Is a screenshot of a CNN article with the headline, "Cuckolding can be positive for some couples, study says" real? Yes, but that is missing context: The "cuckolding" article was originally published by CNN in 2018 and the original photo showed three white people. The image of a white couple and a Black man used on social media is not the original photo used in the article.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the @IanMalcolm84 account on X on Sept. 24, 2026. The headline in the image read:
Cuckolding can be positive for some couples, study says
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @IanMalcolm84 on X.)
An article with the same headline was published by CNN in 2018 (archived here). However, the image used by CNN is not the same one included in the post on X. The image used on X shows a white couple and a Black man sitting on a sofa.
In the CNN article's real image, there are three white people walking together shown from behind. Below is a screenshot of the article as it currently appears on the CNN website:
(Image source: CNN.)
An archived version of the article from 2018 uses the same image of the three white people, as shown below:
(Image source: Internet Archive.)
