History Main / FakeRelationship

* In ''Manga/ScumsWish'', Hanabi Yasuraoka and Mugi Awaya are going out together, but they both love someone else -- their teachers.

* In ''Manga/KoiToUso'', there are severe social consequences for not going through with your BureaucraticallyArrangedMarriage. Yajima and his arranged fiance feel no connection and haven't willingly spent time together in years (in large part because he still loves his ex-girlfriend), but both claim to be in love and ready to marry any day because otherwise their careers would be in jeopardy.
* In ''LightNovel/MagicalWarfare'', 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.

* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'': Mizuki does this when her boyfriend, Shirai, dumps her only days before she was to going to introduce him to her middle-school friends and prove she wasn't [[GirlfriendInCanada just making him up]]. Desperate to save face, she decides to recruit the best looking guy that will humor her request to pose as Shirai for the duration of the date. Unfortunately for her, the boy she ended up recruiting was [[NoSocialSkills Sousuke]], and things go very, very badly.
* Seigi pretends to be Richard's boyfriend (against Richard's wishes!) in ''LightNovel/TheCaseFilesOfJewelerRichard'' so he can pretend to marry Richard and save him from a will. They don't actually get married.

* ''Fanfic/WhiteSheepRWBY'': 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/WrongRoadToTheRightPlace:'' Once Laurel starts working with Team Arrow, she and Oliver 'pretend' to start dating again to justify the time they're spending together. It becomes increasingly difficult to tell if they're faking it or actually dating, [[spoiler:until they admit that they still love each other in Chapter 15]].

* In ''Film/{{Rags}}'', Kadee and Finn aren't actually dating, it's just a business arrangement by the record label to get them both more attention. When they "break up", Kadee just wants to find Rags, while Finn just cares about getting less of the spotlight.

* ''Series/TheBarrier'': Hugo, who was secretly recently widowed, really needs a job. The opening he gets via a old friend of his mother-in-law expects a married couple to show up. It just so happens that Hugo's wife had a twin sister who is still alive. One of the side effects of the deception is that they need to pretend to be married. Fortunately, this is realatively easy to fake because Hugo's sister-in-law cares deeply about him and his daughter.
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': While Lily is broken up from Marshall, she is looking for a place to live and persuades [[TheCasanova Barney]] to let her stay with him for a few days. He is at first reluctant, but after one of his one-night stands refuses to leave Lily manages to scare her away after the girl sees her and assumes she's Barney's wife. They spend the next few weeks pretending to be married. Their arrangement falls apart once Barney realizes even pretending to be married is too close to actually being married and he kicks Lily out.
-->'''Lily:''' Hi, Barney. ''(sees girl)'' Oh...\\
'''Girl:''' Oh my God, are you married? Is this your wife?\\
'''Barney:''' No...yes!
* ''Series/GetSmart'': Two KAOS agents once pretended to be in love, sharing a public kiss to escape detection by CONTROL. Max and 99 likewise often masqueraded as a married couple on missions before [[RelationshipUpgrade they got hitched for real]].

* The premise of the {{britcom}} ''Series/{{Spaced}}'' is that the main characters believe they have a SingleIssueLandlord who will only rent the flat to a couple. It eventually turns out this was all based on a misprinted advertisement.
* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'':
** Frasier pretends to be Roz's date at a family reunion when she's recently been dumped and can't face her competitive, passive-aggressive sisters.
** Martin pretends to date the mother of Frasier's SitcomArchNemesis as a prank on the pair of them.

