Romanticism will never die, but that’s not stopping British researchers from trying to come up with a recipe for the perfect marriage. Said recipe is said to be as efficient as it’s completely devoid of all the things that poets love to write about: in short, it implies the wife has to be at least five years younger than the husband and smarter than him. At the same time, history of divorce downsizes chances of success, the BBC writes.
“They found that if the wife was five or more years older than her husband, they were more than three times more likely to divorce than if they were the same age. If the age gap is reversed, and the man is older than the woman, the odds of marital bliss are higher. Those who have never divorced fare better too. But couples in which one member has been through a divorce in the past are less stable than those in which both members are divorcees.” BBC writes of the findings of the latest study.
Based on that last detail, it would seem that Michael Douglas’ marriage to Catherine Zeta Jones has less chances of success than that of Beyonce and Jay-Z. While it respects the age and education gap criteria, Douglas is a one-time divorcee. However, researchers insist people look for partners “on the basis of love, physical attraction, similarity of taste, beliefs and attitudes, and shared values.” Still, some factors, such as those mentioned above, can help reduce the rate of divorce.
