Mills & Boon romances can cause marital breakdown, adulterous affairs and unwanted pregnancies, according to British Medical Journal

With their chiselled menfolk and swooning heroines, Mills & Boon novels are a guilty pleasure. They are also a cause of marital breakdown, adulterous affairs and unwanted pregnancies, according to a warning published by the British Medical Journal. Far from being a slice of innocent escapism for millions of female readers, romantic novels are a danger to relationships and sexual health. That is the verdict of an article in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care, which said women struggle to distinguish between romantic fiction and real life. Susan Quilliam, a relationship psychologist and author of the article, said that a "huge number" of problems dealt with in family planning clinics have their roots in romance novels - The Telegraph