A mother who used to breastfeed her husband while she was also nursing her children has reflected on her unconventional show of affection 18 months after it went viral.
Rachel Bailey, 32, and her husband Alexander, also 32, filmed a new vlog that showed them sitting down to watch an episode of My Strange Addiction, in which they revealed their ununsual practice to the world.
At the time of filming, the mother-of-three said it was ‘not a kink’ but a way for she and Alexander to bond emotionally and grow closer.
She started breastfeeding her husband in 2016, when they went on a cruise holiday away from their children, who she was still nursing.
But Rachel had forgotten her breast pump, which left her ‘badly engorged’ and ‘in so much pain’.
In an effort to help relieve her pain, Alexander drank milk from her breasts. According to Rachel, it “created a more special bond between us which we never would have had if we didn’t start this”.
Now, though, both Rachel and Alexander seem to feel differently about the practice, having stopped since 2023 after their youngest child was weaned.
In their recent vlog, the pair get ready to watch the episode, which Rachel had seen parts of but Alexander had never watched because he ‘never cared to’.
“This actually would be my first time [legitimately] watching it… I may not be able to get through it,” he admitted at the start of the YouTube vlog.
The pair got comfortable on their sofa and start watching the episode of My Strange Addiction.
Before they got to their own story, though, the pair briefly watched the story of a man whose ‘addiction’ was to eating raw chicken.
“His episode seems a little crazier than our episode,” Rachel said. “And yet, our episode was the craziest.”
Once they began watching themselves on TV, Rachel let out a scream of excitement, while Alexander appeared to try and hide his embarrassment by laughing at the screen.
Asking Alexander how he felt about watching the first part of the episode for the first time, he replied: “My thoughts are [that] it’s unreal. It’s like it didn’t happen, but it happened. It’s just wild. I don’t even know, I have no words.”
He added that he was having an ‘out-of-body experience’ watching himself and his wife on TV.
Rachel said she couldn’t believe they were 29 years old when they filmed the episode, and on seeing herself breastfeeding Alexander, she declared: “It’s cringe!”
When another clip of Alexander drinking from her breast appeared, Rachel said she ‘couldn’t even watch’ and panned to Alexander, who had an uncomfortable expression on his face.
They hit pause and Rachel said: ‘You can tell that we barely watched this episode because I have never heard this background music before.
It was very hard for us.’
She described the episode as ‘cringe’ a second time, while Alexander can be heard saying: ‘This is insane.’
Towards the end of the video, Rachel admitted that they could not sit through the whole episode.
“We could not watch the whole thing, I gotta be honest with you,” she said. “Maybe years from now.
“It’s funny to watch because it was an amazing experience but it feels like we didn’t do this, but we did this.”
Alexander added: ‘It’s definitely a once in a lifetime experience, hence why we did it, it’s not something you would experience everyday, going on My Strange Addiction.
Rachel asked her husband if people still approach him to talk about the episode, but he said they no longer do.
“Things go like this,’ Alexander said, snapping his fingers. ‘Things are on and off, hot and cold, so once one thing’s gone, the next thing pops up so they move on with that. Nobody talks about it anymore, which is fine, it’s cool.”
While Rachel was still breastfeeding Alexander, she claimed he became healthier and his skin improved as a result of drinking her milk.
At the time, she said he had not gotten a cold in two years and received plenty of compliments on his skin.
They acknowledged the practice might be ‘a bit of a taboo subject’, but added that they were not embarrassed by it because they ‘don’t think it’s bad’.
When Rachel was producing the most milk shortly after giving birth, Alexander was drinking from her breasts ‘three to four times a day’ and always only after her children had been fed.
“I love breastfeeding him as it allows us to spend quality time together. It’s definitely brought us closer as a couple,” she explained.
“We realised there was nothing wrong with me breastfeeding him, and it would actually be good for him as it is so nutritious.
“He didn’t get a cold for two years after he started drinking my milk and so many people said his skin was so much better too.
“It’s not a kink for us. It started as Alexander just helping me out when I was in pain, but it turned into more of an emotional bonding thing.”
But eventually all three of their children were weaned off breast milk, which meant Alexander also had to stop drinking it.
Rachel said last year that when this happened, the couple ‘grieved’ their ‘bonding experience’ and they even considered having a fourth child so they could continue.
“We grieved that bonding experience that we shared, and we even spoke about having one more baby so that we could do it again,” Rachel said.
“However, we realized that was drastic action to take and a lot of work, so instead we began looking for other ways that we could bond as a couple.”
Instead, they now get up at 5 am each morning to catch up and meditate before getting on with the rest of their day.
“It was never a sexual thing for us. We did it because it was an amazing way for us to bond and share something special as a couple,” Rachel said.
“We really miss the breastfeeding times that we shared, but we have found new ways to connect.”
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