Not true.
The harsh truth that nearly half of marriages in the United States end in divorce
Boy, they desperately want this to be true. But it isn’t.
I wouldn’t be too quick to paint a rosey picture. The 50% statistic might be closer to 30%, but that’s still 1 out of 3, which is terrible. Purely anecdotal I know, but growing up, it was extremely rare for my children to know another child who still lived with both of his/her biological parents.
There is a simple way of undermining this alleged divorce rate. Mickey Rooney.
He has been married 8 times, divorced 6 times. His first wife, Ava Gardner was married 3 times, divorced 3 times. His second wife, B.J. Baker was married 3 times, divorced 3 times. 3rd wife, Martha Vickers, also 3 and 3. 4th wife, Elaine Devry, 2 and 2.
His 5th wife died. His 6th wife, Margaret Lane, and I don’t know if she married anyone else. The same with his 7th wife, Carolyn Hockett. His 8th wife, Jan Rooney married 2 times, divorced the other guy.
So between one man and his wives there were *at least* 16 unique marriages between two people, and *at least* 14 divorces. From just 9 people.
That is, if you count marriages and divorces as a single event, rather than an event for each person. If you do that, there are *at least* 18 divorces for 9 people.
So how many happily married couples who stay married is that balanced against?