Is it possible to have a successful friendship with an ex?

Of course it is. I have 3 ex-girlfriends that I am good friends with. One of whom is actually one of my oldest and best friends.

Yes.I am very good friends with an ex-boyfriend “A” and will occasionally get a call from someone I have dated.
Psycho Bob “B“is not one of them!—Whew! XD

Yep, I don’t see why not. I’m still friends with 2 ex boyfriends. They’re good guys – why throw the baby out with the bath water and all that?

I am still very good friends with my last ex. We went out for 10 years. So, yes.

More often than not, at least for me.

Yes, it is possible. Sometimes it’ll take time to do it, but it’s definately possible.

Absolutely… not only is it possible but it does happen, it happened to me, a person I was in a relationship with 5½ years has become one of my closest, most intimate friends.

It’s very possible. I’m friends with two ex-boyfriends and one ex-husband.

Not to sound contrary.. but perhaps this is unique to my situation. Once I married there was no way my husband would tolerate my maintaining friendships with “old boyfriends”.
I think this has a lot more to do with his jealousy than anything else—but for the sake of our marriage I’ve not maintained friendships with any ex boyfriends.

An ex still calls me every Christmas and when her husband is driving her off the deep end. I am her Dr Phil I guess. I get face booked now and then by the ex X and that is darn creepy to me.

Definitely. An ex from high school is a close friend, others are friends.

Yes, definitely….one of my exes is one of my best friends…and has been since Paleolithic times. He is part of my “friend package”...meaning that when I start dating someone, he is part of the triad of friends that new men in my life meet.

Wow. Looks like I’m in the minority here. I’ve had zero luck with this one. Zero. Most of my relationships ended like a comet crashing to Earth. The others I was just so disgusted I never wanted to know that person on any level after that. Hmmm.

I am facebook friends with quite a few former lovers. but they don’t live near here, and it’s hard to say what the friendships would be like if they were local.

Possible? Yes. But it’s not an outcome I’d want to bet on for any given relationship.

But maybe it matters what you mean by “ex.” These days people seem to use “ex” for just about anybody they used to date and not just for someone who is an ex-spouse or a partner nearly as serious as that. Perhaps evolving into friendship is more common for casual exes than for those with whom things went pretty deep for pretty long before they fell apart.

Yes – But. You can call it “a friendship seen through the lens of time”. If you were calling, texting and hanging out daily, (whether you admit it or not) that would put an unnecessary stress on your existing relationship. Put your effort where it counts – on your new partner.

@Jeruba These days people seem to use “ex” for just about anybody they used to date… Tell me about it! I was going to comment on the same thing : ^)

@Adagio @Jeruba I didn’t know (when I learned the word) that there were these ‘days’ when it meant something else. Obviously, the word evolved.