gray divorce

plural gray divorces · alternative grey divorce

1. countableuncountableA divorce occurring between senior or elderly individuals, usually after a long-term marriage.

   The rise in grey divorce isn't exclusive to the US – it's also happening in ageing populations around the world.

   2025 September 12, Molly Gorman, “'Was it all smoke and mirrors?': How adult children are affected by grey divorce”, in BBC

   2 more examples

   Gray divorce: blame the doctors for allowing people to live longer; blame the chemists with their little blue pills that allow for sexual rebirth; blame capitalism, which after all is a raging success that allows the privileged few to have serial marriages and divorces and pay for discarded wives, the children they put in boarding schools, etc.

   2018, Jocelyn Elise Crowley, “Praise For Gray Divorce”, in Gray Divorce: What We Lose and Gain from Mid-Life Splits, University of California Press, →ISBN

   Her research has also found that men are more likely to re-partner after a gray divorce, partly because women tend to outlive them, shrinking the pool of available partners. But there is also evidence that women are less interested in re-marrying after divorce than men.

   2026 June 22, Catherine Pearson, “Older Adults Are No Longer Staying in ‘Empty Shell’ Marriages”, in The New York Times, →ISSN