Celebrity Divorce Is Nothing New

It seems like every day the news is full of stories of yet another celebrity divorce. Some of what the public hears about is a sort of serial matrimony. It's like Tarzan swinging from vine to vine the way some of these young celebrity couples seem to swing from wedding to wedding.

However youthful impulsivity is only part of the story. It certainly doesn't explain why 55 year old Kelsey Grammer and his wife Camille are splitting after 13 years. It doesn't explain 49 year old George Lopez and his wife Ann packing it in after 17 years. It doesn't explain Cameron Crowe and Nancy Wilson divorcing after 24 years.

In fact celebrities' marriages break up for the same reasons that other couples' marriages break up. You wouldn't think so. Most ordinary couples fight over not having enough money. You wouldn't think people enjoying highly successful, well-paid careers would have that problem. But when you're a celebrity it takes a lot more money to be enough and nobody ever seems to be that successful.

One of the problems people have when they are in the public eye is that all of their domestic problems are magnified many times over. A disappointment or betrayal or unfairness that could ordinarily be dealt with and left behind becomes insurmountable when the couple is endlessly reminded of it.

The battering a marriage takes when the cameras are turned on it can be a shock to people new to celebrity. Thirty-three miners were recently thrust into the spotlight as they were rescued from a cave-in half a mile below the earth's surface. How they and their families will cope with their newly acquired fame remains to be seen.

However one of the thirty-three found his marriage threatened even before he reached the surface. It could not have been a good feeling when his wife discovered that her husband had a mistress. How many times worse must it have felt when she made the discovery in front of the entire world on live television.

Unfortunately there are few things in the world harder to forgive than public humiliation. Infidelity is difficult to forgive but compounded by the knowledge that the whole world is watching and judging you it can become impossible.

People tend to believe that the staggering divorce rate among celebrity couples is something new. But look at the many marriages of former Hollywood stars like Marilyn Monroe, Liz Taylor, Humphrey Bogart and even silent screen stars Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin. Infidelity is nothing new. Neither is obnoxious, rude, violent behavior or neglect of home and family anything new. Alcohol has been abused as long as there has been alcohol and illicit drugs have always been available to those who could afford them.

All the things that seem to contribute to the breakdown of marriage are available to celebrity couples in super size portions. The stress of a demanding job and long hours makes a variety of drugs seem appealing. Opportunities to be tempted by attractive other men and other women abound. Long periods of time separated from spouse and family make temptations more tempting and leaves spouse more discontent. Inhibition-lowering drugs impair judgment. Marital problems that are bubbling beneath the surface boil over when a spouse in fit of rage drives his car into a lamp post for all the world to see. It's a recipe for a celebrity divorce.