Relationship and Sex Therapist
Partner – Family Law Beecham
Peacock Solicitors
Relationship and Sex Therapist Georgina Vass and Divorce Lawyer Charlotte Talbot Dissect the Ramifications of Rising Porn Addiction in the UK.
Pornography – and the UK’s relationship with it – has come under the spotlight repeatedly throughout 2025. From the introduction of the Online Safety Act, designed to restrict access to explicit content for under-18s, to Strictly Come Dancing star Ore Oduba’s brave admission of a 30-year pornography addiction that he says “destroyed his life inside out,” the national conversation has intensified.
Now, most recently, Pornhub — the largest pornography site in the world — has released its statistical round-up of the UK’s pornography habits in 2025. The findings have coincided with recent reports of ‘out of control’ pornography use by therapists, and point to a growing appetite for increasingly extreme and addictive content.
This extreme content can be seen in the rise of controversial UK porn actors, including Bonnie Blue and Lily Phillips, both of whom became the subjects of widely discussed documentaries this year examining the personal and psychological impact of producing extreme pornography.
To explore the impact pornography addiction is having on married couples and help those affected by pornography addiction in 2026, we spoke to Sex Therapist Georgina Vass and Family Law Divorce Lawyer Charlotte Talbot from Beecham Peacock.
Where in the UK is searching for Pornhub’s top searches?
In Pornhub’s 2025 report, the top-searched terms for pornographic content include ‘Milf’, ‘Lesbian’ and ‘British’ porn. When we cross-reference these popular categories with Google searches from the UK’s main cities, we gain insight into which UK cities are engaging with popular explicit content the most.
While these results don’t necessarily indicate addiction, they do show that Leeds, Newcastle and Bristol take the top spots when it comes to Googling t
he UK’s most commonly searched porn categories – which could be reflective of increased porn use overall.
What is meant by porn addiction?
“First off, scientifically, there is not yet such a thing as a porn addiction, in the medical sense,” clarifies Vass. “When we think about excessive porn consumption, it’s usually classified as an impulse control disorder, and like other disorders, such as personality or anxiety disorders, it can strain intimacy and connection in romantic relationships.
“There is absolutely a context where pornography can be consumed healthily within relationships, but pornography dependence is evident and problematic when it negatively affects someone’s mental, physical, social, occupational or financial wellbeing and cannot be voluntarily curtailed.”
The impact on intimacy and relationships
“If a person finds that the time spent consuming porn is interfering with or is replacing time spent connecting with their partner, then that can be problematic,” Vass continues. “Porn can create unrealistic expectations of body standards, illicit a change in sexual responses, detach sex from emotional context and fuel gendered stereotypes, which over time may distort how people view their real-life relationships.
“As a general rule, if porn use begins to create psychological distress or you notice that it’s getting in the way of socialising, work commitments or other meaningful things in your life – then its use is becoming problematic and will likely be affecting your intimacy and relationship. For example, this can manifest in unexplained, negative changes to sexual functioning with your partners.”
“Intimacy breakdown is a natural part of couples drifting apart, provided the divorce hasn’t been caused by a single, catastrophic incident – such as cheating, or any other irreparable form of breaking trust,” adds divorce lawyer, Charlotte Talbot. “We’ve increasingly seen crippling pornography use play a part in divorce, as the partner without the dependency on porn leaves the situation if a couple cannot get past it.”
Can a marriage recover from porn addiction?
“You and your partner can create whatever version of a relationship you both want; you’re both writing the script,” says Vass, “so long-term relationships can recover from most things if both partners are committed to the work.
“Couples who choose to recommit can repair with open communication, trust building and allowing each other time to forgive. Joint therapy can help, as some couples find it difficult to communicate effectively without strong emotions when the addressed problem is still fresh.
“For a marriage to recover, the individual who’s struggling with porn use must address the problem affecting the relationship,” Vass continues. “Successful recovery from porn dependency looks like decreased frequency and duration of use and a reduction in cravings – it’s about regaining control.
“For the couple as a unit, recovery includes forgiveness, removing the temptation to weaponise the problem, and maintaining hope and optimism for their future.”
Can porn addiction become a legal matter in divorce?
“UK divorce law is now no-fault, meaning the court isn’t concerned with assigning blame,” Talbot explains. “However, that doesn’t mean behaviour within a marriage is irrelevant. When excessive pornography use contributes to emotional neglect, secrecy, financial strain or a breakdown in trust, it can form part of the wider circumstances behind why a relationship has irretrievably broken down and form a point of reference in extreme cases concerning abuse.
“Generally, pornography use tends to sit alongside other relationship difficulties,” Talbot says. “Some clients have noted pornography addiction as a key driver that led to feeling disconnected, unsupported or unable to continue in the marriage – and when that happens, the law focuses on fairness and wellbeing.
“From a legal perspective, most implications concern cases where addiction to adult material is extreme, potentially impacting child access arrangements,“ Talbot explains. “Addressing problematic behaviour early – whether through communication, therapy or professional support – can make a significant difference to both personal outcomes and legal ones.”
Read more articles by Beecham Peacock LLP.
About Charlotte Talbot
Charlotte is a Partner in the Family Department at Beecham Peacock LLP. She specialises in all aspects of Family Law. Charlotte qualified from Northumbria University on the LLB Exempting Degree in 2004 and started her training contact with Beecham Peacock in August 2004 and qualified as a Solicitor in 2006. She has been based in the Family Department since qualification and became a member of the Law Society Children Panel Accreditation Scheme in July 2010. She is also a member of the Law Society Family Law Accreditation Scheme and Resolution. Charlotte has extensive experience in all areas of Family Law.
About Georgina Vass
As a relationship and sex therapist, with over 15 years of academic and professional experience in sex-education and mental health services, Georgina offers a sex-positive approach to individuals and couples.
Using a combination of warmth and humor, along with a background in CBT, psychotherapy, and family therapy in New York City and Brighton, she strive’s to offer her clients an integrative approach using a variety of evidence-based tools to reduce the difficulties that they are experiencing and collaborate with them to enable more helpful changes.
Georgina also adopts a biopsychosocial approach to consider my client’s biology, psychology, physical health, emotional wellbeing, and environment and how these factors relate to create a full picture of their presenting issues.
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