How To Stay Married (So Far) Playing a CONNECTION CARD GAME Mark's ANNOYING & Nadia's KINKY ThoughtsHow To Stay Married (So Far) Playing a CONNECTION CARD GAME Mark's ANNOYING & Nadia's KINKY Thoughts
How To Stay Married (So Far)
Nadia Sawalha and Mark Adderley use a connection card game as a springboard for candid chat about feeling annoying, addiction, AA, sex and long‑term love. With humour and honesty, they examine old labels, recurring marital habits and the idea that being “enough” matters more than trying to please everyone.
33:18•1 Apr 2026
Connection Cards, Old Labels and Kinky Questions: Staying Married "So Far"
Episode Overview
- Communication is described as the key issue in relationships, with the card game framing conversations around growth, desire, aspiration and forgiveness.
- Mark links a lifelong fear of being annoying to his history with alcoholism and drug use, and talks about how AA meetings help quieten his mind.
- Nadia challenges Mark’s self‑label, stressing that everybody is annoying sometimes and reminding him that he is “enough” without constantly trying to please others.
- The pair highlight how repeated small habits, like skipping meals and becoming irritable, can erode patience and goodwill over many years of marriage.
- Both acknowledge their own flaws – Mark’s neurodivergent traits and Nadia’s bossiness and self‑described cowardice – while emphasising patience, awareness and gradual change.
“Everybody is annoying sometimes. Very few people are annoying all of the time. And you’ve got to shed that label that you gave yourself as a child.”
Curious about how others cope with the same old arguments that flare up again and again in long‑term relationships? This episode of *How To Stay Married (So Far)* drops you straight into Nadia Sawalha and Mark Adderley’s living room as they test out a pricey “connection” card game that’s meant to help couples remember why they matter to each other.
Nadia gently pushes back, reminding him that “everybody is annoying sometimes” and urging him to “shed that label that you gave yourself as a child,” adding the simple but powerful reminder: “you are enough.” The card prompts pull them through communication, resentment and repeated habits that grind a marriage down – like Mark skipping breakfast and then getting “mangry”, something Nadia admits she’s “said five million times in 20‑odd years.” There’s humour throughout, from colour names like “donkey spunk blue” to wildly awkward questions about “kinky” fantasies, but underneath the laughs sits a serious point: honest conversation is hard, messy, and vital.
What starts as Mark being “fed up of being annoying” quickly turns into a raw chat about childhood labels, addiction, and long‑held shame. Mark talks openly about feeling like he’s irritated people since he was young, linking that to becoming “an alcoholic” and using drugs. Sobriety and recovery slip naturally into the chat too.
Mark shares that going back to regular AA meetings has slowed the “whirring sound and madness” in his head and given him space to stop constantly trying to fix everything. Nadia, in turn, admits her own flaws – calling herself bossy and a “terrible finisher” – and even describes herself as “cowardly”, a side of her many might not expect.
If you’re in recovery, in a long‑term relationship, or both, you’ll probably hear echoes of your own life in this mix of card‑game chaos, sexual awkwardness, and brutally honest talk about love, labels, and staying married “so far”. It might just make you ask: what label from your past are you still carrying that you’re ready to put down?
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