‘Fictosexuality’ explained as number of people who are coming out is on the rise

A rising trend in human sexuality has left people stumped, with more and more people declaring their love for someone, or something, that could never love them back.

For many of us, developing the hots for a fictional character is just a bit of fun, whether that's fantasizing about the distant Mr Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, or gruff Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, or even the anthropomorphized rabbit Lola Bunny in Space Jam.

But for some 'fictosexuals', this attraction to figments of the imagination is anything but imaginary, sparking an intense romance and even relationship with something that does not even exist.

So, what on Earth is 'fictosexuality' and how does it work? While it might seem yet another strange quirk of recent years, it has likely been around for some time and some of its practicers have even got married - including Akihiko Kondo, who married a holographic pop star in 2018.

Some people can see their boyfriend whenever they load up their favorite game or open a book (Getty Stock Image)

Therapist and gender expert Rebecca Minor defined the sexuality to Cosmopolitan as: "Fictosexuality is a sexual orientation where someone feels drawn—emotionally, romantically, or sexually—to fictional characters, sometimes more than they do to real people"

Kondo has described himself as a fictosexual, after going to great lengths to tie the knot with his virtual wife, Hatsune Miku, using a subscription device that allowed him to marry a hologram of the AI pop star. The whole process cost him $15,000.

Minor went on to explain how some people's passion for their favorite characters can run deep. She said: “For folks who identify this way, those connections aren’t imaginary or surface-level—they’re deeply felt and genuinely meaningful.”

Marrying a virtual spouse might seem pointless, but for the Japanese fictosexual, it gave him a sense of security that no human partner could guarantee. He said Miku will 'always be there for him, never betray him, and he’ll never have to see her get ill or die.'

A rising number of people are finding love in the virtual space (Getty Stock Images)

A researcher at University of Paris Nanterre, Agnès Giard, has put forward that the impossibility of rejection from these fictional characters is part of what makes them appealing, adding that some practitioners use their virtual relationships as 'a way to challenge gender, matrimonial, and social norms.'

While characters like Heathcliff might come with no end of baggage, none of it can surprise you as their character and backstory are fixed and written down for all to see. Even better, it's easy to end a relationship that becomes toxic, as you just have to put the book down.

But as Kondo found in his marriage to virtual pop princess Miku, the best laid plans of men and their virtual spouses often go awry. Despite finding a 'woman' who could never leave him, or do anything for that matter, he still ended up alone.

The company that allowed him to interact with the virtual hologram of Miku collapsed in 2025, shutting down their servers. And just like that, Kondo's AI wife had been muted forever, leaving him alone once more.