The Breakup Monologues with Rosie Wilby

Rosie chats to comedian Emer Maguire about how a crashed camper van and a free gym membership can help your love life, coming out, moving in with your gay brother when you're both single, how dogs and family help us through heartbreak, the friendships that come back to the fore after a breakup, the particular intensity of lesbian relationships and more.  Recorded at Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival...

Rosie chats to author PJ Ellis about his book We Could Be Heroes, Birmingham, film stars, drag queens, meet cute scenes, happy endings, rom coms, mistaken identities, bumping into an ex with their new partner, good and bad sex, the truth behind queer stereotypes and more.  Recorded at Meet Cute Festival at Home Farm Glamping on 28 June 2025.  You can now follow The Breakup Monologues on Instagram...

Rosie chats to author Lauren Bravo about her book Probably Nothing, people pleasing, the ick, falling in love with someone's family, dating disasters, dating men of different nationalities, couple dates, concealing real life experiences under the cloak of fiction and more.  Recorded in Rosie's back garden on 27 April 2025.  You can now follow The Breakup Monologues on Instagram and Threads @breaku...

In the second half of our live double bill recorded at The Poodle Club on Galentine's Day, Rosie chats to comedian Hatty Ashdown and million-selling author Julie Cohen about bisexuality, divorcing during a pandemic, staying friends with an ex, separating when you have kids, how to flirt with a lesbian, how women should go about letting each other know they're interested, hand signals (and fingers!...

In a live conversation recorded at The Poodle Club on Galentine's Day, Rosie chats to comedian Kate Martin and author Nicola Dinan about queer women staying friends after a breakup, crushes on teachers, writing fiction that draws on real-life experiences, choosing someone nice as opposed to just superficially attractive, recognising people you've rejected on Tinder and much more.  Recorded at The...

In a live conversation recorded at Maidstone Lit Fest, Rosie chats to comedian, actor, writer and broadcaster Maria McErlane about her memoir Bumps in the Road, bicycles as a metaphor for life's ups and downs, the London comedy circuit in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Maria's TV career, her friendship with Graham Norton, Maria's sexual awakening and first heartbreak, celebrity and fame. Recorded...

In an episode recorded in a community garden on New York's Lower East Side, Rosie chats to author and relationship coach Laura Boyle about her book Monogamy? In This Economy?, the relative financial and emotional costs of breakups in monogamous and polyamorous setups, relationship anarchy, metamours, slow breakups, de-escalation and conscious communication skills. They're then joined by storytelle...

In a live episode recorded at Jersey Festival of Words, Rosie chats to author Cathy Rentzenbrink about murderous menopausal thoughts, HRT, marriage, staying friends with an ex, weddings going wrong, how to feel better when times are hard, the healing powers of humour, curiosity, carbs, daylight, words and cold water, cosmic insignificance theory, the meditations of Roman emporer Marcus Aurelius an...

In a live episode recorded at Hoxton Hall, Rosie chats to comedian Jen Ives and writer / performer Emma Frankland about whether we'd go and see an ex doing a show all about their exes, actively choosing to stay in relationships (or not), growing up during the Section 28 years and not having access to information about trans identities, writing for Hollyoaks and much more. We also hear a fantastic...

In a live episode recorded at Hoxton Hall, Rosie chats to comedian Cerys Bradley and broadcaster Shivani Dave about weddings, coming out as nonbinary, when to advise a friend to break up with their partner and the best chocolate treats to turn to after a heartbreak. We also hear some fantastic audience contributions from poet Josi and writer Katie Hall. Recorded at Hoxton Hall, as part of Hackney...

In a live episode recorded at The Exhibit in Balham, Rosie chats to comedians Mary O'Connell, Hajar J. Woodland and Sharlin Jahan about the healing power of comedy, Tig Notaro, bisexuality, getting divorced in your twenties then going to LA and hitting on John Mayer, growing up Muslim, arranged marriages, sex ed lessons, giving yourself permission to cry and whether or not Sainsbury's is the best...

In a live episode recorded at Margate Bookie , Rosie chats to authors Lucy Vine and Olivia Petter plus comedian Zahra Barri about whether we all have seven archetypes of ex - the first love, the work mistake, the friend with benefits, the overlap, the missed chance, the bastard and the serious one, dating app culture, whether marriages should expire after a certain duration, whether there should b...

