You might think that once you’ve passed your 75th wedding anniversary, it’d be smooth sailing through the golden years of your marriage and then into the great beyond. But unfortunately that’s not the case for one Italian couple who are getting divorced at the ripe old ages of 99 and 96, after an impressive 77 years of marriage.
The trouble started a few days before Christmas, when the husband, Antonio, 99, was searching through an old chest of drawers and found some letters that his wife, Rosa, 96, had written to a secret lover. He became so upset by his discovery—even though the affair had happened way back in the 1940s!—that he immediately told Rosa he wanted a divorce. She tried to convince him otherwise, but there was no dissuading the cuckolded Antonio.
The break-up will no doubt be upsetting to the couples five children, 12 grandchildren, and 1 great-grandchild, who must have come to take their elders’ marriage for granted since it’s lasted for the better part of eight decades! Though they did have a small hint of trouble ten years ago when Antonio and Rosa hit a rough patch. Antonio briefly moved to live with one of his sons, but he moved back in with Rosa a few weeks later. This split—if it ends up going through—will beat the previous old person divorce record, which was held by a British couple, Bertie and Jessie Wood, who ended their marriage when they were 98. But they’d only been married for 36 years, which certainly pales in comparison to Rosa and Antonio’s 77-year union.
99-year-old divorces wife after he discovered 1940s affair [Telegraph]
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