An Italian couple recently became the world’s oldest divorcees after the 99 year old husband discovered his 96 year old wife had had an affair during the 1940’s. 

Reported in The Telegraph, the case occurred after the husband was searching through an old chest of drawers, and discovered old love letters hidden by his wife.  Despite the wife confessing to the betrayal, she was unable to persuade her husband to change his mind about the divorce, regardless of the couple’s history and five children, dozen grandchildren and one great grandchild. 

This case proves that sadly, divorce can happen to anyone, at any time.  In particular, it is well known that the recent festive season and the stress associated with it can lead to breaking point for many couples.

Modern couples judge a marriage by the amount of quality time they spend together and this, together with the current economic pressures contribute to make it the worst time of year for couples to divorce.

This does not just apply to married couples but also to cohabiting couples who also experience the same pressures.  It is thought that the lifestyles we pursue play a major part in divorce rates and that the ‘all work and no play’ philosophy we seem to have adopted is a major factor on divorce and separation. 

If going through a divorce, it is important to have someone taking care of the legal procedures along the way, to ensure the best deal for you and your family.  An experienced family solicitor can take an enormous amount of the stress and worry away from the divorce process and allow the individuals to focus on the important task of protecting the emotional welfare of their children.  Oswestry law firm Lanyon Bowdler has an expert team of family lawyers, one of whom is a trained mediator, and three who are also Resolution trained collaborative lawyers. 

Collaborative law is a relatively new but increasingly popular method of resolving divorce and separation issues.  Instead of clients communicating by lengthy telephone calls and numerous letters, individuals involved in the conflict can sit down, face-to-face accompanied by their collaborative lawyer representative, and resolve their family disputes amicably.  It gives couples far greater control of the process and outcome, and makes the matter far less traumatic for all parties.

As well as advising on marriage breakdown Lanyon Bowdler are happy to advise on other relationship breakdowns, and indeed on how to avoid disputes or the breakdown of any relationship by the production of pre-nuptial, pre-cohabitation or pre-civil ceremony agreements.

For more information,click Lanyon Bowdler.

Photo: three members of the Family Law team L-R Partner Colin Spanner, Senior Partner Peter Flint, and Associate Lisa Grimmett.