What you need to know
When Alana Underwood, Kevin Jankei, and Megan Smith decided to confirm their committed relationship as a threesome, they knew there would be obstacles. But telling my parents was a completely different story.
In 2020, Underwood and Junkei had been dating for just over three years when Underwood decided to open up about a nagging thought that was always running around in the back of her head. The idea was that she had always pursued men but wondered if she had romantic interests in women as well. She wanted to explore what bisexuality was like, and she wanted to explore that with Junkei.
When she confided in Jankei, Underwood tells PEOPLE he was open to the idea. The two decided to create profiles together on the dating app to pursue what Underwood said was an “experimental, one-off sexual experience” with another woman.
However, after staying in touch with Smith and beginning to spend more time together over the next few months, the trio eventually admitted to each other that their feelings had progressed beyond their sexual origins. In other words, we wanted to be a threesome.
In an interview with PEOPLE, Underwood, Junkei, and Smith, who share their lives as a trio under the handle Camp Thrupple with more than 300,000 followers on TikTok, opened up about living in an unconventional relationship and their experiences coming out to friends and family.
camp three
All three moved together into a 600-square-foot apartment with one bathroom and a single bedroom with a queen bed tucked in with an air mattress. (Yes, they share a bed each night, but they take turns as to which member sleeps in the middle.)
As they adjusted to life together, the trio quickly realized that striving for complete equality in their individual relationships was an unrealistic goal, they told PEOPLE. Rather, they learned to appreciate the different ways in which each is related.
“Individuals have different ways of loving,” Smith says. “That doesn’t mean it’s more or less. It’s just a different kind of relationship. For example, my relationship with Alana is very different than my relationship with Kevin. But it doesn’t mean it’s more or less. It’s just a different experience and a different kind of love.”
Jankei added that living as a trio has also found a way to strengthen their relationship beyond the more traditional monogamous relationship she previously shared with Underwood.
camp three
“You get twice the support and twice the love,” he says. “You can take something out on one person and get feedback from another. If you’re having an argument or an argument with one person, the other person can provide a perspective that you don’t see in the heat of the moment.”
By the summer of 2021, after the trio had grown accustomed to their new relationship structure, they decided it was time to share the news with their parents.
Smith’s parents, whom Underwood affectionately refers to as “total hippies,” were already on board from the beginning. But the process was far more nerve-wracking for Underwood, who had come out as both polyamorous and bisexual.
“I sat down with my parents and I was like, ‘Hey, I’m bisexual and I have a girlfriend, and that’s Kevin’s girlfriend, too,'” she recalls now, laughing about the situation. “I’m not kidding, their jaws will hit the floor.”
Underwood said her parents were initially shocked by her relationship, but they quickly warmed to the idea.
camp three
“They were like, ‘Okay, so you went camping together?’ They just tried to figure out the best way to continue this conversation, and it turned out much better than I expected,” she said.
For Junkei, it wasn’t that easy. When he told his father, Jankei said, he “didn’t know how to react.” And while his mother “seemed accepting” at first, she later called him to tell him she was “not okay” with his relationship.
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Jankei hadn’t spoken to his mother for two years, but the two recently started rebuilding their relationship. “We were slowly making progress and she started having conversations with me, but it was never about my life or asking how the girls were doing or anything like that,” he says.
“But we believe that everyone is on a journey and that love can overcome anything,” Junkei continues. “There’s no animosity or anger. She’s had her own journey and I respect that. And I’ll be here when she wants and hopefully when she wants.”
As for his friends, Underwood said they all “really responded wonderfully.”
“When Kevin and my friends met Megan, they immediately said, ‘You’re our friend now, too. They just welcomed her. It’s really amazing that a similarly chosen family would accept her and bring her in.’
