The Happy Side of Divorce

People who end their marriage in later life report feeling ‘relieved’, ‘excited’ and ‘more confident’ following the split, new research has shown.

A poll of 1,153 divorcees aged 45 and over revealed an upbeat attitude among those who went their separate ways, often delaying their parting until their adult children had flown the nest.

Over a third claimed to have remained firm friends with their ex-partner, with 65 per cent who said they consider any bad feeling surrounding the split to be ‘in the past’.

The research follows an Office of National Statistics report, ‘Divorces in England and Wales’, published last November which found divorce rates in the UK are dropping in every age group but the over-50s.

Michael Vale, family law expert at QualitySolicitors, which commissioned the survey, said: ‘So-called silver divorces have become a widely documented phenomenon – and the process can often be less volatile than in the younger age sectors.

‘With empty nest syndrome – a common reason for divorce in later years – often comes a mutual realisation that neither partner is happy.

‘These days, embracing change in the search of personal happiness is more widely encouraged than ‘settling’, so people no longer feel obliged to stay together.

‘They want to make the most out of life and not be held back in the pursuit of their life goals.’

According to the study, more than eight in ten ‘silver-splitters’ said that divorce has lost the taboo that it held for their parents’ generation.

Far from staying in and stewing over the breakup of their marriage, a fifth of those polled even confessed to throwing a ‘divorce party’ or treating themselves to a night on the town.