Showing desire, in a real way...

[Dom R]

Maybe (on my part anyway) this is an only-child thing .... but there is a vibe to being alone with yourself and content in your own company that you just can't get with someone else knocking around,

I understand that.
however, that did not seem to be the motivation for the situation Lillie described.
She described, for example, that she wanted to watch foreign movies with subtitles, and she didnt usually watch it with her husband because his eyesight is too poor to read them.
So, she's been depriving herself of something she enjoys, out of a misplaced consideration for her husband.

that's why I addressed it specifically "to her", rather than as a general case.
There's a difference between "I want to be alone", and "I want to do X, but I feel guilty about doing it when my husband is around"