Tag: Marriage week

Harry Benson, Sorted Columnist and Research Director at the Marriage Foundation shares some of the stories which have hit the headlines.

Sunday Telegraph Couples who marry because of family pressure 50 per cent more likely to divorce
Harry Benson, Marriage Foundation’s research director, commented: “What this research shows conclusively is that the reasons why people get married has a significant material impact to whether they stay together. While this might seem obvious, this has never been quantified. But the message is clear. Get married for love and your future together and not because it is either expected of you or because of family pressure.”

Sunday Express: Married pop and rock stars are TWICE as likely to get divorced – study
Top actors and sports stars also have a higher chance of splitting up than non-celebrities but musicians are top of the divorce charts. Researchers from the Marriage Foundation have been tracking nearly 500 A-list celebrities who tied the knot between 2001-2010 in ceremonies which featured in Hello or similar magazines.

Financial Times: Lawyers urge UK ministers to speed up reform of cohabitation rights
Harry Benson, research director at the Marriage Foundation, a charity that champions the institution of marriage, said introducing a new law would effectively remove the need for couples to make a decision on their future relationship commitment. Also what is the legal definition of cohabitation — is it when couples move in together? How is that defined? When they bring the toothbrush or the suitcases?”

Mail on Sunday: As it’s revealed rock stars are TWICE as likely to divorce as the average person, here are the couples who’ve beat the odds – and the musicians who weren’t so lucky
Harry Benson, research director of the think tank and study author, suggests the reason celebrities are bucking this trend, despite being at the top of the income scale, is fame. In the paper he writes that the ‘ego and opportunity’, which go hand in hand with being a famous name, is the most likely explanation for the group’s higher divorce rates. This potentially relationship-destroying combination is particularly in evidence with musicians due to their lifestyle, he says.

The Marriage Foundation have also appeared or been quoted in Conservative Woman, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Independent, i paper, Mail on Sunday, The Week,Times, BBC Radio 5 live and BBC Radio Bristol

Main photo credit: Peter Lawrence via Unsplash

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: Couples who slide into marriage have higher divorce rates than those who decide, according to our survey of 905 ever married adults. It’s all about commitment! Couples who “slide into marriage”, because of family pressure, are up to 50 per cent more likely to divorce than those who marry for love.

Our survey looked at 905 couples who married for the first time after the year 2000 in the era of online dating. They were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with each of twelve reasons for why they might have got married.

Those who said they: “felt they had to marry due to family pressure” i.e. due to social pressure, had a significantly higher probability of divorce at just 34 per cent compared to 23 per cent of couples who did not identify these reasons.

Those who agreed that their marriage “just kind of happened” i.e. slide into it, had a 29 per cent probability of divorce over the duration of the study compared to 22 per cent of those who disagreed.

In contrast, those who were more intentional about their marriage, who agreed that they married “in order to build our life together” i.e. as the cornerstone of life together, were more likely to stay together. They divorced at an overall rate of just 24 per cent compared to 37 per cent among those who did not agree.

Read our report here

Main photo courtesy of Harry Benson