What’s a Nice Term for Your Ex-Spouse’s New Spouse?

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Cindy Evans from Henderson, Kentucky.

Hi, Cindy. Welcome to the show.

Thank you. I’m so glad to be here.

What would you like to talk with us about today, Cindy?

I was married and then divorced, and the second wife is the nicest person you could ever hope to meet.

And she has been a good stepmother to my sons.

I don’t think they even call her stepmother.

I would like to have a word to call her that doesn’t say she is the wife of my ex-husband or I don’t know how else to put it.

Well, that’s really great that you have a great relationship with the woman who married your ex-husband, right?

Yes.

Something besides her name.

Something that says my something.

Like you would say my sister-in-law, but she’s not my sister-in-law.

A relationship term.

Yes.

Well, you mentioned sister-in-law. What about sister-outlaw?

I’ve thought of that.

Did you?

Yes. And actually, I sometimes call my former in-laws my outlaws.

Yeah, that’s a common one. Lots of people call their former in-laws their outlaws.

You know, we talked about this a long time ago on the show, Martha, and we had a lot of responses then.

A number of people said to use the term ex-in-law or wife-in-law.

Do either of those sound like something to you?

Wiping loss sounds horrible.

So what about just explaining the relationship in full and using her name,

And from then on out you can use her name?

Well, that’s all right for the long term, but in the immediate moment,

I’d like just a, she is my da-da-da.

Right, okay.

You want something convenient.

Some people use it, refer to them by the relationship they have with the shared children.

They’ll say, my son’s stepmother, for example.

Yes.

Something like that.

Some people will say stepwife.

No?

None of these working for you?

None of these are working for me.

I know you have a broad audience.

I thought maybe somebody would generate a new word for this.

Oh, yeah, they definitely will.

Well, Cindy, what we’re going to do is we’re going to put the cherries and berries on the roof and turn on the sirens

And put out the alert for everyone to tell us what do they call the new spouse of their ex-spouse

If they have a good relationship with them.

What do you call your ex-husband’s new wife that you really love

Or your ex-wife’s new husband that you really like to pal around with?

Yes. Thank you so much.

All right. Take care of yourself, and thanks for sharing.

You too. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye, Cindy.

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