Let \(G\) be a unimodular Lie group with finitely many connected components and let \(H\) be a closed unimodular subgroup of \(G\). Let \(\pi\) be an irreducible unitary representation of \(G\) on \(H\). It is shown that if every \(\pi\) has a distribution character, then \((G,H)\) is a multiplicity free pair if and only if \((G\times H\), diag \((H\times H))\) is a generalized Gelfand pair.