This Makes Divorce More Likely

Back in the land of ridiculously depressing news, a new study has shown that when wives are sick, divorces are more likely. More likely, that is, than when husbands are sick. Now, we're not talking "sick" in terms of a common cold but sick as in very ill, ostensibly to the point of requiring assistance from another person in order to properly function.

But let us not jump on the bandwagon, brandishing our damp tissues and pitchforks quite yet; it may not be that men just can't hack it. Perhaps there's another reason, like...aliens. To suggest that men would be more likely to leave their wives or to behave in such a way that would justify divorce on the part of the wife in question would be too disgusting to bear. People like this do not truly exist. They're just dramatic side characters on soap operas who hang out in their wives' hospital rooms checking out the asses of cute red-headed nurses as we all look on in indignant horror, yeah? Thankfully enough, researchers behind the Iowa State University study had the foresight to suggest several reasons as to why the six percent increase in divorce (when seriously ill women were involved) might exist. Put down that pitchfork though, really, you're causing a ruckus.

One such suggestion is that financial burden is incredibly detrimental to marriage and as we know, Americans are still living in the 19th century and are monetarily punished when they fall ill. Perhaps some women who are that sick in general prefer to be on their own, unburdened by the needs of a relationship when she can barely take care of herself at the time. It's anyone's guess but it is a complicated inquiry, to be sure.

It's also fair practice to remind everyone that marriage in and of itself is hard. We don't know what the backgrounds of these couples were, what their relationships were like before or even the exact nature of these diseases. I haven't been married but I imagine it's akin to having an adorable stuffed animal that you really love, but also occasionally get the urge to stab. Hey, pure conjecture though.

Given that the institution of marriage doesn't work for a good amount of the people who try it out, we'll probably never know what the secret recipe to staying together is.

Now, though, we know it is definitely not illness.

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