This woman is raising money by collecting people's coronavirus quarantine breakup stories

When people in the U.S. began taking the threat of the coronavirus (COVID-19) more seriously last week, many committed to self-quarantining in order to help slow the spread. Meg Zukin, the senior social media editor at Variety, decided to create a silver lining where there seemingly wasn’t one. Zukin reached out to her Twitter followers and asked them to share any co-quarantine drama happening as a result of quarantining with a significant other. And the stories are wildly hilarious.

“[I’m] not writing a story,” Zukin clarified in her March 12th tweet. “[I’m] just messy and love drama.”

She underestimated just how many people would actually reach out to her. With her inbox filled to the brim, Zukin made the executive decision (with permission from those who emailed stories) to share the wealth. She put all the stories into a Google Doc and asked curious readers to donate $1 to gain access to the document.

In just two days, Zukin raised more than $5,000, which she donated to various charities that are helping to relieve the financial, health, and general stress impact of the coronavirus on American families.

In fact, the Google Doc was so successful that Zukin transferred all the relationship stories over to a website, which the public can now view for free.

“Meg Zukin asked the internet for relationship drama in the time of coronavirus and got so many responses, she decided to turn it into a Google Doc that anyone could view with a small donation ($1),” the site, thesocialdistanceproject.org, reads. “After raising more than $5,000 in two days, she decided to turn the project into a free and public website.”

Zukin is still accepting donations through thesocialdistanceproject.org, and has even provided a list of places to which to donate.

Stories published on thesocialdistanceproject.org all revolve around strained relationships, previously ignored red flags, fear of contamination, and “custody of the master bedroom,” as one writer describes.

The author of “Custody of the Master Bedroom” writes that they are currently separated from their girlfriend because the girlfriend fears the author has been exposed to COVID-19 due to her work at a hospital. “Currently I have custody of the master bedroom, while she has custody of the office with futon,” the anonymous author writes. “We are currently sharing joint custody of my hair dryer and Theragun, she has claimed custody of the cordless Hitachi wand, while I am stuck with the plug-in Hitachi I got when I was still living in a dorm.”

The writer concludes, “Everyone stay safe and best of luck to those also going through breakups during this weird ass time.”

Another person titled their piece, “My husband moved out over coronavirus.” And no, they’re not kidding.

“I am an elementary school principal. I have 1,300 students and 95 staff members. At this point it’s probably inevitable that I’ll come in contact with coronavirus,” the author begins. “Well, my husband suffers from severe anxiety…He also has high blood pressure which he read [makes him] more likely to die from virus. He decided to move to his mother’s to not be infected by me and to self-quarantine.”

They continue, “I guess I feel abandoned…like we’re on the Titanic and he’s in a boat but I’m alone drowning down in steerage like that old couple in bed lol. Oh well.”

If you’re at home for the long haul, you absolutely need to check out thesocialdistanceproject.org. No matter your self-quarantine set-up—but especially if you’re cooped up with your significant other—you just may feel a little less alone.

Drop a donation, scroll through, and have a read. Got a story to share? Go ahead; submit your own.

As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, HelloGiggles is committed to providing accurate and helpful coverage to our readers. As such, some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, we encourage you to use online resources from CDC, WHO, and local public health departments, and visit our coronavirus hub.