This week’s column is all about marriage, and brings good news ?

Today’s newlyweds can – perhaps surprisingly – expect to stay together longer than their parents.

1/3@thetimes

? https://t.co/TMbSECkGoB pic.twitter.com/yj6NxQdnFT

— Tom Calver (@TomHCalver) September 15, 2024

But another reason behind marriage’s increasing durability may be that couples with fewer financial pressures are more likely to wed

Do couples stay together because they are married, or because they were less likely to split up to begin with?

3/3

? https://t.co/TMbSECkGoB

— Tom Calver (@TomHCalver) September 15, 2024

As somebody with a failed marriage to their name I feel that I am absolutely the last person in the known universe who should be commentating on marriage but I was struck by the stat that ‘cohabiting couples with children are twice as likely to separate as married couples’.

Perhaps I have been wrong in my life and I owe family values conservatives an apology then again I am sticking to my view that marriage is three rings, engagement ring, wedding ring, and suffering.

TSE