Embraces sweetheart and wives (8)
I believe the answer is:
espouses
'embraces' is the definition.
('espouse' can be a synonym of 'embrace')
'sweetheart and wives' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'sweetheart' could be 'e' (the heart/centre of 'sweet') and 'e' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'spouses' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for espouses that I've seen before include "Takes up" , "Chooses and follows" , "Marries, embraces" .)