A short history of ‘conscious uncoupling’

There have been some rocky relationships in the news this year. As well as Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s conscious uncoupling, world leaders have also had problems. Vladimir Putin’s divorce has just been finalised, and the newly single Francois Hollande this week welcomed his ex-girlfriend Segolene Royal to the French cabinet.

So, first of all some advice from a 1951 Spectator, about how to be happily married. Hugh Lyon, then chairman of the National Marriage Guidance Council, was rather strict:

‘The real trouble about people who want to be happily married is that they don’t start soon enough. It is not just a matter of taking thought before getting engaged, nor even of being properly educated for family life. The first essential is to take the precaution to be born into a really happy home, with parents whose life together flows strong and clear beneath the little flaws and flurries of occasional irritations; and the second is to be oneself the right sort of person, with those native qualities of sympathy and sensitiveness which no external influences can create nor altogether suppress.’