Famous Long-Term Couples That Divorced Or Split After 40 Years

When people say “’til death do us part,” most of us assume that means… well, death.
That’s why it shocks everyone when famous long-term couples divorce after 40 years or more together.
These aren’t whirlwind celebrity marriages that last roughly as long as a streaming trial.
These are four- and five-decade relationships, with kids, grandkids, shared careers, joint bank accounts,
and a lifetime of memories and yet, they still come to an end.

In recent years, this kind of late-life breakup has become common enough to earn a nickname:
“gray divorce.” Experts note that while overall divorce rates have dropped,
divorce among people over 50 has doubled in the last few decades. Longer life spans, changing
expectations for happiness, and “empty nest” realities all contribute to more couples reassessing their
marriages in their 60s and 70s.

In this article, we’ll look at some famous long-term couples who divorced or split after 40 years
(or nearly that long), then dig into what their stories reveal about long relationships,
gray divorce, and what it really means to grow together or apart over time.

Why Long-Term Couples Split After 40 Years

Before we zoom in on the celebrity marriages, it helps to understand the bigger trend. Researchers and
therapists say several factors are driving gray divorce:

• We live longer. When marriage was “40 years and done,” couples often toughed out unhappy
  dynamics. Now, at 65, you might realistically have 20–30 more years of life left. For some, that’s inspiring;
  for others, it’s a wake-up call: “Do I want to spend those decades like this?”
• The empty nest can expose cracks. Kids, careers, and mortgages are great distraction devices.
  Once the house is quiet and retirement rolls in, old resentments or growing incompatibilities get a lot louder.
• Changing roles and identities. Retirement, health changes, or shifting careers can throw off
  old power balances. A partner who was once the breadwinner might struggle with purpose; a longtime caregiver
  might be burned out and ready to reclaim a sense of self.
• Less stigma around divorce. Older generations may still carry some guilt about splitting,
  but it’s nothing like the social shame that existed mid-century. The “you made your bed, lie in it” idea has
  softened considerably.

Put those together and it’s easier to see why even famous long-term couples may decide that
divorce after 40 years is painful but necessary.

Famous Long-Term Couples Who Eventually Split

Meryl Streep and Don Gummer: 45 Years of Quietly Growing Apart

For decades, Meryl Streep and sculptor Don Gummer seemed like one of Hollywood’s most stable partnerships.
They married in 1978, raised four children, and largely stayed out of the tabloid spotlight pretty impressive
for an Oscar magnet.

In October 2023, however, a spokesperson confirmed that the couple had actually been separated for more
than six years meaning their split quietly began around the 2010s, after roughly 40 years together.
The statement made clear there was no public drama: they still cared about each other, they simply grew into
different lives.

Their story is a classic gray-divorce narrative: no scandalous headlines, no screaming matches in restaurants,
just two people who built a long, rich life and then realized their paths had diverged.

Al and Tipper Gore: A Storybook Marriage That Still Ended

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and his wife Tipper were
high-school sweethearts who married in 1970. By the time they announced their separation in 2010,
they had been married for 40 years, had four children, and had survived the white-hot glare
of a presidential campaign together.

Their split stunned the public precisely because there was no messy scandal. In a joint statement, they called
it a “mutual and mutually supportive decision” reached after long reflection. Journalists and scholars quickly
held them up as a high-profile example of gray divorce an older couple with a seemingly solid
partnership choosing to end their marriage late in life.

Analysts pointed to familiar issues: changing priorities after decades of public life, the emotional impact of
an empty nest, and the simple reality that people can change dramatically between their 20s and 60s. The Gores’
divorce reminds us that even political power couples aren’t immune to growing apart.

Captain & Tennille: When “Love Will Keep Us Together” Didn’t

If you’re going to build a career around a hit called “Love Will Keep Us Together,” the universe
is going to test you. Hard. That’s pretty much what happened to Daryl Dragon and
Toni Tennille, the pop duo better known as Captain & Tennille.

The pair married in 1975 and became pop-culture fixtures in the 1970s with their Grammy-winning song and variety
show. They were still together in Arizona almost 40 years later until, in 2014, Tennille filed for divorce
after nearly 39 years of marriage.

