But they both admit to getting jealous of the toys

The couple have now bought a male doll with exchangeable private parts

Dave Hockey and Shawna Bigelow have spent £20,000 on sex dolls to spice up their love life.

The couple, who have been dating for over a year, regularly share their bed with five silicone dolls.

Dave has been a collector of the dolls for years after first buying one for a documentary in 2010.

The hobby previously had a detrimental effect on his love life, with women he met cutting off contact after they discovered his passion.

Dave Hockey (left) and his partner Shawna Bigelow (right) with their sex doll Bianca. The couple have four more sex dolls, including one male that they regularly use during sex sessions

Shawna is the first woman he has met through online dating sites who embraced his fetish.

He said: 'I had been on a dating site and I had a few good candidates, but I had someone that dumped me immediately when they did a search for me on the internet and saw the documentary.

'I thought what do I have to lose and on our first date it was my dad's birthday.

'I stopped by gave my dad a card and took (Shawna) to the basement and showed her these things.

'I thought, if she leaves me then that will whittle down the choices.'

Fortunately for Dave, Shawna took to the idea immediately.

She told This Morning: 'I was actually shocked, I knew what the dolls looked like before because I had watched it on TV, but I was interested because they are like big barbie dolls.

Dave and Shawna in bed with their sex doll Bianca. The couple enjoy using dolls in the bedroom because it is safer than having threesomes with real people

Shawna (right) admits that she does sometimes get jealous of Dave (left) lavishing affection on his sex dolls, including Bianca (centre)

'So I started taking the wigs off and putting them on me.

'I was looking down their shirts and wanting to see everything and he (Dave) was looking at me like ?!'

The couple now regularly include one of Dave's four female dolls while they are having sex and Shawna claims the addition to the bedroom was actually her idea.

She admitted that although she gets jealous of the attention her partner gives to his dolls, it is easily overcome.

She said: 'It is kind of like a threesome without anyone getting hurt.

'You've got to realise that she is only a doll. that's really not real, because who has the perfect body?

Dave added: 'Having a threesome with a doll is safer, there is no emotional entanglement.'

The pair enjoy using sex dolls so much that Dave has now bought a new doll as a present for Shawna - a male called Terry.

Dave and Shawna treat the dolls like real people - Dave gets upset when airlines insist the toys have to go in the luggage hold during a flight

Dave and Shawna have a range of outfits and wigs for their five sex dolls

He said: ' Terry was a gift from me to Shawna and I presented it to her at the US Doll Lovers Meet.

'He weighs over 100 pounds (seven stone), so no normal girl can manipulate that, so I would be the one to (makes motion with hands).'

Terry has been tailor-made to Shawna's requirements, with the doll even having three different options for his private parts, depending on the occasion.

She said: ' He has three different parts, so you can take them off, and have it as just as a display and so on.'

Dave and Shawna with their sex dolls Terry (left) and Bianca (right)

The couple decided to speak out about their hobby in an effort to remove the shame associated with having sex dolls.

Dave said: 'There is a face on the community that is painted as the lonely single guy.

'Because I did a documentary, I also did a lot of research on this and 30 per cent of people in our forum are couples and married.

'Some people do take them into the bedroom, some of them are just for photography.'