A long marriage doesn’t necessarily mean a happy marriage, it seems.
A 99-year-old Italian man has demanded a divorce from his wife of 77 years, after he discovered she had cheated on him more than six decades ago, The Telegraph reports.
The man, whom lawyers have identified only as Antonio C., discovered a stash of letters that his 96-year-old wife had exchanged with an old flame in the 1940s, while he was rifling through an old chest a few days before Christmas. When he confronted her, the wife, identified as Rosa C., was reportedly guilt-stricken and admitted to having an affair, but could not dissuade her husband from seeking a divorce.
The Telegraph says their marriage had apparently been troubled long before the discovery of the letters. A decade ago, Mr. C. left the couple’s home in Rome and briefly stayed with one of his sons.
Over their many years together, the couple raised five children, and now have a dozen grandchildren and a great-grand child. They met in the 1930s when Mr. C. was serving as a young officer in his wife’s native city of Naples.
The Telegraph says Mr. C. may now become the world’s oldest divorcé. The last record holders were a British couple, Bertie and Jessie Wood, both of whom were 98 when they split in 2009.
When two people aren’t happy together, how much does the duration of their marriage matter?