It sounds like a rather staggering statistic, but the authors of a new book say that a whopping 30 percent of women who decide to divorce actually knew on their wedding day that they were marrying the wrong person.
According to ABC News, the authors of “How Not to Marry the Wrong Guy” say that many people get married for the wrong reasons. The women, one of whom is a social worker specializing in couples and families, say they interviewed hundreds of people for the project.
What they found, they say, are a lot of people who ignored their “gut feeling” to call a wedding off. They cite Kim Kardashian, who divorced 72 days after a lavish and hugely publicized wedding.
Why do people get married if they know they shouldn’t, then? Why does the divorce rate hover around 50 percent? There’s no easy answer, but the authors offer some possible explanations.
One is that women, and men too, get caught up in the ceremony itself, rather than look forward to the marriage.
Another is that people feel the pressure to get married. Some women feel their biological clocks ticking and want to start a family.
Yet others, men as well as women, feel that they can’t back out of something so expensive and thought out. But the authors emphasize that ignoring such gut feelings will only lead to problems down the road. A marriage may start with a fairy tale wedding, but it may end up far from it.
Source: ABC News, “More women are saying, ‘I Do’ when they mean ‘I Don’t,’ say authors,” Andrea Canning, Nov. 17, 2011