Vanessa Feltz, poses a very interesting question today in the Express. http://bit.ly/Z2tS about whether you stay loyal to ‘the marriage’, friends and family, or break for the border and take a risk of finding happiness. She talks particularly about the age group of people in their 60’s, when it would seem safer to stay married rather than be on your own, and she quotes Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne as an example of this. I do think the decision is helped a little by having access to funds and a lifestyle that takes away the financial stress that most people have when they separate.
However, the question of staying or going when you are over 60, doesn’t have an easy or a right answer.These are deeply personal decisions rarely taken lightly, although friends will often think they are. Staying in an unhappy marriage is debilitating, making you think, that, as you say in your article, where there is breath there is hope. We are all living and working for longer, so in our 50’s and 60’s there is a feeling that life isn’t over and there is a chance to get it right. Separating is devastating and has a ripple effect way beyond the couple, but sometimes its more devastating to stay together in a relationship sapped of joy. None of us knows what goes on behind closed doors and its easy to stand in judgement when the door closes on a marriage. Marriage isn’t easy, but nor is divorce, but one thing is true, there is life after divorce and it is also a new beginning.