BBC investigation uncovers women coerced into swinging by partners

Fifty women said they were pushed or coerced by their partners into swinging, and many described long-lasting trauma from experiences they said were never freely chosen. Ruth O’Grady, a Welsh woman, said her then-husband pressured her into joining FabSwingers, the UK’s most popular swinging website, and that she had sex with strangers more than 100 times.

An eight-month BBC investigation into swinging in the UK framed the accounts as coercive control and domestic abuse rather than casual experimentation. O’Grady later said the experience was degrading and said she wanted to warn others. Her story became the center of Swingers, a BBC Sounds podcast presented by Catrin Nye, while BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour ran a segment titled Woman traumatised after joining swinging site.

Data tied FabSwingers to hundreds of police reports across the UK. FabSwingers said it ran its website in adherence with Ofcom’s requirements, and women said their partners used the site to apply pressure and normalize abuse.

Nye said O’Grady came to her with the story more than three years before the podcast was released, and the team worked on the investigation for the last couple of months before it aired.