WITH Valentine’s Day upon us, love is in the air.
Or is it in the water these days?
The key to keeping a relationship alive is as simple as taking a bath together, according to a recent study by the Cologne Rheingold Institute for qualitative market and media analyses.
The study, which was done on behalf of leading European bath company Kaldewei, found that a shared bath “(reinforces) trust in each other and (keeps) love fresh” while warm water “helps to break down their individual boundaries”.
Hogwash or not, Hollywood lovebirds Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have lauded the act.
Jolie told Marie Claire magazine in July 2007 that the most intimate and important discussions with her partner Pitt happen when they’re both in the bath together.
Some of our local married celebrity couples were more conservative – only three spunky pairs admitted to sharing baths or showers.
They are TV presenter Soo Kui Jien and 987 radio deejay Sarah Tan, TV actors Alan Tern and Priscelia Chan, and TV actor Darren Lim and actress-host Evelyn Tan.
When it came to posing for photos, however, everyone turned shy and preferred to keep the cameras out of their bathrooms.
As for the findings, Tern and Chan are the only ones who said such a unique shared pleasure has strengthened their relationship.
The other two couples agreed that the practice of getting wet together can add sparks but there’s hardly time for such luxuries.
She bathes injured hubby for 2 weeks- Alan Tern and Priscelia Chan
They do not have a bathtub at home, but sharing the shower has made them realise that nothing will get between them.
Last year, 32-year-old Chan had to bathe her husband for two weeks after he tore a ligament in his right leg in a football match.
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She said: “He was on crutches and couldn’t do anything by himself. So he would wait for me to come home to bathe him.
“I came home after filming one day to find him with a sad puppy look on his face. He was so helpless. It was so cute and funny.
“This incident made us realise that we’d really stick by each other through good and bad times.”
Tern, 35, joked: “It’s the naked truth, right? There’s nothing to hide.”
That water would strengthen their bond was already evident when they tied the knot in 2007 at the poolside of Changi Village Hotel.
Even though Chan suffered from aquaphobia and couldn’t swim, she was willing to jump into a swimming pool to join her husband who was thrown in by some friends during their wedding dinner.
She told The New Paper then: “Alan was already inside (the pool), and I just wanted us to do things together and to be with him.”
Their occasional intimate showers, Tern revealed, are “impromptu” and the longest one lasted about 30 minutes. More often than not, however, they jump into the shower together because “we’re rushing for time,” Tern added.
Toddler son shares their bathtub- Soo Kui Jien and Sarah Tan
She loves taking baths so much that she took dinner and did her homework in the tub during her student days in the UK.
But her husband of three years thinks that baths are a “waste of time” and the longest he’s ever shared one with her was a mere 10 minutes.
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The 30-year-old English-Chinese babe said: “Baths haven’t been much of a factor in our relationship. I don’t think that if we have problems, taking baths together is going to fix them.”
Sharing baths is just one way of being close to and intimate with each other, said Soo, 38. He added: “I can understand the concept behind it. In all relationships, problems will arise if there’s no close proximity between couples.”
Besides, two’s a crowd in their “standard size” bathtub, Soo added.
He joked: “But of course if we’re talking about Brangelina terms, they probably have an Olympic-sized swimming pool and four nannies taking care of their six kids. Then sure, why not do it all the time?”
On the rare occasion when they do take baths together, they have someone else in the bath – their two-year-old son Dylan Robert.
Soo said: “My position in the pecking order in the house has dropped – our son, our dog and then me.”
If the couple do share the bathroom, he said that he will be sitting around the tub and talking to Tan while she’s in it.
Novelty has worn off - Darren Lim and Evelyn Tan
Tan doesn’t think that sharing a bath is any more important than other forms of intimacy.
If anything, it is the element of touch which is necessary in conveying affection, according to the 36-year-old, who has been married to Lim since 2004.
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Tan revealed that they used to shower together in the first few months of their marriage but no longer do so because “the novelty has worn off” and “there’s simply no time now”.
The couple have three children – daughter Kristen, five, and sons Jairus, three, and Way, one.
Lim, 36, added: “It could be part and parcel of a healthy sex life but sharing a bath is not a guarantee to a long-lasting relationship.
“It’s also about how couples behave with each other, like in (the Hollywood movie) Ghost where they do pottery together.”
Besides, Lim added, they do not have a bathtub at home.
Tan said: “We’re very utilitarian. We shower because we need to shower. Space is small and it gets uncomfortable, so don’t get in my way.
“Plus you need to get into the mood. And there’s no time because Darren is busy at work and the kids need my attention. We may consider this again when they’re older.”
This article was first published in The New Paper.
