The couple, who have faced several marriage rumours during their seven-year relationship, insist they're practically like a married couple already and don’t plan to change their arrangement.

"Even when I was a little girl I never dreamed of the white dress and all of that," Theron told Glamour magazine.

"I want to be clear: I am not judgmental about marriage. I am judgmental about how our government doesn't want to see the reality of gay and lesbian marriages," she said in the magazine's July edition.

"I think if you are in a one or two-year relationship, love is enough," the 'Monster' actress added. "You can thrive on that. When you hit years three and four, you realise that if you're going to live with somebody... you have to be nurtured emotionally and spiritually, and you have to be intrigued. Because if that intrigue runs out, you're not going to want to go home anymore."

So she's not opposed to Townsend flirting.

"I've always said that I worry about being with a man who doesn't flirt. I love that Stuart can watch tennis and tell me that he's got a crush on a tennis player. We're not meant to just like one person. But (that) doesn't mean you go and build a life with another person."