How to Build a Friendship With Your Ex Partner

Once a relationship ends, it's hard to know where your ex fits into your life—is he your new BFF? Or just someone you reconnect with here and there, like exes Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson just did. Check out our expert tips to suss out whether you sho
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AM explores and answers the age-old question: Can you ever be friends with your ex?
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Whether you can be friends with an ex tends to be determined by the two people once involved in the relationship. But as with anything else, there are some expert opinions on the matter. Susan J. Elliot, author, relationship coach, counselor and speaker/...
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I call my friend Ashley the “Ex-Boyfriend Whisperer.” I call her this because no matter how bad any of her breakups have been, four months after the split, Ashley and her former beau have moved safely into the friend zone. This hasn’t happened just once or twice. A few fluke friendships can happen to anyone. I recently asked Ashley how many serious (more than three months was the cutoff) boyfriends she had, and how many of them she remained friends (in regular contact) with. It took her a minute, a pad and a pen and access to Facebook before she responded, “Fifteen for fifteen.” Then she proceeded to tell me she couldn’t hang out the following weekend because she had to go to a baptism for her college boyfriend’s baby. Seriously. Ashley is rare, but she isn’t some kind of relationship unicorn. There are some men and women whose superpowers include maintaining beyond-cordial associations with everyone they’ve ever seriously dated. So, what’s the secret? I asked 10 of these savants to share their Ten Commandments for Staying Friends With an Ex. Some of the rules are rational but difficult for those of us who relish the irrational after a

Learning to get along with an ex can be necessary for mutual friends, children, or professional reasons. It's not easy, but there are some things you can do to more smoothly transition from a breakup to being friends—or at the very least, civil.
Tags: Relationships, breakup, dating, emotions, psychology, communication, networking, Lifehacker