This Valentine’s Day, the romance isn’t so sweet — as toxic romance is having a moment in pop culture.
A new steamy “Wuthering Heights” movie premieres Feb. 13, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. It’s advertising itself as a love story – even though the relationship between Cathy (Robbie) and Heathcliff (Elordi) is notoriously destructive, dating back to the 1847 novel.
On the small screen, Hulu series “Tell Me Lies,” currently in Season 3, also continues to enjoy popularity, as it depicts a messy relationship between Lucy (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen (Jackson White).
Ryan Murphy’s latest show, “Love Story” premieres Feb. 12 (9 p.m on FX / Hulu), also dramatizing the famously tumultous relationship between John F. Kennedy Jr. (Paul Kelly) and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy (Sarah Pidgeon).
“There’s nothing wrong with watching fiction. As long as you understand and you recognize that it’s not aspirational,” Dr. Laura Berman, a relationship therapist and host of “Language of Love Podcast” told Page Six.
The appeal of watching a toxic romance onscreen boils down to the fact that, “We all love a train wreck,” she explained.
That’s been cultivated by reality TV, she said.
“Therapists call it repetition compulsion. It’s that part of us that wants the love we never could have, or the love that got away, or the unrequited love, and identifies with a character getting it.”
There’s a reason why the trope is popular in 2026.
“I think we’re in an era of major emotional burnout,” said Berman, who also wrote the book “Sex Magic: Take Your Body, Mind, and Relationship to the Next Level with Spectacular Intimacy.” She noted that these days, people are “looking for a massive distraction” or are “feeling numb.”
“Toxic love stories really thrive when people are craving feeling something. People equate intensity with aliveness. I think also they’re having a moment because we’re living in times when life feels really uncertain. Intensity can feel like intimacy.”
Dr. Jacquie Del Rosario, relationship expert and dating coach, told Page Six that she doesn’t see the prevalence of toxic relationships in TV shows and movies to be concerning.
“I think it is good, if we can make the conversation productive,” she said. “If we can talk about it, so that people can have awareness of what constitutes toxic relationships – but also, if we can give some of them additional tips, so that they’re able to apply that in their own lives or to have that awareness.”
She added that she sees the topic as timeless, because, “People are very concerned about their human needs for us to connect, be loved, give love. So, of course, people are always going to be interested in toxic relationships, because so many of them don’t work.”
But, Berman said that does get “dangerous” when audiences “confuse what they see in the movies for what they should expect in a real relationship.”
Del Rosario said she’s hopeful that when audiences watch a movie like “Wuthering Heights,” it can be a “mirror” for some viewers, and make them ask themselves, “what will I take and what will I demand or desire from my relationships?”
Toxic romances endure in pop culture because they also “feed our dopamine addiction,” Berman noted, referring to the reward center in our brains that also gets activated through drugs, and getting “likes” on social media.
She explained that the culture is currently, “pretty dopamine addicted.”
“Dopamine and dopamine centers also get activated when something is adventurous. When you do something scary, as well as when you’re doing something emotionally scary.”
In a toxic relationship, she explained, “your brain gets addicted to the dopamine highs of having love withdrawn and given back, withdrawn and given back.”
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