The Woman Engaged to a Chandelier

As an objectophile, Amanda Liberty feels attraction to objects, not people. Previously in a relationship with the Statue of Liberty, she’s since moved on to a 100-year-old female light fixture named Lumière. 

By Jessie Schiewe

The couple have been going strong since early 2017. (Facebook)

Amanda Liberty is a 35-year-old woman living in London, England, who has a whole lot of love to share...just not with humans. 

Instead, she’s attracted to objects.

“I have tried human relationships, but it didn’t work for me in the long-run because it was peer-pressure forcing me to try it out,” she wrote on Facebook in November 2018.

“And though I liked the people — and, in particular, one I got on really well with (we remain friends to this day) — there wasn’t that same spark there.”

And when Liberty says “spark,” she means it.

As an objectophile or objectum sexual — someone who is sexually attracted to inanimate objects — she falls in love with things, and in particular lighting fixtures. Since 2017, she’s been in an open relationship with a 100-year-old female chandelier from Germany, whom she’s named Lumière. 

Liberty first recognized her objectophilia when she developed feelings for a drum kit at the age of 14. Beginning in her late twenties, she went on to have one of the most meaningful relationships in her life — with the Statue of Liberty. The objectophile changed her last name through a deed poll to match that of her beloved landmark — whom she calls “Libby”  — and she got an American flag tattooed on her right arm. 

Libby and Liberty’s romance started to fizzle out around 2016 due to the long-distance nature of their relationship. They ultimately broke up, but Liberty says she and the statue are still good friends.  

Liberty is also an avid Disney fan. She named her hamster after Simba from The Lion King and enjoys singing karaoke-style renditions of The Little Mermaid songs and then posting them online. 

But of all Disney films, Beauty and the Beast is her favorite. When the live-action version starring Emma Watson came out in 2017, it inspired Liberty to acquire a candelabra companion of her own. 

She named him Lumière, just as she did with her betrothed, and posted two photos of him to Facebook — one with his candles lit, the other with them melted down to stubs. 

But her dalliance with the candelabra was short-lived and after that March, he never appeared in any of her social media photos again.

Even before her fling with the candelabra, Liberty had been fond of light fixtures. She’s been collecting and restoring them for years, especially chandeliers, but also wall sconces and lamps. She owns dozens of them, some as small as Christmas ornaments. They all have their “own personalities,” and she gives them each their own name, such as Pearl, Betsy, Chandelette, Duchess, Sparkles, Cherie, Rosie, Emperor, or Sunshine. 

Most but not all of her chandeliers are female. They hang in Liberty’s living room in front of a bow window so that light can stream through and reflect prisms through the light fixtures’ crystals. When this happens, Liberty calls it “shining.” 

All of the light fixtures are older, vintage models that Liberty most likely acquired in poor condition and then nursed back to life by polishing, reassembling, and rewiring them. 

The most the objectophile has ever bought at one time are five chandeliers, all from the same seller, along with one table lamp and two wall sconces. Since 2016, she has also run a Facebook group for people who share her appreciation of vintage fixtures: “Chandeliers, Lamps, and Lanterns.” As of Summer 2019, it had more than 2,000 members.

A glimpse inside Amanda Liberty’s London living room. (Facebook)

Liberty is at peace with having objectophilia, but living with the rare sexual desire has, at times, been perplexing for her. 

“I don’t even completely understand it myself, but I still accept it as part of who I am,” Liberty wrote in a Facebook post. “My chandeliers make me so happy and full of joy and completely fulfilled.” 

Occasionally, Liberty even has fantasies about chandeliers when she sleeps. In February, she shared the storyline of one such dream on Facebook. In it, she met the Queen of England who gave her a tour of the palace and then introduced her to “the chandelier cleaners.” 

“They let me operate the chandelier lift in the music room (something I would really love to do!) to bring one of the chandeliers down for closer inspection. I walked around her. And I told the Queen how beautiful her chandelier was...Then, before I could do more, I woke up. Dang it.”

Describing her on Facebook as a “super sexy, sassy lady” and “a wonderful lover,” the objectophile “met” her current love and fiance, Lumière, on eBay a few years ago. The antique German light fixture cost $500, which Liberty gladly paid, chalking the purchase up to love at first sight. 

“I didn’t just decide, ‘Oh, I’m going to fall in love with a chandelier today,’ ” she explained on Facebook. “No. It just happened. It was totally led by my heart.”

Though Liberty has been known to fall asleep next to a chandelier, Lumière, who is 28-inches wide, is, she said, “too big to take to bed.” Luckily for her, the bronze chandelier is not the jealous type and does not get upset when her human spends time with the other light fixtures in her flat. 

"Some objectum sexual people believe that their partners talk to them, but I know that Lumière communicates differently,” Liberty told the Mirror. “She doesn't exist or live in the way we do; they give off energy to show me how they're feeling."

Liberty is now hoping to wed Lumière sometime in the near future in a commitment ceremony. She says the fact that they’re both female doesn’t bother her, nor does the chandelier’s seniority. Lumière is believed to have been made in 1910, which means the couple has a roughly 74-year age gap between the two of them. 

After announcing her engagement to the chandelier online, Liberty was invited to appear on the British reality TV series “Tattoo Fixers,” through which she received an arm tattoo of her beloved Lumière.

Though she hasn’t yet set a date for their nuptials, Liberty plans to wear a white dress and to buy matching wedding rings for the two of them. 

"I'm determined to have this commitment ceremony, to prove that I'm here for Lumière and that my love is going to last,” she said. 

Other than the fact that their marriage will never be legally recognized, Liberty said the biggest hurdle the pair will have to overcome is derision and a lack of understanding from those who can’t comprehend their love. 

“Some people think I took the easy way. [They say:] ‘Chandeliers don’t argue.’ ‘Chandeliers don’t cheat.’ ‘Chandeliers don’t hurt you.’

All of which are true, of course, though they can get a bit annoyed sometimes,” Liberty wrote. 

“But, the way I see it is I took the hard route — and not by choice. It’s the way it is. Yes, my relationship in itself doesn’t present the same problems as most human-human relationships, but it brings with it a host of other problems...I can’t just say, ‘Meet my partner, Lumière, my chandelier,’ without people pulling a face or thinking to themselves, ‘Erm. What?’ It’s hard to be openly different. It is in no way the easy route.”

Despite this, the objectophile has chosen to be upfront and candid about her relationship with the chandelier, posting about it online and speaking to any media outlets that ask to interview her.

She feels that it is partly her duty to do so as a person with objectum sexuality. By spreading awareness of her relationship with Lumière and her unique sexual preferences, she hopes others will be more accepting of objectophiles who choose to come forward in the future.

But perhaps more than anything, Liberty just wants people to be happy for her — and Lumière. She said she’d love to be able to introduce the chandelier to others as her partner and, for once, get a positive reaction such as, “Oooh, she’s beautiful. How long have you been together?”

“I mean, I would love that — just for people to acknowledge her,” she wrote.

“They don’t have to feel anything from her or look at her as anything other than a light fitting. But just to acknowledge that I love her and I am proud to be with her and she makes me happy: That is all I want in the world.”

(This article was originally published on July 24, 2019)

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