In a live episode recorded at The Bullingdon as part of IF Oxford, Rosie chats to anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar and author Max Dickins about friendship - why why we need friends, how many friends we can have, friendship breakups, the ambiguous language of friendship, the When Harry Met Sally (or when Sally met Sally) question, Jane Austen's observations on relationships...

In a live episode recorded at The Bill Murray, Rosie chats to comedians Ria Lina, James Barr and Njambi McGrath about first loves, writing a revenge novel, finding a suspicious condom in your partner's bin, living in a house with your ex, polygamy, Njambi's great great grandmother's seven wives, sex party rules, the myth of 'exclusive' dating apps, the challenges of having sex when you have kids a...

In a live episode recorded at Green Man festival, Rosie chats to Vagina Museum founder Florence Schechter and writer Harriet Gibsone about breaking up at a festival, stalking your ex through their Spotify playlists, how social media fuels nostalgia, kissing boys at scout camp, meeting first loves on MSN Messenger, attachment styles, the cultural history of sleeping in separate beds (as a sign of a...

In a live episode recorded at Norwich Arts Centre, Rosie chats to poets Lewis Buxton and James McDermott plus musician Jess Morgan about the challenges of writing poetry about exes, ghosting on the central line, having a best friend steal your girlfriend, dating someone who likes to dress up as a dalek, school crushes, teenage awkwardness, the etiquette of cinema dates, the downsides of dating a c...

In a live episode recorded at Norwich Arts Centre, Rosie chats to musician / comedian Grace Petrie and writer / performer Molly Naylor about ego and rejection, the challenge of writing good songs when you're happy, crushes on straight girls, being 'pre-dumped', role models, bisexuality, butch identities, gender nonconformity, dogging and much much more.  Recorded at Norwich Arts Centre on 27 July...

In an episode recorded backstage at Soho Theatre, Rosie chats to comedian Ed Byrne about whether tragedy plus time really does equal comedy, the healthy aspects of breakups, checking out of a relationship in order to make the other person dump you, why unrequited love leaves such an impression on us, advising friends after a breakup and having to take sides in a separation.    Recorded backstage a...

In the second of two live episodes recorded at Cambridge Junction, Rosie chats to comedians Darran Griffiths and Ali Warwood about parenting, finding the right time to break up with someone, why women initiate the majority of breakups, reuniting with an ex via Facebook, meeting a partner via eBay feedback forums, early 90s dating sites, dick pics and some fabulous stories submitted by the audience...

I n a live episode recorded at Cambridge Junction, Rosie chats to comedians Stephanie Laing and James Ross about trying polyamory then having two breakups on the same day, being dumped by someone who was bribed by wealthy parents to do so, how to stop making bad choices, whether you can train a bad kisser and turn them into a good one, partners who completely disappear and get reported as missing,...

In a live episode recorded at Kite Festival, Rosie chats to comedian Lou Sanders about doing a gig on the day of a big breakup, breaking up just before Edinburgh Fringe, getting all your wardrobe space back, imagining your ex with a new partner as a way of getting over them, spirituality, dating apps and much more… then hear from members of the audience about breakups that happened just prior to t...

In a brief break between live episodes, Rosie presents some recent highlights recorded at Brighton Spiegeltent, Poplar Union and Green Man festival. Please note that the clip of Kat Lister at Green Man is a little quieter than the others due to the nature of recording at festivals.    You can now follow The Breakup Monologues on Instagram @breakupmonologues and buy The Breakup Monologues book from...

In a live episode recorded at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, Rosie chats to comedians Eleri Morgan and Dan Thomas about separating during a pandemic and sleeping on a table, having bad taste in men as a strategy for not settling down, the relative pros and cons of various dating apps, the number of friends we can have, friendship breakups, the binary choices we were faced with during lockdown and...

In a live episode recorded at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, Rosie chats to neuroscientist and bestselling author Dean Burnett about stressful life events, how science measures sexual arousal, why female orgasms are easier to record in the lab, the psychological stages of love, the use of psychedelics in sex and relationships, why there's never been a satisfactory female equivalent to Viagra, how...

In a live episode recorded at Poplar Union, Rosie chats to comedians and podcasters Margaret Cabourn-Smith and Gráinne Maguire about unrequited love, how our early crushes set the template for our adult relationships, whether it's ok to fancy other people when you're in a relationship, marriage and how we escape being defined by it, nostalgia for celebrity couples that didn't stay together, Hugh G...