Same here. I was starting to get paranoid--over the past six or so months, five of my friends, all in long-term marriages, and all but one 50+ have told me that their wives had asked for divorces.
All of them claimed that they never saw it coming.
Which is pretty much what the study cited seems to be saying: since 1990, the rate of divorce among those over 50 has doubled. What's strange is that this age cohort (my own) hasn't really internalized some of the revisions to family law: with my group of friends, the woman has expected to keep the house, and get some form of spousal support, regardless of her own earning potential. Needless to say, it's not working out that way for some of them who do have good jobs, and in particular with some guys who've taken an earnings hit over the past couple of years.
“Needless to say, it’s not working out that way for some of them, who do have good jobs, and in particular with some guys who’ve taken an earnings hit over the past couple of years.”
It is amazing how the left wing judges seem to ignore the economic realities of today.
In the great financial meltdown, a local guy lost his business and home. He maxed out his credit cards, had no money and ended up with a divorce.
He is in his late 50’s and unable to find a job, yet he was told that he owed his former wife, a nice 4 figure per month spousal support.
He told the judge and asst. DA that he had no money and no real chance at employment. Between his non spousal support and debts he couldn’t pay, he went to trial and was sentenced to a couple of years in jail.
Since he is considered non violent and not a threat to society, he was released after one year in jail.
He is still unemployed and not paying his monthly spousal support, and he was recently told by another judge he has until 1 Oct to start spousal support payments and to make up for the year+ of non payment.
He started laughing at the Judge. The Judge threatened to put him in jail, and he said that he would be glad to go back to jail.
The Judge backed off. So the guy gets two free meals 5 days/week from charity groups and sleeps in his old suv or under a bridge. He hopes the judge will throw him back in jail for the rest of his life.