Can I share an icloud account with my wife but not share contacts?

Question

My wife and I want to share the same icloud account. We both have iphones, and our contacts are getting messed up. Is there a way of storing our contacts separately? Or do I need to create a new icloud account for my wife? If so, how do I do that, as both our e-mail addresses are already linked to the existing appleID.

Answer 1

I personally would recommend to use two different Apple IDs/iCloud accounts for iCloud. And of course, you would still be able to share calendars, reminders and you could still set up "your" account as a secondary account on her device, so that she could also still access your email address.
To set up a new primary account, please go to Settings > iCloud > Delete Account (This would only delete the account from the device). Then create a new account here. After you set up her new account, you could add your account as a secondary iCloud account in "Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendar > iCloud" and then activate just only Mail (and of course keep contacts turned off).