Society & Culture

Swingers

by BBC Radio Wales

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Where it charts

Today’s combined position on our country charts.

United Kingdom · Society & Culture

#62

Pulse 15

Australia · Society & Culture

#199

Pulse 4

Ranking history

Society & Culture, United Kingdom Society & Culture, Australia

History builds daily. We started tracking this show on the Society & Culture chart recently, so the trend line appears after a second day of data.

About the show

Swingers tells the story of Ruth - a woman who joined a Swinging website and ended up having degrading sex with strangers more than 100 times.   Ruth thinks she is not alone, that there are women all over the UK like her and so she decided to tell her story, using her full identity, to investigative journalist Catrin Nye.  Ruth says that she never wanted to join the swingers website - but did it to please her husband who had been slowly persuading her for more than a decade to try swinging. She ended up having sex with strangers in lay-bys and filming it for her husband. She ended up pregnant by a stranger and giving oral sex to another man while bleeding from an abortion.    In this podcast Catrin pieces together Ruth’s story and asks what it tells us about sexual consent, pressure in relationships, and the swinger community. She digs deep into the online world of Fab Swingers - the website Ruth and her husband used. Catrin discovers countless crimes across the UK linked to the swinging website and speaks to a man who admits to having sex with women who he thinks were pushed into it.   She considers the police response to Ruth, the law and whether swinging can be a cover for abuse.    This is a story told in full honesty. It’s the trickiest investigation of Catrin’s career, but one she also feels must be told.

Latest episodes

6. Black Mirror

June 16, 2026 · 25 min

After 18 months of swinging, Ruth has a moment of recognition while watching Black Mirror. With support from friends and domestic abuse services, she secretly prepares to leave her marriage. Now, in her garden, Ruth reflects on freedom…
5. The Messages

June 16, 2026 · 31 min

Ruth’s messages sometimes appear enthusiastic - but at other times she says she is scared, traumatised and wants to stop. Solicitor Rachel Horman-Brown explains why messages in controlling relationships cannot be read in isolation. Former…
4. The Club

June 16, 2026 · 33 min

At a swingers club near Liverpool, Catrin sees a world that’s meant to be built around rules. Experienced swingers explain how the lifestyle can strengthen relationships - but also how pressure can creep in. In another development FOI data…
3. The Boiling Frog

June 16, 2026 · 23 min

Warning: this episode contains mentions of suicide. If you are suffering distress or despair, details of help and support are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline. Ruth describes how sex with strangers became a routine of laybys, car parks…
2. The Men That Swing

June 16, 2026 · 28 min

Catrin creates a FabSwingers account and is quickly inundated with messages from men. Professor Nicola Gavey explains why full consent is not always as simple as saying yes. And one male user describes encounters that left him questioning…
1. Fab

June 16, 2026 · 27 min

Catrin Nye meets Ruth, who says she was pressured into having sex with strangers through a swingers website more than 100 times. Ruth explains why she is using her full identity. Her story raises difficult questions about consent, shame…
Introducing... Swingers

June 9, 2026 · 1 min

Swingers tells the story of Ruth - a woman who joined a Swinging website and ended up having degrading sex with strangers more than 100 times.   Ruth thinks she is not alone, that there are women all over the UK like her and so she decided…