In later interviews and her memoir, Tennille described a relationship marked by emotional distance and Dragon’s
significant health challenges. He suffered from a severe neurological condition that limited his ability to
perform and affected their daily life. She said, bluntly, that “love, for us, wasn’t enough” when deeper
emotional needs went unmet.

Though their split came just shy of the 40-year mark, their story sits firmly in the same category:
a longtime couple whose public brand of romance clashed with the complicated reality at home.

Luciano Pavarotti and Adua Veroni: Fame, Distance, and Nearly Four Decades Together

Opera legend Luciano Pavarotti married Adua Veroni in 1961, before he became a global superstar.
Their marriage lasted around 35–39 years, depending on which timeline you follow, and produced
three daughters.

As Pavarotti’s fame soared and as his relationship with his much younger secretary, Nicoletta Mantovani,
became public the marriage unraveled. Veroni filed for divorce around 1996, and the split was finalized by
2000. Pavarotti went on to marry Mantovani in 2003, while Veroni spoke candidly about what it meant to see
her husband’s affair splashed across tabloids.

While their union didn’t quite cross the 40-year line, it shows how decades-long marriages can still
fracture under the pressure of infidelity, fame, and separate lives.

Antonio and Rosa: 77 Years Together… and Then Divorce

If you ever needed proof that no marriage is “too long to fail,” look at
Antonio and Rosa, a real-life couple from Italy whose story went viral around the world.

According to multiple news outlets, Antonio then 99 years old discovered old love letters that revealed
his 96-year-old wife, Rosa, had an affair in the 1940s. After confronting her and receiving a confession,
he decided to file for divorce. They had been married for a staggering 77 years.

The story became a symbol of late-life heartbreak: a couple with children, grandchildren, and even
great-grandchildren, suddenly facing the end of their marriage because of a secret older than many people’s
parents. While not celebrities in the Hollywood sense, their case is one of the most extreme examples of
long-term couples divorcing after more than 40 years.

Other Long-Term Celebrity Breakups After Decades Together

Not every famous breakup after decades together clears the 40-year bar, but plenty come close and highlight
similar themes:

• Billy Ray Cyrus and Tish Cyrus were married on and off for about three decades before finally
  calling it quits, after several divorce filings and reconciliations.
• Judge Greg Mathis and Linda Reese (married in the 1980s) briefly headed toward divorce after
  decades together, then publicly reconciled a reminder that not every long-term conflict ends in a permanent
  split.
• Other long-term celebrity couples from musicians to actors have separated after 20 or
  30+ years of marriage, adding to the broader picture of gray divorce in the public eye.

The exact number of years matters less than the pattern: time alone doesn’t guarantee “happily ever after.”
You can build decades together and still decide, in your 60s or 70s, that the relationship no longer works.

Common Themes Behind Late-Life Breakups

Looking at these famous long-term couples who divorced or split after 40 years (or nearly that long),
a few themes show up again and again:

1. Growing Apart, Not Blowing Up

Many late-life splits aren’t about one catastrophic event. Instead, they’re about slow drift
years of growing into different people, with different values or priorities. That seems to be the case for
Meryl Streep and Don Gummer, and arguably for the Gores as well.

2. Old Secrets Finally Surface

The Antonio and Rosa story is an extreme example, but it highlights how long-buried secrets
can still blow up a marriage. Discovering a decades-old affair, a hidden addiction, or a secret bank account
can reset how someone sees a lifetime together.

3. Infidelity and Emotional Distance

In Pavarotti’s case, reports of a public affair and a new partner amplified pressures that might already have
existed in a long marriage. For Captain & Tennille, the issue was largely emotional: Toni Tennille described
years of feeling that her husband couldn’t really connect with her on a deeper level.

4. New Life Stages, New Priorities

Retirement and “empty nest” life can throw a spotlight on differences that were easier to ignore when kids
were young or careers were intense. Couples suddenly have time to ask, “What do we want now?”
and sometimes, the answers are very different. Researchers on gray divorce say these transitions are often
the tipping point.

