Did you ever refer to your partner as your best friend? It may sound like a nice term of endearment, but there's a profound significance behind it one that can actually make or destroy the future of your relationship.
A new April 2025 study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships surveyed 940 individuals in a romantic relationship to name their seven closest friends. Surprisingly, researchers did not include a mention of whether or not their partner should be included, it was left to them.
Only 36% included them, and only 39% of those referred to them as their best friend. That's just 14% of the entire group.
So what does it say? It's not love, it's love friendship. And here's why that's more important than you realize.
1. Friendship Ignites Fun and Connection in Love
We want couples to love one another. But how many like each other? That's where friendship comes in.
In agreement with the 2025 study, couples who viewed their partner as a friend particularly a best friend felt closer emotionally. They didn't merely coexist together, they thrived.
This is not new. In 2012, the same journal reported that friendship also predicts greater commitment, romantic satisfaction, and even sexual happiness. When you actually like being around your partner laughing together, enjoying common interests, sharing inside jokes, it becomes less difficult to tackle the day to day.
Consider it: taking out the trash with a date partner could be a drag. But taking it out with your best friend? You're dancing around the kitchen, giggling about nothing, and creating memories out of ordinary moments.
Friendship brings playfulness. It injects lightness into the relationship. And it reminds you that love is not all about passion, it's also about partnership.
2. Real Friendship Adds a Stronger, Voluntary Commitment
One of the most lovely things about friendship is that it's always an option.
You don't have to remain friends with someone if you don't want to. Friendship is built on shared effort, kindness, trust, and happiness. And when your romantic partner is also your friend, the connection becomes more intentional and deeper.
In most relationships, love is expected and something you have to give "unconditional." But with a friend, it's different. You maintain the relationship not because you have to, but because the individual still adds value, laughter, comfort, and peace to your life.
The 2025 research reported that couples that saw their partner as a best friend experienced more feelings of companionship. This speaks of an additional level of choiceful commitment to each other over and over again, not only as lovers but as life-long partners.
Supporting this, a 2017 Journal of Happiness Studies study discovered that married individuals were twice happier when they also counted their spouse among their best friends.
This demonstrates that profound fulfillment in a relationship is not just about romance. It's founded on shared happiness, mutual respect, and emotional security all which come naturally when friendship is at the foundation.
In Conclusion: Friends Who Are Lovers Stick Together Longer
Saying your partner is your best friend isn't cute, it's strength. It means you laugh with each other, encourage one another, and continue to choose each other, not because you're in love but because you enjoy each other.
So next time someone asks who your best friend is, take a second to think. If your partner’s name comes to mind, you’re not just in a relationship. You’re in a true partnership and that’s the kind of love that lasts.