Gray Divorce & Gray Affairs: Why Happy Marriages End After 50 - 1332

Gray divorce has exploded, with the divorce rate for people 50 and older more than doubling since 1990 and this age group now making up 40% of all divorces, up from just 8% in 1990, per Bowling Green State University research. Chalene Johnson breaks down why marriages that looked solid for decades are suddenly ending.

She unpacks a 2024 study on late in life divorce, the empty nest reckoning that leaves couples with nothing left to talk about, and how perimenopause and menopause change mood, libido, and patience enough to end a marriage nobody saw coming.

Then there's the gray affair. Chalene turns to relationship expert Esther Perel's research on why people in happy, decades-long marriages still stray, plus the surprising odds that a couple stays together after one is discovered.

Topics discussed: gray divorce, gray affair, Bowling Green State University, Esther Perel, empty nest, menopause, perimenopause, midlife crisis, betrayal trauma.

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🚨Questions Chalene Wants Your Thoughts on:

Have you ever felt invisible inside your marriage? Has menopause changed anything in your relationship? Have you built silent resentment instead of speaking up?

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