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"The Invite," Olivia Wilde's 2026 film, silently exposes loud truths about sexless marriages.

Couples often forget that what happens in the bedroom reflects what happens outside of it.

The film shows the lengths we will go to distract or deflect from the pain of disconnection.

The path back to sexual intimacy is through emotional intimacy.

There’s a moment in The Invite, the 2026 dramedy by Olivia Wilde, that you could easily miss. It’s buried in the pre-orgy hilarity of the plot, which is intentional; humor is often used to camouflage our discomfort with sex. Pina, the vivacious and astute sexologist played by Penelope Cruz, asks the couple played by Wilde snd Seth Rogen, with the sincere curiosity of a scientist, “How do you have sex with each other? You are so mean to each other.”

Under the facade, lies the honest, uncomfortable truth.

As a sexologist, I’ve sat with countless people stuck in this intimacy no-man’s-land and it truly is a heartbreaking place. Sexless marriages are particularly hard to navigate because it is a deeply lonely place. Being in one is a hard thing to share, because it reeks of rejection. “My partner no longer desires me” is not something you can bring even to your closest confidante.

How do you define “sexless”?

Sexless marriages are highly personal and therefore, difficult to define. There is a commonly applied standard of “less than 10 times a year," but who gets to decide? What makes a relationship "sexless" anyway?

Like many things in the world of sex and relationships, there is art and there is science to it. But the........

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