Marriage Survival Stories 1: “Everything Changed”

“A few weeks back, I asked married readers if they’d be willing to share a story about surviving a rough patch in their relationship. I’ve been overwhelmed by the deeply moving stories I received – thank you all! There were far too many stories to do justice to in one essay, so with profound gratitude for your generosity, here’s the first in a short series.

How do you respond when life throws you a curveball, or one or both of you changes so much that it feels like the ‘I’ who said ‘I do’ no longer exists? Recently, entrepreneur Denise Lee, 40, caused a social media furore when she posted a TikTok video describing how she divorced her husband at 29, after four years of marriage: ‘I grew so much as a person [that] I didn’t feel he was the best fit for me any more’.”