Whatever the wedding vows a couple takes, divorces often occur after one of the spouses becomes severely ill. According to one study, this is particularly true for couples over the age of 50 when it’s the wife who is stricken with an illness.
When the over-50 wife experienced a major illness such as stroke, cancer or heart condition, the probability of a subsequent divorce was six percent higher. On the other hand, if the over-50 husband became sick it had no apparent effect on divorce rates. (It’s not known which party actually initiated the divorce in these matters. It’s possible that the wife initiated it in many circumstances out of concerns about the kind of care her husband would actually provide.)
Illness in a spouse appears to play a different role when speaking about younger couples. In fact, a husband’s illness appears to be a greater factor than a wife’s illness when taking into account divorces among couples around the age of 30.
It’s probably not surprising that divorces do occur when illnesses occur. An illness in the family often results in an increase in stress. Unfortunately, the individual who often ends up becoming the caretaker for one desperately ill also happens to be the spouse. This means a separation or divorce often results in the loss of a caretaker.
It’s important in any circumstances that there is a meeting of the needs of both spouses following a divorce. As we don’t wish to see either spouse disproportionately suffer following a divorce in any circumstances, experienced family law attorneys perform the service of making certain each spouse has their future needs addressed during the divorce process.
Source: Huffington Post, “Couples Over 50 Are More Likely To Divorce When The Wife Gets Sick, Study Suggests,†Rebecca Adams, March 5, 2015