Lack of love and lost interest in sex is driving the over-50s to divorce

Lack of love and lost interest in sex is driving the over-50s to divorce - The children have flown the nest and, as thoughts turn to retirement, the years ahead should be an opportunity to enjoy life as a couple.

Instead, it appears the baby boom generation are filing for divorce.

Many over-50s ending their ­marriages blame a lack of love and intimacy in their relationship, according to a survey.

The main reason for men over-50 ending their marriage was a lack of interest in sex, while most women said their husband was ­emotionally cold

Figures show that 28 per cent said they divorced because their partner was emotionally cold and distant, while a quarter cited a loss of interest in sex.

The research also found that 27 per cent said they were no longer committed to their marriage.

The main reason for men ending their marriage – cited in a third of cases – was a lack of interest in sex, while most women said their husband was ­emotionally cold.

Unsurprisingly, nagging also scored highly, featuring in 14 per cent of answers given by 1,900 divorcees aged 50 and over. In 10 per cent of cases, couples said they had simply run out of things to talk about.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed that divorce among the over-50s peaked in 2004 at around 25,000-a-year before a slight fall to the current annual rate of 22,000.

Known as the ‘Saga divorce’, experts believe many couples who have stayed together for the sake of their children reassess their futures when their offspring fly the nest.

The survey found that money was also one of the reasons given in over-50s divorce cases, with 9 per cent of those quizzed complaining that their partner failed to contribute enough financially to the relationship and 8 per cent saying their other half spent too much money.

Work also caused problems, with 8 per cent blaming a job that made life difficult and 5 per cent unhappy that their partner flirted with friends or colleagues.

A significant number of couples cited family issues, with 5 per cent saying they had waited for their children to move out before separating. For 4 per cent it was parents or parents-in-law who made things difficult.

The survey was carried out by Saga Legal Services, which specialises in products for the over-50s.

Christine Northam, a counsellor for Relate, said: ‘Many women in their 50s are starting to see that there are opportunities out there for them that perhaps weren’t there when they first married.’

Why newlyweds know more about each other

The longer couples stay together, the less they know about each other, psychologists believe. Experts quizzed people on their partner’s preferences in food, films and kitchen furniture.

In all subjects, couples who had been together 40 years made worse guesses than those together two years, ­especially over favourite foods.

‘One reason could be that older couples pay less attention to each other, because they view their relationship as already firmly committed or because they think they already know their partner well,’ researcher Dr Benjamin Scheibehenne, of the University of Basel, Switzerland, said in the Journal of Consumer Psychology. ( dailymail.co.uk )

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