The Secret of a Successful Marriage: Trophy Wife!

By Alex in Everything Else on Oct 26, 2009 at 12:51 pm

Researchers have finally unlocked the secret of a happy marriage: trophy wife!

No, seriously. The study found that marrying smarter and younger women results in ~~less~~ fewer divorces and greater marriage bliss:

The researchers studied interviews of more than 1,500 couples who were married or in a serious relationship. Five years later, they followed up 1,000 of the couples to see which had lasted.

They found that if the wife was five or more years older than her husband, they were more than three times as likely to divorce than if they were the same age.

If the age gap is reversed, and the man is older than the woman, the odds of marital bliss are higher.

Link (Image: a Halloween costume from BuyCostumes)

Tags: divorce, marriage, trophy wife

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Gauldar
Oct 26th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
How do they know that these marriages were “happy” ones, and not just more lasting for monetary reasons? Chances are a woman who is older getting into a relationship is more educated and have different priorities then a younger one without a career that’s less independant.
AJC
Oct 26th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Umm. Shouldn’t 1 of those younger, smarter wives proof-read this? It’s not “less divorces.” It is “fewer divoreces.”
melanie
Oct 26th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
that’s funny. i read the same article this morning, but the information was reversed. It said that for successful marriages women should marry older men with less education. http://jezebel.com/5389920/science-says-marry-an-older-less+educated-m an
perspective is everything!
AJC
Oct 26th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Ugh. That’s “fewer divorces.” I believe that is the Grammar God of Irony calling.
Alex
Oct 26th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
@AJC – Skitt’s Law in action!

Thanks for pointing it out, I’ve fixed the grammatical error.
Samantha
Oct 26th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
A trophy wife means that the woman is far younger, dumb, and beautiful. You are only saying five years younger and smart.
whitcwa
Oct 26th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Samantha, I wouldn’t say a man who has a far younger, dumb, and beautiful wife has a “trophy”. Who wants a dumb wife? I would just call him a dirty old man.
RyanP
Oct 26th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
I always said that my third wife would be my trophy wife.
1. because I was young and stupid (already have that one under my belt)
2. will be a long lasting love, but I will outlive her because thats the way my life seems to work out.
3. will be because I’m rich and need something nice to look at (think hugh hefner)
The Nerd
Oct 27th, 2009 at 11:14 am
They’re looking at this from all the wrong angle. It’s not about the age of the wife, it’s about the maturity of the husband. Males need to learn to grow up sooner, so that women won’t be dropping them left and right!
chthulhu
Oct 27th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
There are always exceptions: my wife is six years older than I am, and we’ve been happily married twelve years so far, with no problems to speak of.
Gauldar
Oct 27th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Forget what the statistics say, all they are good at most of the time is recognizing coincidental data. If people can’t own up to their own damn relationship, they probably shouldn’t have gotten into one in the first place. People have always sucked at communicating one’s own feelings, have honesty issues, or are just too damn lazy to fix problems that happen long after they have been ignored when they first popped up. But then again, I’m not in a relationship, and hell if I ever plan on being in one.
hedwig
Oct 30th, 2009 at 3:17 am
What irks me about this one is the idea that a marriage that lasts 5 years is a success… let’s try checking again in, say, 20 years…
danigirl
Jan 29th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
I got a funny email that once depicted, pretty accurately by my opinion, the results of relationships based on their intelligence level. The marriage one went like so…
Smart man + smart woman = romance
Smart man + dumb woman = affair
Dumb man + smart woman = marriage
Dumb man + dumb woman = pregnancy
Tina T
Feb 3rd, 2010 at 1:28 pm
To be happily married after 5 years is really not enough of a test. I’d be curious to hear what the women have to say about these men when they’ve had a chance to become older and “wiser.” I’d also be curious to hear what the men think about their younger wives once they start to show the effects of age and if this sends them on a quest to find an even younger trophy wife.

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