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It was meant to bring them closer together, to cement their bond of love. Instead their bizarre experiment has been their undoing.
Ukrainian couple Alexandr Kudlay (33) and Viktoria Pustovitova (28) had hoped that being bound arm-in-arm with shackles might help iron out their romantic issues. They were dead wrong – and now the cuffs are off.
In a last-ditch effort to save their troubled relationship, the lovers decided to shackle themselves together with a chain for 123 days, but they’ve officially gone their separate ways.
“Hooray!” Viktoria shouted during the breakup, which was aired on Ukrainian television. “I am finally free.”
Alexandr came up with the bizarre idea on Valentine’s Day this year with the aim of bringing them closer. Viktoria was reluctant at first but finally agreed.
"I decided it will be an interesting experience for me, that it will bring into my life new bright emotions," she said. "I love him, so I came to a decision to do it."
The unsettled lovers from the eastern city of Kharkiv hoped the social experiment would break their pattern of making up and breaking up. For more than three months the couple had zero personal space. They took turns showering and using the bathroom and did everything together, from grocery shopping to taking smoke breaks.
“We stayed together all day,” Viktoria, a beautician, said in an interview. “I didn’t receive any attention from Alexandr because we were constantly together. He did not tell me, 'I miss you', while I would like to hear that.”
Car salesman Alexandr admits that the time together helped them see the truth about their relationship. “We have different views on many issues. On one hand, it doesn’t bother us and we don't suppress each other,” he said. “But on the other hand, we are not like-minded people. We’re not on the same wavelength; we are totally different.”
They documented their desperate-measure journey on Instagram and even appeared on a Ukrainian TV show stressing the importance of mutual understanding in relationships.
The metal chain was cut off their bruised wrists in front of a crowd in Kyiv, who gathered for the event recently.
The exes, who have apparently broken the record for the most time a couple has spent chained together, are now leading separate lives in different regions of Ukraine. They plan to auction off the handcuffs and donate the proceeds to charity.
“I want to live my own independent life, and grow as an independent person,” Viktoria says.“I think it will be a good lesson for us and couples everywhere not to repeat what we have done.”
SOURCES: REUTERS.COM, THEGUARDIAN.COM, NYPOST.COM, ALJAZEERA.COM
