Maggie Owens*, a Sydney high-school principal, also remembers the feeling of coming in as the new wife when there has been a long, happy marriage beforehand. Now 67, she was 58 when she met her current husband. She had been divorced and a single mother for many years but he had only been widowed six months or so.
In those early days, I often had a strong sense that in his mind I was a replacement, Owens says. There’s a real difference between getting together later in life when you’re divorced and getting together when one of the partners has died. When you’re divorced, especially if you’re miserably divorced, then that’s fabulous.