Bill and Melinda Gates divorce: why the over-60s are ‘silver splitters’

Divorce rates may be falling but there is only one demographic that bucks this trend … older couples

If the announcement last week that Bill and Melinda Gates are getting divorced took observers by surprise, it nonetheless conforms to a growing trend of later-life separation. Bill Gates is 65, and his soon to be ex-wife is 56. In the UK the over-65s buck the trend of falling divorce rates. They’ve even earned their own demographic designation: silver splitters.

A grey social revolution is under way with people in their late 50s and 60s increasingly leaving marriages just when they’re expected to be most settled. A number of factors are at play but two in particular stand out. One is children going off to college or leaving home. While the empty-nest syndrome may prompt melancholy, it can also end the obligation to “stay together for the children”. It’s probably no coincidence that the Gateses’ youngest child is 18.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/may/09/bill-and-melinda-gates-divorce-why-the-over-60s-are-silver-splitters

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