Older Adults Are No Longer Staying in 'Empty Shell' Marriages

[Coventina]

While divorce rates have been dropping across age groups in recent years, the exception to that trend is among Americans ages 65 and up. The reasons are complicated, but it’s becoming clear that some Gen Xers and baby boomers are increasingly unwilling to stay in what sociologists call “empty shell marriages.”

These are relationships in which there is no real connection or vitality, where one or both partners are not happy, said Susan Brown, a professor of sociology at Bowling Green State University who co-directs the National Center for Family and Marriage Research. Traditionally, such couples often decided to stay together for the sake of their kids, in view of economic stability or out of fear of stigma.

Now, that may be a thing of the past.

“This generation is living longer than prior generations,” she said, “and that may be changing the calculus about whether you want to stay in a marriage that is not that meaningful anymore.”

***snip***

“We as a species are in longer relationships than our ancestors ever were,” he said. “Lifelong monogamy maybe meant a few decades.” Now, though, there are couples who have been together for 50, 60 or even 70-plus years.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/22/well/family/gray-divorce-empty-shell-marriage.html?

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They didn't get divorced, but my MIL is now living her best life after my FIL passed in 2020......