People have admitted to breaking up with their partners for failing the 'orange peel theory' that has been trending on social media. It comes after TikTok user Jenna (@jennaskates), went viral after she revealed her boyfriend had given her a box of egg whites separated from the yolks.

Jenna, who loves to bake and regularly shares videos of her cakes, explained that she struggles to do this herself because of her long nails.

The seemingly small but hugely kind and thoughtful act sparked a conversation in the comments section of her video, with people calling it a prime example of the ‘orange peel theory’ and why it could be a big red flag in relationships.

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The orange peel theory suggests that if your partner does something for you without being asked, for instance, peeling an orange, then they love you. It can be anything - separating egg whites because they know you struggle with your nails, or buying your favourite chocolate bar when they pass a shop. These small acts of kindness come from a deeper level of caring and truly show they appreciate you.

Likewise, if you try and test your partner and they don’t respond in this way, it could be a cause for concern. And it appears as if the theory is already causing relationship casualties as one person admitted on social media that they’d tried it and had ditched their boyfriend.

Sharing the situation on Reddit, a woman revealed she had seen a post about it and decided to try it out. She wrote: "My boyfriend of 7 months was sitting on the couch when I saw the TikTok video explaining the theory, and I decided I should try it out.

"Up to this point we were happy but now looking back on it I am not surprised by how he responded. I asked him to tie my hair up for me and he looked at me and asked me why I couldn’t do it. At first, I thought that maybe he was intimidated by my long hair, however, he has had long hair in the past and knew how to tie it up.

"I asked him again thinking it was just a fluke but he told me that I could do it since I was in the kitchen and he needed to relax stating that he just got off work. I know what y’all are thinking ‘Let that man relax he just got off’ but y’all he works from home… and even if he was truly tired he has plenty of energy to play games and go out to the bar with his friends.

"Regardless, I honestly didn’t want to break up and thought it was dumb to throw a relationship away over a TikTok… well that was until later in the day when I asked him if he could toss a towel in the dryer so I could be warm when I got out of the shower since I forgot to do it myself. Surprise surprise, he never did it and it just made me realize how much I do for him and his daughter that is not even mine!"

The woman later revealed in a follow-up that this had caused her to reevaluate her relationship and that she had decided to break up with her boyfriend. She added: "I admit that I should not have taken advice from TikTok and that it showed immaturity to do so. However, the method worked and made me see that I do a lot more for him than he does for me.

"Our relationship is not going to end because of my towel not being warm or my hair not being up, but because I realize that I am just settling for a lazy man who doesn’t take me out, doesn’t help out with his baby and has no motivations in life except to live at his parents' house, play video games and drink."

After reading her post on Reddit, lots of people agreed that taking relationship advice from TikTok wasn’t great but it did open her eyes to what he was really like - meaning the theory worked.

Other people shared how lovely their own partners were. One user wrote: "My husband will get me coffee or get up to turn off the light because I am comfy and don’t want to move. He will do things for me even though I am completely capable of doing them. Acts of service showing your loved ones that you love them."

While another user added: "I always feel like some people who post orange theory on Tiktok get it, and some don’t, and the ones who don’t make the whole thing look stupid. The point of it isn’t just to randomly demand your partner do something that you can do that you just don’t want to, the point is to see if they’ll do something small for you that you asked them to within reason and that last bit is what sometimes gets lost.

"As you said, if my wife just plopped down on the couch with an orange and said ‘peel this for me,’ I’d say ‘you have hands…. You do it'. But if she said ‘I hurt my hand and can’t get this open, can you do it for me?’ or ‘can you start this for me? I can’t ever get them started,’ something, I’d absolutely do it without a second thought. That’s kind of how I’ve always viewed it - small acts of service between people who love each other, not acts of servitude."