40-year itch? Rare, yes, but maybe not for long

By GAIL ROSENBLUM

"Inconvenient Truth" jokes aside, most people I've talked with the past few days were stunned by Al and Tipper Gore's separation after 40 years of marriage........A national AARP study, conducted in 2004, reported a rise in the divorce rate among people ages 40 to 79. That is collaborated by an Australian study, which found 28 percent of divorces in 2008 involved marriages of 20 years or more, up from 20 percent in 1990.........Barb Greenberg, who offers support groups to women divorcing after long-term marriages (www.rosepath press.com), understands the eyebrow-raising around the Gore split. She was divorced after 33 years.

"Oh, darn it. They were the good guys," Greenberg said. "I can't imagine anything icky happened, but you don't know. From the outside, everything looks good."

The reasons for divorce after decades are as complex as a couple's dynamics. Some fall out of love, or "grow apart," as has been suggested about the Gores, who married young. He's 62, she's 61.

Read the rest of the article here...