No-Fault Divorce Social Costs Huge

When the former British health secretary’s extramarital affair came to light last year, the press was much more interested in the fact that he’d breached his own social-distancing rules than that he committed adultery. Perhaps (as one writer friend suggested to me) so few commentators are willing to invoke traditional standards lest they too be measured by them. After all, in our post-Christian society, adultery is not necessarily wrong. There is also a widespread acceptance of “no fault divorce,” the idea that marriage, like a car, sometimes spontaneously breaks down, becoming more hassle than it’s worth.

One proponent of this philosophy is Adele, the megastar pop singer, whose latest album 30 takes her divorce from her husband (and the father of her son) as its theme. Adele told Oprah Winfrey that she had been “obsessed” with the idea of a “nuclear family” from a young age, after her father abandoned her at age three. She said that, for a time, she derived a great sense of stability and purpose from her husband and son. But this didn’t last. Soon, she realized she was “ignoring” her own happiness. In the interview, she describes her dissatisfaction so vaguely that it’s difficult to pin down. What it seems to have boiled down to is boredom.

About the Author

Madeleine Kearns

Madeleine Kearns is a former staff writer at National Review.

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When the former British health secretary’s extramarital affair came to light last year, the press was much more interested in the fact that he’d breached his own social-distancing rules than that he committed adultery. Perhaps (as one writer friend suggested to me) so few commentators are willing to invoke traditional standards lest they too be measured by them. After all, in our post-Christian society, adultery is not necessarily wrong. There is also a widespread acceptance of “no fault divorce,” the idea that marriage, like a car, sometimes spontaneously breaks down, becoming more hassle than it’s worth.

One proponent of this philosophy is Adele, the megastar pop singer, whose latest album 30 takes her divorce from her husband (and the father of her son) as its theme. Adele told Oprah Winfrey that she had been “obsessed” with the idea of a “nuclear family” from a young age, after her father abandoned her at age three. She said that, for a time, she derived a great sense of stability and purpose from her husband and son. But this didn’t last. Soon, she realized she was “ignoring” her own happiness. In the interview, she describes her dissatisfaction so vaguely that it’s difficult to pin down. What it seems to have boiled down to is boredom.