Tessa Bengo, head of the Family team at Thomas Dunton reports that according to figures from the ONS, the number of over-60s divorcing their partners has hit a 40-year high. “Silver splitter” divorces are continuing to rise at a time when the overall number of marriage failures is in decline. Unlike other age groups where women are more likely to file for divorce, among the over-sixties men are as likely as women to want to end a marriage. The ONS said longer life expectancy has spurred many couples to reconsider whether they want to spend their retirement years together.

It was commented that men in their sixties have finished with work, so no longer have those responsibilities and their families have usually grown up and left home. Therefore, they are able to throw off what they perceive to be the shackles of existing relationships and enjoy a new lease of life, often with new and much younger partners. Retirement can be a real crunch point for couples. One spouse often carries on their life as they have done for many years whilst the other retires, not only professionally but socially as well. It is a realisation that they have different interests.

The figures show that there were 9,439 divorces where the husband was over 60 in 2011, compared with the previous high of 9,603 in 1972. There were 5,836 divorces where the woman was 60 or over, compared with a record 7,501 in 1972. The highs set in 1972 were because that was a year after the 1969 Divorce Reform Act came into force.

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