The early years of a relationship are filled with milestones. Leaving a toothbrush at their house. Getting a house key. Asking them to sign a legally binding document which means you can sue them for talking about you.
Okay, so that last one isn't exactly standard. But if you're dating Paul Hollywood, it's apparently what you should expect. According to The Sun, the 53-year-old celebrity baker wanted his 24-year-old girlfriend, Summer Monteys-Fulham, to sign a non disclosure agreement about their relationship, and cites her refusal to do so as a reason that they broke up.
An NDA is a gagging order. It makes it effectively illegal for the person who signed to disclose any details about the thing, or the person, that it was signed over. A standard NDA doesn't just cover talking to the press. It means you're not allowed to talk to anyone.
The official argument for an NDA is that it stops people from sharing confidential details - a tempting guarantee if you're famous. But, we can't help wondering, shouldn't you trust the person you're in a relationship not to shop you to the papers without a gagging order?
Outside of those deepest, darkest secrets, there's the normal flora and fauna of a relationship, the stuff you absolutely need to talk about with your friends.
Imagine for a moment that you're in the pub with your girlfriends, sharing what's going on in your life, only you're not allowed to mention your other half's refusal to put the heating on before the 1st of November, or the fact that he's mentioned wanting a threesome one too, because if you do he can literally sue you.
That's what an NDA does to a relationship. It brings the threat of legal action into your home, and creates a situation where the person who has signed the document is sealed off from the people they love - their support network.
Haven't we all had a friend whose boyfriend wants her to keep their relationship as secret as possible? Admittedly he probably didn't ask her to sign any paperwork, but there's something worrying familiar about a woman feeling that it's disloyal to talk about her partner with her friends.
I've watched women bite their lips about the inner workings of their relationships for fear of being disloyal to their other-half, cutting themself off from a support network because they didn't want to betray the confidence of their partner, even when they needed to.
Wanting privacy is normal and understandable. Do any of us enjoy the idea of our partner's telling their mates that we snore, or like some complicated sex positions? No.
For a famous man like Paul Hollywood, whose sexual proclivities or other foibles could easily make the sidebar of shame, privacy must be important. It's understandable that he (and any other famous person) would feel vulnerable, that he would want to know his private life won't make the newspaper.
But in asking for an NDA he placed that desire for privacy above his (now ex) girlfriend's right to discuss how she feels about him. Something that all of us, famous or otherwise, need.
But privacy cannot and must not come at the price of cutting off your partner from the rest of the world. Sharing the struggles you have with your other half is an essential part of a healthy relationship.
When a couple is only allowed to discuss a relationship between themselves, they create a kind of pressure cooker. It's essential to have outside sources who can give you a sense of perspective, and tell you that perhaps you're the one overreacting or being unreasonable.
Ultimately, whether you're a celebrity with your own TV show, or a total normie, if you don't trust the person who you're in a relationship with not to share your deepest darkest secrets, then you shouldn't be dating them in the first place.