Are Relationships Another Covid Casualty?
IS YOUR THREATENED?
Why the pandemic is causing spikes in break-ups and divorces
Source: https://bbc.in/3y4YxNv
It is said that if your neighbor’s house is on fire...we yours.
Divorce rates are increasing around the world, and
relationship experts warn the pandemic-induced break-up curve may not have peaked yet.
As we head into 2021, Worklife is running our best, most insightful, and most
essential stories from 2020. Read our full list of the year’s top stories here.
After seven years of marriage, 29-year-old Sophie Turner and her husband filed for divorce. They’d never discussed splitting up before the coronavirus crisis, but during the pandemic, their marriage soured. “I was more stressed, and it was all just building up, and we decided for maybe a trial separation,” says Turner, a support worker for
children’s social services in Suffolk, England. “Very quickly we realized it was going to be more permanent than that.”
Their experiences are becoming increasingly common, with divorce applications and break-ups skyrocketing across the UK and around the world.
Leading British law firm Stewarts logged a 122% increase in enquiries
between July and October, compared with the same period last year.
Charity Citizen’s Advice reported a spike in searches for online advice on ending a relationship.
In the US, a major legal contract-creation site recently announced a
34% rise in sales of its basic divorce agreement, with newlyweds
who’d got married in the previous five months making up 20% of
sales.
There’s been a similar pattern in China, which had one of the world’s
strictest lockdowns at the start of the pandemic.
The same is true in Sweden, which, until recently, largely relied on
voluntary guidelines to try and slow the spread of Covid-19.
It's old news that the pandemic is affecting many of our core relationships. But lawyers, therapists, and academics are starting to get a clearer understanding of the multiple factors feeding into the Covid-19 break-up boom – and why it looks set to
continue into 2021.
Story continues below
have made us scrutinize our living arrangements, experts say (Credit: Alamy)
At law-firm Stewarts, partner Carly Kinch describes
the pandemic as “the perfect storm” for couples, with lockdowns and social distancing causing them to spend increased amounts of time together.
This has, in many cases, acted as a catalyst for break-ups that may already have been on the cards, especially if previous separate routines had served to mask problems. “I don't think that the reasons that people are divorcing have necessarily changed. You've
always had the underlying current of ‘I'm unhappy with this or that at home. But I think it has just brought the focus on domestic arrangements really into much more sharp focus than they would ordinarily be.”
Kinch says her team wasn’t surprised by the surge in divorce applications after England’s first national lockdown ended, since break-ups usually spike after families spend longer together, like during school holidays or over Christmas. “I think lockdown is essentially like those prolonged periods, but with enormous added pressures,” she says.
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