Throughout Marriage Week 7th-14th February 2023, Harry Benson, Sorted Columnist and Research Director at the Marriage Foundation shares a series of daily articles about the latest academic research.
Harry writes: Rock’n rollers have the highest celebrity divorce rates, finds our latest analysis. Our new report, covered in the Sunday Express and Mail on Sunday, shows who has bucked the trend.
Rock stars face the highest risk to their marriages, perhaps due to adrenaline-fuelled nightly performances on tour in front of huge crowds followed by after parties, alcohol and opportunity! Despite their wealth, money doesn’t seem to protect the marriages of celebrities.
The problem is fame. In my analysis, I’ve divided celebrities into categories of music, screen, and sports/other. At 60%, music stars have the highest divorce rate over 18 years, followed by screen stars at 53%. Sports and other stars have the lowest divorce rate at 42%, yet this is still higher than the UK average at 32%.
While fame itself may not be quite so toxic for sportsmen and women whose daily routines tend to involve tremendous self-discipline and little to no alcohol, ego and opportunity are clearly sufficient to raise divorce risk above average levels.
For screen stars it is easy to imagine how inappropriate close relationships can become established with other fellow actors because of the intimacy and suspension of normal daily life required to pretend to be somebody else during a film or theatre season.
But it is rock stars who face the highest risk to their marriages.
Read our report here.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Leave a Reply