History Main / FakeRelationship

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Contrast SecretRelationship. See also FakeOutMakeOut, MarriageBeforeRomance (when the fake relationship becomes real) and MarriageOfConvenience.

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* ''Fanfic/WhiteSheep'': Weiss claims Jaune is her boyfriend to throw her sister Winter off the scent when Winter comes too close to discovering the illegal events they were recently involved in (they botched a police sting operation). Funnily enough, Weiss is one of the only named female characters who [[UnwantedHarem isn't secretly in love with Jaune]]. The ones who are, however, are surprisingly okay with the fake relationship, since Jaune is too honest to take advantage. Besides, they're also on the hook for the illegal stuff if Winter investigates too closely.

* ''Fanfic/WhiteSheep'': Weiss claims Jaune is her boyfriend to throw her sister Winter off the scent when Winter comes too close to discovering the illegal events they were recently involved in (they botched a police sting operation). Funnily enough, Weiss is one of the only name female characters who [[UnwantedHarem isn't secretly in love with Jaune]]. The ones who are, however, are surprisingly okay with the fake relationship, since Jaune is too honest to take advantage. Besides, they're also on the hook for the illegal stuff if Winter investigates too closely.

* Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn currently has over [[https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Fake*s*Pretend%20Relationship/works 16 000 fics]] with the fat "Fake/Pretend Relationship".

* In ''Manga/ScumsWish'', Hanabi Yasuraoka and Mugi Awaya are going out together, but the couple loves someone else -- their teachers.

** One of these occur after Ukyo mistakes Ranma's guilt induced kindness as affection she tries getting closer to him and even starts living with him. So in order to get Ukyo to leave, Ranma and Akane are forced to pretend to already be married, when they're actually just reluctantly engaged at that point. It doesn't fool Ukyo though who keeps making moves towards Ranma.

* In "LightNovel/MahouSensou", the protagonist Takeshi Nanase established a fake relationship with his childhood friend Kurumi Isoshima in order to ward off numerous men who pursue her, especially after a traumatic incident with a stalker.
* In ''Manga/{{SPYXFAMILY}}'' Lloyd and Yoru start a fake relationship for their own reasons: Lloyd wants to get his daughter Anya into an elite school and will look more legitimate with a wife, and Yoru wants to escape the scrutiny cast on unwed women in the ultra-paranoid ColdWar-esque climate of their country. The twist is Lloyd- aka the elite spy <Twilight>- wants to get his "daughter" into the school to get close to his mark, while Yoru is trying to avoid unwanted suspicions because she's actually the deadly assassin <Thorn Princess>.

* In the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' book ''Bluestar's Prophecy'', Bluefur becomes pregnant as the result of a ForbiddenRomance with a cat from another Clan. Her Clanmate Thrushpelt - who she was friends with and who had unrequited feelings for her - offered to pretend that he was the father in order to help her out. Bluefur decided to not outright ''tell'' everyone that he was, he still loved the kits as if they were his own and behaved as if they were, and both of them were fine with everyone assuming that they were mates.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho''-episode "The Time of the Doctor", Clara accidentally told her relatives that she had a boyfriend, leading her to call the Doctor in a blind panic.

* In ''Manga/{{SPYXFAMILY}}'' Lloyd and Yoru pretend to be husband and wife for their own purposes, the twist being that Yoru doesn't know Lloyd is actually the master spy <Twilight> while Lloyd is unaware that Yoru is the assassin known as <Thorn Princess>.

* In {{SPYXFAMILY}} Lloyd and Yoru pretend to be husband and wife for their own purposes, the twist being that Yoru doesn't know Lloyd is actually the master spy <Twilight> while Lloyd is unaware that Yoru is the assassin known as <Thorn Princess>.

* In the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' book ''Bluestar's Prophecy'', Bluefur becomes pregnant as the result of a ForbiddenRelationship with a cat from another Clan. Her Clanmate Thrushpelt - who she was friends with and who had unrequited feelings for her - offered to pretend that he was the father in order to help her out. Bluefur decided to not outright ''tell'' everyone that he was, he still loved the kits as if they were his own and behaved as if they were, and both of them were fine with everyone assuming that they were mates.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'', Princess Caroline makes Todd pretend to be dating Courtney Pourtenoy in order to give her a down-to-earth image and promote her new movie. It backfires as Todd accidentally becomes a famous model.
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* In ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'', Princess Caroline makes Todd pretend to be dating Courtney Pourtenoy in order to give her a down-to-earth image and promote her new movie. It backfires as Todd accidentally becomes a famous model.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Disenchantment}},'' [[TheConscience Elfo]] makes up a [[GirlfriendInCanada Girlfriend in a Faraway Land]] to try to distract from his obvious feelings for [[RebelliousPrincess Bean]]. Unfortunately, Bean wants to "reunite" them, and her knights bring back [[GentleGiant Tess]], a [[OurGiantsAreBigger giantess]] who happens to fit the description Elfo gave. Elfo begs Tess to maintain the lie through the upcoming royal ball.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'', Penny and Sticky get into one of these because the former (begrudgingly) wanted to assist the latter in gaining back Dijonay's affections for him.

* The premise of ''{{Manga/Nisekoi}}'', translated as "False Love". The lead characters are pressured into pretending to be in a romantic relationship to keep their FeudingFamilies from getting out of hand.

Naturally, there's a high likelihood of them BecomingTheMask, or at least one character claiming ItMeantSomethingToMe.

Supertrope of UndercoverAsLovers, OperationJealousy, TheBeard, CitizenshipMarriage, ShockValueRelationship, BoyfriendBluff. '''Please only add examples that don't fit on these subtropes.'''

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* In ''Film/VictorVictoria'', when Victoria starts masquerading as the female impersonator Victor, she and Toddy pretend to be lovers.

** This occurs during one of the most confusing love triangles ever to exist. Ukyo finds herself being [[StalkerWithACrush pursued by]] Tsubasa. So in order to try and get rid of Tsubasa, seemingly a girl who loves dressing up, Ukyo pretends to be in a full blooming relationship with Ranma (they are supposedly engaged, but haven't become serious). However, given Ranma is a SexShifter and Ukyo [[SweetPollyOliver dresses like a boy]], she told Tsubasa that she was with Ranma's girl form. Upon finally being rejected by Ukyo enough times, Tsubasa gives up and starts falling for girl Ranma. The kicker is that, Tsubasa is actually a boy crossdressing and always knew that Ukyo was secretly a girl, rather than a [[MistakenForGay girl attracted to girls]] as everyone had initially thought.

''I don't know if this will generate many examples that don't fall under subtropes, but seems like a case of MissingSupertropeSyndrome.''

Supertrope of UndercoverAsLovers, OperationJealousy, TheBeard, CitizenshipMarriage, ShockValueRelationship, BoyfriendBluff.