December 1 – which happens to be tomorrow – is, I think, a good time to sit down and take a hard look at how to make Christmas easy. Because anyone who has read my blogs from this time last year, or has read my book, How NOT To Get Divorced After Christmas, knows that I believe the Festive Season to be the most stressful time of year – particularly if you’re a woman.   more »

The celebrations this week to mark the diamond wedding anniversary of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh provided some welcome respite from the usual doom-and-gloom news coverage.   more »

It’s still five weeks away, but already it seems that Christmas is upon us. The shops are groaning with goodies and magazines and TV adverts are awash with gift ideas – many of which cost an arm and a leg.   more »

A survey published this week reveals that the vast majority of adults want to be married. More than seven out of ten say they would like a ring on their finger – more than ten times the number of people who want to live with a partner without being married.   more »

When couples with dependent children divorce, the legal process may be driven as much by contact issues as by money.   more »

Money and children are the two main issues that stall the finalising of a divorce settlement. But there’s another, less publicised, one that can hold up the process – “pet custody”.   more »

Long-distance marriages have always existed in the high-octane world of celebrity, but nowadays they are increasingly common among us ordinary folk, too.   more »

If you’re a male boss who has fallen hook, line and sinker for your PA or another office worker and are contemplating jettisoning your long-standing marriage to set up home with your “bit of on the side”, I urge you to read the rest of this blog before embarking on a divorce that could rob you of half your wealth, your children and – in the long term – your social and psychological equilibrium.   more »

We British, or so we’re told, are as famous for our collective “stiff upper lip” as for our passion for fish and chips.   more »

Most of us, thank goodness, won’'t ever have to suffer the ignominy of being goaded into head-butting our love rival on a TV chat show, as happened to security guard David Staniforth.   more »

This week, mental health experts warned that we could be heading for an epidemic of "winter blues" following one of the most miserable summers on record. After weeks of gloomy weather, many sufferers of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) will be starting autumn already depressed.   more »

The end of the long summer holidays is one of two annual "flashpoints" (the other being Christmas) that can trigger divorce. Matrimonial lawyers are at their busiest in September as unhappy couples who have struggled through a miserable family holiday finally decide to call time on their marriage.   more »

The latest divorce statistics, released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) last week, paint an optimistic picture of the matrimonial climate in England and Wales: the divorce rate has fallen to its lowest level for nearly 30 years.   more »

Over the summer, I heard two strikingly similar stories that made me wonder anew at why people don’t think more carefully before making the enormous decision to walk away from a long marriage.   more »

For many couples, how their divorce will affect the children is the biggest concern they have and they do all in their power to make sure the kids suffer as little as possible.   more »

Divorce knows no boundaries when it comes to age: although it remains most prevalent among 30 and 40-somethings, it is now becoming increasingly common in older age brackets. Couples over 50 and even 60-plus, who have been together for many decades, are going their separate ways.   more »

Relatives of a friend of mine announced this week they were splitting up after more than 30 years of marriage. Although it didn’t come entirely out of the blue, those who know them were still stunned to hear the news.   more »

You've had your summer holiday with the kids and, for you, that's it for another year. They, on the other hand, are getting excited all over again because they've another holiday to look forward to – with your ex.   more »

If you have children at school, the chances are you’'re now at least a week into the six-week-plus summer break. This should be a happy time for both you and the kids: a time to luxuriate in one another'’s company and look forward to your annual family holiday by the seaside.   more »

If your child completed their degree this summer, you will no doubt be preparing for Graduation Day - a celebratory occasion when all the hard work your son or daughter has put in over the past three-plus years is rewarded with a formal cap-and-gown ceremony in the university’s Great Hall.   more »

Getting divorced is an expensive business, not least because you could end up “re-allocating” half your financial assets. Many couples fight shy of hiring the services of a top matrimonial firm in a bid to keep down their costs, but, as I detailed in an earlier blog, this can be false economy. A “cheap” lawyer may hand you a bill that is significantly less than one you could expect from a firm like ours, but they might also fail to secure you as large a settlement.   more »

Many people see divorce as an end rather than as a beginning. In the dark, early days, they imagine their life has been ruined by the collapse of their marriage and are inclined to dwell on that instead of seeing that a new and potentially more exciting and fulfilling era lies ahead.   more »

The Duchess of York famously cut off her trademark auburn locks when her marriage to Prince Andrew hit the rocks and Britney Spears even more famously had her head shaved after she split from husband Kevin Federline. Fergie and Britney are not alone in having tried to reinvent themselves in the wake of marital breakdown; many wives – and husbands, come to that – feel the need to change the way they look and dress when they get divorced.   more »

Divorce seriously damages your health! The trauma of marital breakdown can harm your physical as well as emotional wellbeing.   more »

Coming to terms with your ex finding new love is difficult enough; learning they are to have a baby can test even the most understanding former spouse’s munificence to the limit.   more »

For some people, divorce is the first major emotional trauma they will experience in life and trying to find a way through it can be a difficult and extremely painful process.   more »

Little more than a decade ago, the number of overseas properties owned by Brits was 102,000; today the figure has trebled to 300,000. If the trend continues, about 1.3 million of us will be living abroad in 20 years’ time – many of us divorced.   more »

Returning home to a dark, empty house is one of the things many people dread about life after divorce; women especially.    more »

This is the time of year when the birds are busily making their nests, laying eggs and rearing their young. It won’t be long before the fledglings take leave of their parents and quit the nest forever.   more »

When parents divorce, their biggest concern is usually their children.   more »