totally different."
Past media coverage indicates that the handcuff experiment began as Kudlay's idea, one that Pustovitova resisted at first.
"We used to break up once or twice a week," Kudlay told Reuters in March. When Pustovitova suggested once again that they split, he told her: "Then I will attach you to myself."
"I decided it will be an interesting experience for me, that it will bring into my life new bright emotions which I did not experience before," Pustovitova said to the news outlet. "I love him, so I came to a decision to do it."
Executing their plan wasn't easy. As Kudlay explained to Reuters mid-experiment, "some tension" between the couple was inevitable. "Fights between us did not disappear. We still fight," he said at the time. "But when we approach a dead end and there is no understanding between us, we simply stop talking instead of packing up our things and walking away."
Over the course of the 123 days, Kudlay was able to maintain his work as a car salesman—but according to LADBible, Pustovitova was forced to give up her job, creating artificial eyelashes, because clients were uncomfortable with Kudlay's constant proximity.
Now that they've split up, the exes reportedly plan on selling the chains that bound them together in an online auction. Their goal is to give some of the funds to charity as well as keep some for themselves.
