Featured Image Credit: (East2West News)
Topics: Community, Weird, Sex and Relationships
Dylan Murray
One woman’s atypical relationship recently came to an end, and she’s now explained the reason why.
Michele Köbke is a 36-year-old woman based in Berlin, Germany who has previously stated she was in a long-term relationship with a Boeing 737-800 airplane, one that lasted for roughly nine years.
However, despite her previously shared ambition to marry the airplane, Köbke has now revealed that she is no longer in a relationship.
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Michele explained her situation to Blide, a German newspaper, in an interview that was later translated by the DailyMail UK: “We are separated, but we're still friends.”
While considered peculiar by many people across the world, Michele is what experts call an objectophile, or someone who is attracted to inanimate objects.
“Admittedly, at first I thought I was crazy,” Michele explained, “But then I found out that I'm an objectophile. People are just very diverse in the way they structure their relationships."
According to forensic psychiatrist and private lecturer Dr. Werner Platz, about 40 people are known to have the disorder worldwide.
"It is a so-called paraphilia, a disorder of sexual preference. But as long as it does not cause suffering or conflict, it cannot be classified as pathological or in need of treatment," he said.
She once said of her relationship: "My cheeks hurt from smiling, I'm the happiest woman in the world - when I'm with him I have everything I need.
“It's like a normal relationship, we have relaxing evenings together and when we go to bed, we cuddle and fall asleep together.
“When I touch his wings, I get immediately sweaty palms and get excited.”
She also spoke about the time she did get the chance to be up close and personal with her beloved aircraft, saying: “The time in the hangar was the most beautiful moment of my life and when I was with him, we enjoyed our time together, we kissed and I caressed him.”
But like all relationships, they had their difficulties.
Michele previously said: "A relationship with a plane is not easy and at times difficult.
"I can only get close to him when I fly with him or when I can get to him in the hangar, which has only happened once in my life."
The Boeing 737-800, which Michele took to calling Darling, was a major part of her life for nearly a decade, making her decision to disengage in the unique relationship a shocking one.
However, she also has said that the time she did get to spend with Darling were some of the best experiences of her life.
Now, in the wake of her relationship ending, Michele has sold most of her belongings related to the airplane but has not fully disengaged from her atypical relationship type.
"I now love wearing knight’s armor," Köbke explained, now a devoted lover of the Middle Ages.