Research Shows Reunited Former Sweethearts Stay Together for Good

Chantale Suttle • August 3, 2022
A male goat and a female goat stand together in the misty forest.

In "food for thought" news, a study based at Cal State University shows that single people who reunite later in life with their first loves have a 70% likelihood of staying together for good.

 

Rutgers anthropologist Helen Fisher commented on the study that if you reconnect with a lost love after years, "you can trigger that brain circuitry for romantic love almost instantly and be back in love again." Moreover, that first love can have the same effect as imprinting "your type," says Fisher. 

 

The phenomenon of reuniting with first (and lost) loves isn't as rare as you might think. Such scenarios are not the stuff of fairy tales, especially in the age of the Internet when your first date in junior high school may be one Facebook click away. This phenomenon has been documented by Nancy Kalish, Ph.D., emeritus professor of psychology at Cal State Sacramento, who launched her Lost Love Project in 1993. She analyzed the love lives of people aged 18 to 89 across 50 U.S. states and 28 countries. Dr. Kalish's international results pointed to the enduring nature of the commitments made by reunited former sweethearts:

 

"No matter how old they were when they reunited and no matter how many romances they had had during their lives, 62% of the participants reported that they chose to reunite with their first loves. The older they were when they reunited, and the longer they had been separated, the better the odds that the reunion would endure. In fact, an astonishing 72% reported that they were 'still together' at the time they filled out the surveys (and in one case, the participants had reunited 50 years prior to participating in the study)....First loves defied the divorce rate, too: 78% ...reunited happily and remained in love over many years of marriage, with divorce a minimal 1.5%."

 

Of note, by the time these individuals have a second go at their love, they often have completed degrees, accrued assets, started businesses, had children and need to consider retirement and the legacy that they will pass onto their children and grandchildren. Moreover, if they left a marriage, they may have debt, child support and possibly alimony in their financial picture.

 

These concerns don't have to cloud the second-chance relationship, especially given the strong odds of success. A prenuptial agreement (or a "prenup") can clarify expectations and provide a map for the future to ease anxieties. 

 

At Just Prenups, our intake process helps you to define your intentions and issues. Our attorneys can help you to draft an agreement that is tailored to your unique situation. Our experience can help you to control the impact of liabilities and to protect assets that are often overlooked in creating the prenuptial agreement. 

 

Warning: All posts on this website contain general information about legal matters for broad educational purposes only. This information is not legal advice and should not be treated as such. This blog post does not create any attorney-client relationship between the reader and JustPrenups.com

 

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