There have been numerous suggestions that the growth of living alone represents a challenge to the hegemony of the family and heterosexual couple relationships, yet the evidence is mixed. This article draws on qualitative research with Australians living alone in their twenties and thirties. Their relationship circumstances, hopes and expectations are described in order to question whether they are decentring or deprioritising couple relationships in their lives. I find that most see living alone as a way of building an independent life prior to partnering. While living alone may coincide with a focus on self and life outside couple relationships, it also often coincides with idealised notions of romantic love and the search for a soulmate. Given this, I argue that most young adults living alone are not challenging the hegemony of heterosexual couple relationships, but finding new ways of maintaining the heterosexual couple ideal.