-->'''Clara:''' Emergency: you're my boyfriend.
-->'''The Doctor:''' Ding dong, okay, ''brilliant!'' I may be a bit rusty in some areas but I will glance at a manual!
-->'''Clara:''' No no, you're not actually my boyfriend.
-->'''The Doctor:''' ''(disappointed)'' Oh, that was quick. It's a rollercoaster, this phone call.
-->'''Clara:''' But I need a boyfriend really quickly!
-->'''The Doctor:''' Well, I hope you're nicer to the next one.
* ''Series/TheWire'': Cedric Daniels actually was in a relationship with his wife Marla (obviously), but they have secretly broken up just when her career in politics is about to take off. Daniels is actually involved with Pearlman at that point, but for public appearance's sake, he still shows up to a dinner his wife is hosting for several important guests before going upstairs to wait until they're gone.
* In a season one episode of ''Series/HannahMontana'', Miley tells Jake that she's dating a graduate student named Will, who has agreed to pose as her boyfriend. Unfortunatly for her, Will is [[YoungerThanTheyLook 11 years old]], graduated from ''elementary'' school, and only agreed to the pretend relationship when dared to by his friends.

* In VisualNovel/SablesGrimoire the titular Sable can pretend to be dating the [[PlantPerson mandragora]] Eth in order to allow their mutual friend, the [[{{Youkai}} rokurokubi]] Rei, to get over her one-sided crush on Sable. It's left ambiguous whether Sable and Eth may transition into a real relationship later.

* 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.

* In ''WesternAnimation/GoofTroop,'' Max convinced his attractive older cousin, Debbie, to pretend to be his girlfriend in an attempt to impress the cooler kids. It worked, though with the added complication of one of them trying to "steal" her from Max.
* 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/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.

* Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn has over [[https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Fake*s*Pretend%20Relationship/works 26,000 fics]] with the tag "Fake/Pretend Relationship".

* In ''Manga/{{SpyXFamily}}'' Loid and Yor start a fake relationship for their own reasons: Loid wants to get his daughter Anya into an elite school and will look more legitimate with a wife, and Yor wants to escape the scrutiny cast on unwed women in the ultra-paranoid UsefulNotes/ColdWar-esque climate of their country. The twist is Loid - aka the elite spy <Twilight> - wants to get his "daughter" into the school to get close to his mark, while Yor is trying to avoid unwanted suspicions because she's actually the deadly assassin <Thorn Princess>.

* 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 UsefulNotes/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>.

* Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn currently has over [[https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Fake*s*Pretend%20Relationship/works 23,000 fics]] with the tag "Fake/Pretend Relationship".

* 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 ''WesternAnimation/Tangled:TheSeries'', 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.

* Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn currently has over [[https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Fake*s*Pretend%20Relationship/works 22 000 fics]] with the tag "Fake/Pretend Relationship".

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

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

* 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>.
* Mizuki does this in ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' when her boyfriend, Shirai, dumps her only days before she was to going to introduce him to her middle-school friends and prove she wasn't [[GirlfriendInCanada just making him up]]. Desperate to save face, she decides to recruit the best looking guy that will humor her request to pose as Shirai for the duration of the date. Unfortunately for her, the boy she ended up recruiting was [[NoSocialSkills Sousuke]], and things go very, very badly.

* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': While Lily is broken up from Marshall, she is looking for a place to live and persuades [[TheCasanova Barney]] to let her stay with him for a few days. He is at first reluctant, but after one of his one-night stands refuses to leave Lily manages to scare her away after the girl sees her and assumes she's Barney's wife. They spend the next few days pretending to be married. Their arrangement falls apart once Barney realizes even pretending to be married is too close to actually being married and he kicks Lily out.

'''Barney:''' No...yes!\\

* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': While Lily is broken up from Marshall, she is looking for a place to live and persuades [[TheCasanova Barney]] to let her stay with him for a few days. He is at first reluctant, but after one of his one-night stands refuses to leave Lily manages to scare her away after the girl sees her and assumes she's Barney's wife. They spend the next few days pretending to be married.

* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': While Lily is broken up from Marshall, she is looking for a place to live and persuades [[TheCasanova Barney]] to let her stay with him for a few days. He is at first reluctant, but soon realizes she can scare away his one-night stands by pretending to be his wife. They spend the next few days pretending to be married.

* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': While Lily is broken up from Marshall, she is looking for a place to live and persuades [[TheCasanova Barney]] to let her stay with him. He is at first reluctant, but soon realizes she can scare away his one-night stands by pretending to be his wife. They spend the next few days pretending to be married.