The Context

Summer 2013 Newsletter now available

08-May-2013

On the anniversary of the Marriage Foundation's launch Paul Coleridge looks back over the solid achieve- ments of the first year and says that "there is everything to play for. Please continue to stand with us."

Second marriages are less likely to end in divorce than first

29-Apr-2013

The Marriage Foundation think-tank has produced a report revealing that second marriages are more stable than first marriages, challenging the widely held belief that couples who remarry are doomed to repeat the mistakes from their first marriage.

Startling new MF research on UK divorce rate

06-Feb-2013

New report shatters the common assumption that the divorce rate for all couples is higher than it was in the 1960s. If a married couple survive the first ten years of marriage, their risk of divorce is the same as it has been in the previous four decades.

The context

Attitudes to marriage are shaped by people’s experiences of their own relationships, and those of their parents, peers and public figures. There is both an unexpected wealth and diversity of support for marriage, as well as more negative but resonant views. This is the milieu of influence within which the Marriage Foundation must work.

“I turn 76 in October and I have never been anywhere near marriage before. It took a long time for a bit of common sense to enter my befuddled brain.”

Michael Winner — BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14976529

“Before I got married, I didn’t hold any store by it. My parents were divorced when I was 11 and it made such a profound impression on my life that I suppose I thought that by not getting married, you could avoid your life being carved in two. But that changed.”

Richard E Grant — The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/how-we-met-richard-e-grant-and-joan-washington-1439383.html

“Now here is a message to those young aspiring men here tonight. I would remind you what it is to be a successful man, and what is one’s prize possession in life. It has absolutely nothing at all to do with money, academic achievement, or any material things. A real successful man puts the love of his wife and children first.”

Alan Sugar — The Daily Mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1018990/How-Sir-Alan-Sugar-celebrated-40th-wedding-anniversary-2m-party.html#ixzz1mT2lhtPX

“The truth is I believed that marriage traps you.”

Celia Imrie — The Daily Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8441832/Celia-Imrie-the-screen-matriarch-who-couldnt-bear-to-be-married.html

“I don’t believe in marriage, certainly not in this business. The truth is that you get married and in a year or two they clean you out.”

Simon Cowell — The Daily Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/7399980/Even-Simon-Cowells-marriage-is-all-about-him.html

“I have been there and done that . . . . All it is, is a piece of paper.”

Jodie Kidd — The Daily Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/active/8804373/Jodie-Kidd-says-marriage-is-more-than-a-piece-of-paper.html