Watch me on CBS Sunday Morning

My boyfriend and I were interviewed about having separate bedrooms

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I’m thrilled to share that my boyfriend, Drew Griffiths, and I were interviewed by Susan Spencer today on CBS Sunday Morning today as part of their annual Design Issue. Below is the interview and below that is a little backstory about how a personal essay I wrote for Refinery29 in 2014 got me featured on a news show watched by six million people. As I tell my essay writing students, you never know where your words will take you. Watch our CBS Sunday Morning interview about being a couple with separate bedrooms:

If you were intrigued by Drew’s artwork and are in New York, check him out at Booth 55 today, Sunday, May 21, 2023, at The Other Art Fair at Brooklyn Navy Yard, Building 269. Use code 20DREW for 20% off and come say hi to me too. You can also see more of his artwork, make purchases, and contact him here and follow him on Instagram (drewg78) to find out about his latest pieces and more about his artistic process. Here’s a snapshot of him creating a painting from the show:

Artist Drew Griffiths in his studio creating an abstract painting, still from CBS Sunday Morning

How abstract art gets made by Drew Griffiths, still from CBS Sunday Morning

And I will say that in the last two weeks we’ve shared two hotel rooms, and during both stays, I’ve woken up at my usual time, around five or six a.m., and decamped to the hotel bathroom, which is where I wrote this post. I’m a very early riser, and he gets up pretty early too, but not as early as me. We made it work (we aren’t rich enough to afford two hotel rooms and I don’t think we’d actually want that when traveling unless it was a suite with connected rooms), but we are both looking forward to being back in our own rooms and beds tonight. At home, if I wake up super early, I can just turn on my light and not worry about waking him.

Now on to the question I’ve been asked by friends I told about the TV appearance in advance: How did this come about?

In early April, I got an email from a producer for CBS Sunday Morning asking if we could have a short phone interview since they were doing an upcoming story on couples with separate bedrooms. I agreed, though didn’t have high expectations because I know with TV, things often change. I figured if anything happened, it would take many months. Within two weeks, a crew was at our house for a day-long interview! It was exciting and a little scary because when I’m writing, I control the words, but with this, I didn’t know how it would turn out. It wasn’t my first TV interview, but it was my first TV interview as part of a couple.

I didn’t know back in 2014 when I wrote the essay that it would have such a long life. I’ve had many friends and others talk to me about either their separate bedrooms, or their desire for separate bedrooms. It’s a privilege to be able to afford to live in a home with separate bedrooms, one I don’t take lightly. But it’s also been one of the key things that has made the longest relationship of my life work so well.

If you’re just finding this newsletter for the first time and want to know more about me, visit my website, see my books page, and check out my Essay Writing 101 classes and Erotica Writing 101 classes as well as my nonfiction writing guide How to Write Erotica. I’m the founder, publisher, and editor of personal essay publication

Open Secrets

, which publishes a new essay every Monday. Subscriptions are free if you want to get those essays in your inbox (paid subscribers get bonus content like audio and video interviews). I also offer consulting services for writers of erotica and nonfiction via EroticaWriting101.com (read student and client testimonials here). Here are 20 of my favorite personal essays I’ve written. You can also follow me @raquelita on Twitter and @rachelkramerbussel on Instagram and on my Facebook author page.