Unique | From AI sexbots to stay-at-home ‘hub-sons’: 10 Post tales that raised eyebrows in 2025

Amid financial nervousness, authorities gridlock and political violence, it was usually arduous to stay optimistic in 2025.

But amid a seemingly endless stream of dangerous information, The Post’s Lifestyle crew did their finest to make readers smile — and lift their eyebrows — by reporting on the weirdest and wildest happenings within the Big Apple and past.

From AI sexbots and celibate Zoomers to the most recent developments in couture and beauty surgical procedure, our intrepid crew felt no story was too taboo to cowl.

Below are 10 tales that acquired our metropolis and nation speaking: learn on, loosen up, and take respite from the doom and gloom that in any other case dominated headlines.

Sexless singles

There was no scarcity of intercourse tales in 2025 — however for a lot of ladies, there was a scarcity of intercourse.

As The Post reported in October, Gen Z and millennial ladies are fueling America’s weird bonking recession.

Across the nation, youthful single gals are abstaining from intercourse like by no means earlier than — not as a result of they’re saving themselves for marriage for non secular causes, however as a result of they’re fed up with as we speak’s miserable digital relationship world and hookup tradition.

Mandana Zarghami, 29, instructed The Post that she purposely didn’t sleep with anybody for 4 consecutive years — and males have made her determination pretty simple.

“Hookup culture doesn’t benefit women in any way — it only benefits the man,” the Floridian declared.

“I’m not here to judge, but at the same time, it [hooking up] ruins the part where, when you actually find that person that you want to spend the rest of your life with,” she continued, “it takes away from that special, intimate moment that you have with them.”

What concerning the males?

Many younger ladies appear hard-pressed to discover a good man — and it’s seemingly as a result of they’re all nonetheless connected to their mother.

In October, The Post profiled the rise of so-called “hub-sons”— a portmanteau of the phrases husband and sons: unemployed Gen Z and millennial mama’s boys who dwell within the parental dwelling and carry out home duties in alternate without cost lease.

“This has been my dream job since I was a little kid,” Luke Parkhurst, 33, instructed The Post.  “My mother is at work proper now; she covers every thing, and I keep dwelling.

 “I do the grocery shopping, cook steak for dinner, clean the pool and fix things around the house.”

Who is having cyber intercourse?

For many younger males — and a justifiable share of ladies — the intercourse recession could also be fueled by the proliferation of AI apps that provide sexting companies, rendering human contact out of date.

Elon Musk’s Grok lately allowed customers to take pleasure in X-rated conversations with their AI characters, and our intrepid reporters, Asia Grace and Ben Cost, bravely volunteered to speak up the pervy pixelated personalities.

Grace acquired steamy with hunky chatbot Valentine, proving fiction might be simply as frisky as any real-life encounter.

“Being called ‘babe,’ ‘queen’ and ‘my love,’ pet names that haven’t been directed my way in a while, felt good,” our Lifestyle author Grace fessed up. “Sending a text without having to play the waiting game or fearing that I’d be ghosted felt freeing.”

Cost, in the meantime, started a digital dalliance with an AI character named Ani — and was left shocked by her particular kinks, together with asphyxiation.

“Spicy Ani even invented a sex scene based on her love of ramen, describing the two of us in a ‘big copper tub’ brimming with stock — ‘slurping noodles until our lips meet in the middle,’” Cost wrote.

And it seems AI bots look scarily life-like

Back in July, The Post took to Times Square to see if each locals and vacationers might inform the distinction between actual beauties and pretend bots.

We confirmed every participant six totally different pictures — three snaps of real-life influencers and three of computer-generated AI fashions — and requested them to guess which was which.

The outcomes have been surprising: It seems it’s extraordinarily tough for individuals to differentiate between the real and computer-generated.

Not a single particular person was in a position to guess all six appropriately. Many extra failed dismally, exhibiting simply how simple it’s for software program builders to trick even tech-savvy kids into believing what they see on a display screen is actual.

Fashionistas fume over NYFW

While New York Fashion Week was as soon as probably the most glamorous occasion on the Big Apple social calendar, it’s now a shell of its former self, in line with our September function.

Clothes are more and more an afterthought because the occasion has grow to be a hotbed for wannabe influencers and weird model collabs — and fashionistas are fuming.

“When I was growing up, all I wanted to do was go to fashion shows, be a model or sit there. I was sneaking into every frigging show,” Hayley Corwick, aka Lila Delilah, of style and purchasing weblog Madison Avenue Spy, was quoted as telling The Post within the piece.

