Frank Eric Blackcloud II proposed to Tatyana Brown eight years ago. They still haven’t married.
They did, however, add a third partner to the relationship, move her in, and start raising three children as a unit of five.
Eric, 40, Tatyana, 33, and Lexi Bowman, 26, live together in San Diego with Oliver, 13, Sage, 7, and five-year-old Naiomi.
He works in pest control. Tatyana is a tattoo artist. Lexi is a dog groomer.
Between them, they split the cooking, the garden, the school runs, the homework and the bills.
They are aware this is not how most people do it.
How the throuple formed
Eric and Tatyana met 11 years ago as friends before becoming a couple. After Tatyana came out as bisexual, they began cautiously exploring non-monogamy.
It didn’t stick the first time. They stepped back, did what Tatyana calls “personal work,” and reopened polyamory at the start of 2025.
Tatyana had stayed loosely in touch with Lexi, having met her briefly before. A month of friendship turned into something else.
“After taking another month to talk openly and make sure everyone felt secure, the three of us agreed to explore a relationship together,” Tatyana told Creatorzine. “Lexi now lives with us full time while maintaining her own space for work.”
Family reactions ranged from warm to cautious
Lexi’s mother wasn’t fazed by polyamory itself but had questions about the 14-year age gap between her daughter and Eric. Holidays spent together and seeing the household run smoothly brought her round.
Eric’s father has been supportive. His mother is still processing. Tatyana’s mother, who had seen this before, focused her concern on the children. That faded once she saw day-to-day life in the house.
“She and Lexi have even formed their own friendly connection,” Tatyana said.
Some friendships did not survive. A few people who initially pulled away came back once they saw the relationship up close. “Familiarity changes perception,” Tatyana said.
Telling the kids
The trio introduced Lexi gradually. No announcements, no fanfare. She turned up in low-key settings, asked the children about their interests, and let them set the pace.
Oliver, the eldest, had practical questions. “His main concern was whether anything would change in terms of stability or attention,” Tatyana said.
“Once he understood that the structure of our home wasn’t changing and that he wasn’t losing time with either parent, he was comfortable.”
The younger two wanted to know if Lexi would be around to do fun things with them. That was about it.
Jealousy, Pokémon GO and scheduled honesty
Jealousy has come up. Tatyana is direct about that. When Eric went back to full-time work and the two women had more flexible schedules, the imbalance in time together created friction.
Their solution was structure. They built regular check-ins, carved out private and shared time, and picked up Pokémon GO as a hobby that belonged to all three of them rather than to work or parenting.
“For us, jealousy hasn’t been about ownership,” Tatyana said. “It’s been about unmet needs or lack of communication. Once we learned how to address those directly, it became much less intimidating.”
Finances, chores and the joint account
Each adult owns one core area of the household. Tatyana runs the kitchen. Lexi handles the garden. Eric does heavier maintenance and, professionally speaking, keeps the house pest-free. School pickups and homework fall to Tatyana and Lexi. A joint bank account is in the works.
The children contribute too. “We believe part of being a family is learning how to contribute and support one another,” Tatyana said.
Why it matters
Polyamorous families are not new, but ones willing to talk publicly about the logistics of raising children, splitting money and managing jealousy still are.
The creator economy rewards personal storytelling, and relationship content that breaks from the conventional format tends to generate strong engagement in both directions.
For creators building an audience around family life, the template is widening.
Non-traditional family structures are showing up more frequently across social platforms, pushed partly by audiences who want content that reflects a broader range of how people actually live.
Whether the interest is supportive or voyeuristic varies by comment section.
Tatyana, Eric and Lexi say they are now formalising their finances and continuing to build routines that hold the household together.
Whether public attention helps or complicates that is something they will find out in real time.
