Growing number of older couples split and divorce
LOS ANGELES: Older couples married for two decades or more are increasingly divorcing, creating unique financial and emotional challenges, new statistics show.
Called “grey divorce” experts believe the emerging trend has increased due to the pandemic, social media, reduced stigma around separation – and women feeling more empowered.
They say that while “infidelity still reigns supreme in the divorce stakes”, for many older couples a decision to go their separate ways simply reflects an “it’s time” moment.
Australian Institute of Family Studies figures March show more than a quarter of the 56,244 divorces in 2021 involved couples married 20 years of more, up from about one in five in the 1980s and 1990s. More recent data from national information and mediation group The Separation Guide reveals a 27 per cent increase in the number of people aged 45 and older who had been married more than 20 years seeking advice on separation, in the last half of 2022. The total number of divorces in 2021 was 56,244, the highest since 1976.
The guide’s chief executive, Angela Harbinson, said many more people with a “thirst to live a different type of life” were opting to separate after their children leave home.
“Couples with a thirst to live a different type of life can do that more easily in 2023 than at any time before; it’s just easier to travel, to change careers, to work from home,” she said.
“They both still have deep fondness for each other but have just decided to move on.”
Vanessa Camerlengo, a senior solicitor at Adelaide’s Resolve Divorce, said her firm had noticed a rise in the number of divorces involving long-term relationships, consistent with the national trend and an increase after the pandemic.