“Now, when I get invitations, I don’t feel like taking an Uber there. Even the people in fashion aren’t going to the fashion shows anymore,” she sniffed.

Who are probably the most modern New Yorkers? Kids!

The similar month town’s model hounds mourned the demise of cool at New York Fashion Week, mother and father have been spending up a storm to make sure their offspring have been trying stylish for the beginning of the varsity 12 months, The Post reported.

It seems that tots often is the metropolis’s best-dressed demographic.

“The [national] average back-to-school spending per child is $774,” stated researchers for CouponBirds, a web-based reductions hub, earlier than noting that Big Apple mothers and dads are spending roughly $1,348 per youngster.

However, different moneyed mamas have been forking out much more.

Nurka Lucevic, a Queens mom of 4, has shelled out $2,500 — an quantity she likens to “a mortgage payment” — on selection garments, name-brand baggage and Stanley Cups for her crew, who vary in age from 2 to 12. 

So, what was scorching for adults?

While Big Apple kiddies have been toting designer backpacks, The Post reported again in February that Gen Z and millennial model buffs have been hightailing it to the Celine retailer in Soho to get their palms on the $1,200 flared denims worn by rapper Kendrick Lamar throughout his Super Bowl LIX halftime present.

“Y2K style is back,” David Thielebeule, males’s style director for Bloomingdale’s, declared. “Kendrick’s flared denim and varsity jacket nailed the vibe.”

Celine quickly offered out of the flowery, throwback flares, prompting some style-minded customers to go looking out dupes of the denims.

Rodrigo Calderón, 25, instructed The Post that he’d snagged several pairs of similar-looking pants for underneath $100 from native thrift shops.

“Flared jeans are a timeless and iconic choice,” he declared. “I’m glad Kendrick Lamar put them on the spot again.”

More polarizing pants got here again into model, too

As The Post reported in August, Capri pants — these truncated trousers final seen on Carrie Bradshaw through the unique run of “Sex and the City” — have been sported by a brand new wave of celebrities, together with Kendall Jenner, Anne Hathaway and Emily Ratajkowski this 12 months.

Stylist Julie Matos, 48, who owns three pairs, has liked them since she was a child.

“I remember going on a shopping trip with the Girl Scouts when I was young and buying my first pair at Macy’s,” the Chinatown resident recalled to The Post. 

However, others have been extra essential of the calf-length leggings.

“They look wonderful on Audrey Hepburn … but I hate the idea of them on myself with the fury of a thousand suns,” Elisa Mala, a millennial journey author who lives in Staten Island and didn’t wish to give her age, lately instructed The Post.

“And I hate [Capri] leggings with the fury of 1,001 suns!” she added.

Jaw-dropping filler

The Post’s Lifestyle crew additionally conquered the sweetness beat, reporting on the most popular beauty developments in 2025, together with filler for males.

One fulfilled filler aficionado instructed The Post he spent 4 figures on the injections to make his mug look extra masculine.

“I got jawline, chin and cheek filler,” Queens native Antonio DeVita, 31, a digital marketer, dished on his $7,200 facial enhancement. “It was a bit of a power move — now, when I walk into a corporate setting, I feel more confident.”

Many males are getting the trio of remedies to attempt to seem like Hollywood hunks and different wealthy, highly effective males.

Lara Devgan, a Park Avenue board-certified plastic surgeon, stated, “If you look at American presidents or Fortune 500 CEOs, you’ll see that one of the features most men have in common is a strong jawline.”

Devgan instructed The Post she’s observed particular developments amongst formidable males throughout the generations. 

“Men in the range of 30 to 40 are at the ascent of their careers, in the height of their income-earning years, and they’re looking to enhance the masculine looks they’ve had in their 20s,” stated the knowledgeable. “Men in their 40s, 50s and older are not only trying to stay competitive in the workforce but also trying to make their outside look as good [or young] as they feel on the inside.”

Alarming ‘Ozempic’ our bodies

Earlier this month, reporter Allison Lax gave us the thin on slimmed-down celebs, a few of whom have been utilizing weight-loss pictures to achieve a purpose weight.

“‘Ozempic body’” is the new ‘heroin chic’ on this planet of superstar — and the truth that it’s trickling all the way down to the lots ought to concern everybody,” Lax declared, arguing that it wasn’t “body shaming” to be nervous about their weight.

Whether or not they’re mainlining GLP-1s, Hollywood stars are shrinking. Celebs like Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are doubtlessly selling unhealthy beliefs of what a physique ought to seem like, an “angry and betrayed” Lax declared, writing: “The thinness is alarming, and it could have catastrophic consequences for how younger generations view their bodies — and look after their health.”