Can you ever really lose a guy in 10 days?

The latest millennial break up trend you need to know about – in case it’s happening to you

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Can you ever really lose a guy in 10 days?

Despite being 14 years old, the ethos behind hit rom-com How to lose a guy in 10 days still strikes a millennial chord.

People really are playing the "bad boyfriend/girlfriend" card in order to end a relationship that they are too afraid to end honestly.

Wave goodbye to “it’s not me, it’s you”, the 2017 breakup jingle reads more along the lines of “it’s you, but I’m going to make you think it’s me so that you don’t realise it’s actually you.”

Confused? Welcome to the bewildering landscape of modern dating, where love is entirely ephemeral.

Kendra Liedle recently wrote a piece for the LA Times describing how she dodged a dud relationship by behaving like a terrible girlfriend, prompting him to end things with her.

It worked.

So what exactly was it about Liedle’s behaviour that caused her once infatuated boyfriend to pull the plug?

The author ignored his calls and texts and avoided seeing him entirely, a routine that modern daters like to call “ghosting.”

So far, so millennial. But what happens when you take it a step further?

Die-hard Matthew McConaughey fans will recall cringing in their seats when Kate Hudson’s character litters his home with pink memorabilia, names his penis after a science fiction character, and creates a faux family album with digitally-imposed photographs of their future “children”.

Naturally, such crockery would probably give the game away were you to do this IRL, but it happens, notes dating expert and Passionsmiths founder Madeleine Mason, who has encountered clients who have purposefully behaved in a certain way in order to catalyse a break up that they were too afraid to initiate themselves.

The issue remains, is there ever a polite way to break up with someone?

“I'd advocate for an honest route,” Mason said to The Independent.

“If not only out of the principle, you never know when and in what context you meet someone again, treating someone badly might come back on you in a bad way. Not least what unnecessary pain are you subjecting someone to and how that might impact their future dating.”

How to break the news without them thinking you’re Lord Voldemort?

“Tell them you've had fun but you don't see it going anywhere,” suggests Preece.

“This might be painful to start with but they'll get over it. If you disappear on them then you are just dragging the process out.”

As expected, honesty is always the best policy.