Featured Image Credit: ITV/Instagram
Topics: Sex and Relationships, This Morning
Emily Puckering
A woman who gave up her career in order to 'obey' her husband has revealed he gives her an allowance - and she couldn't be happier with her controversial lifestyle.
Alena is one of many women who have given up their careers to be a trad wife - a growing community of women who are stepping back in time and 'submitting to their husbands', spending their days cooking, cleaning and being stay-at-home mums - with some even wearing traditional 1950's attire.
While this lifestyle certainly isn't for everyone, Alena appeared on ITV's This Morning back in 2020 to explain why being a trad wife is exactly what she's been longing for in life.
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Despite originally having a career as a marketing manager in the beauty industry, Alena didn't feel fulfilled with her life and found that she truly 'flourished' when at home.
Thanks to the encouragement of her husband - who she met through her job - Alena eventually handed in her notice at her job (which her husband wrote for her) and acknowledged her other half for 'identifying' that she needed to get out of the 'unnatural environment' of her workplace.
Alena's life now revolves around 'obeying' her husband, with her admitting to hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield: "I did [say obey in my wedding vows]... well, there are certain things I don't obey about, as in any marriage, but because he is the bread winner, that's his department to look after our family - it's almost like a business!"
She then added: "He oversees major finances, so if I obviously want to spend some money on new sofas, he'll say no as that's because he knows what's coming in and going out."
Alena also admitted that her husband gives her an allowance, which is essentially 'housekeeping money' that's no different from getting a paycheck and half of it going on things like taxes, rent, mortgage rates, and insurance.
"I get the money to look after my department, which is the consumables of the household like food and fuel for the car," she explained.
"And then, of course, there's some in there for me. And if I'm really frugal with it, whatever is left is mine - he's not pouring over my receipts saying that I'm going a good job and being a good little wifey."
Alena then went on to stress that being a trad wife is a choice and how she - and many other housewives - feel degraded for choosing to focus on looking after their homes and husbands.
"So many women say 'I feel so glad that you are finally speaking up' because the narrative is what do you do and they say I'm 'just' a housewife." she said.
"We've actually got 20 jobs to do and it's a lot of multi-tasking, a lot of caretaking of other people and we do it all the time. There's no day off so it is a job."