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It’s an age-old question, one with myriad answers which vary depending on who you’re talking to and how much extra-marital canoodling you’re willing to dismiss as inconsequential.

For some people, it could be a case of simply texting an ex or “sliding into their DMs”, explains dating coach Madeleine Mason.

“Because people have different boundaries, someone may think flirting is fine, while for someone else it’s considered emotional cheating,” she told The Independent.

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However, according to experts speaking to Women’s Health, there are five definitive types of cheating and surprisingly, two of them may not even involve your partner.

This might come as a surprise, but being physically intimate with someone who is not your partner is usually considered cheating, unless you go all Ross from Friends and insist that you “were on a break”.

Grey areas arise when you get into the minutiae of intimacy, which your teenage self will recall as an all-inclusive scale ranging from kissing to intercourse.

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At what “level” you decide to call cheating is up to you and your partner, dating coach Jo Barnett told The Independent. Continua a leggere