5. The Courage (or Desperation) to Start Over

No matter the reason, divorcing after 40 years takes a staggering amount of courage. It means facing financial
uncertainty, re-learning how to live alone, renegotiating family dynamics, and possibly dating again in an
era of apps and emojis. Yet many older adults who go through gray divorce report that, after a painful period,
they feel more authentic, free, and hopeful about their remaining years.

What We Can Learn From These Long-Term Splits

Stories about famous long-term couples that divorced or split after 40 years aren’t just
celebrity gossip. They offer practical lessons for anyone in a long relationship:

• Don’t wait 30 years to have the hard conversations. Resentments and unmet needs rarely vanish
  on their own; they usually compound with time.
• Protect your own identity. Many gray-divorce survivors say they lost track of who they were
  outside “us.” Maintaining hobbies, friendships, and personal goals can make or break long-term happiness.
• Update the relationship, not just the furniture. Life phases change; your agreements and
  expectations should, too. What worked with toddlers in the house may not work with adult kids and grandbabies.
• Plan financially for every scenario. Late-life divorce can be financially brutal, especially
  for the spouse who stayed home or scaled back their career. Understanding pensions, retirement accounts, and
  property rights early can reduce panic later.

The bottom line: time together is an achievement, not a guarantee. A 40-year marriage is a
remarkable chapter but it’s still just a chapter, not the entire book.

Experiences and Insights From Long-Term Splits (500+ Words)

Beyond the headlines, late-life divorce is deeply human. When therapists and writers interview people who have
ended marriages after 30, 40, or even 50 years, certain emotional themes keep coming up whether they’re
anonymous retirees in the suburbs or former power couples on the front page.

One woman in her mid-60s described the experience this way: “We didn’t have a ‘bad’ marriage. We had a
quietly lonely one.” For decades, she focused on raising children, supporting her husband’s demanding
job, and caring for aging parents. When all of that slowed down, she realized that she and her spouse had almost
nothing to talk about that wasn’t logistics. They weren’t fighting; they were just emotionally checked out.
After 42 years, she decided she’d rather face the fear of being alone than the numbness of never being seen.

Another common thread is the “second adolescence” that can follow a gray divorce. Psychologists note that many
older adults go through a period of experimentation and self-discovery that looks a lot like being in your 20s,
just with better shoes and worse knees. People change their wardrobes, start new careers or businesses, move to
different cities, or finally try things they always wanted from art classes to solo travel.

Money, of course, is a huge stressor. Couples who divorce after 40 years are usually unravelling deeply
intertwined finances: retirement accounts, houses, health insurance, sometimes family businesses. Legal experts
say it’s crucial for both partners especially the one who didn’t handle the bills to get clear on their
rights and realistic about their budget post-divorce. Some older adults end up downsizing dramatically or
re-entering the workforce, which can feel disorienting but also empowering.

Emotionally, gray divorce can stir up guilt and confusion in adult children. They may feel blindsided (“Why
now?”), or wonder if their parents stayed together “just for the kids.” Therapists recommend including adult
children in honest but age-appropriate conversations about what’s happening. It’s not about oversharing
every detail, but about making it clear that the divorce is not their fault, and that both parents still plan
to be present in their lives.

There’s also grief for the shared history itself. People who divorce after 40 years often say they’re not just
mourning the loss of a spouse; they’re mourning the loss of the life story they thought they were in.
Anniversaries, private jokes, places they traveled together all of those memories remain real, even if the
relationship changes form. Some ex-spouses eventually become friendly co-grandparents, sitting in the same row
at graduations and weddings. Others keep more distance. There isn’t a single “right” way to relate after a
long marriage ends.

If you look at the stories of Al and Tipper Gore, Captain & Tennille, or the fictional-sounding but very real
Antonio and Rosa, you see people making huge decisions very late in life decisions that outsiders might label
foolish, brave, selfish, or necessary, depending on their own beliefs about commitment.
For the people going through it, though, it often boils down to a simple but heavy question: “Am I living in a
way that feels honest to who I am now?”

For anyone watching from the outside whether you’re in a long relationship or just starting one these
experiences offer a few grounded takeaways:

• Keep talking, especially when it’s awkward. The couples who stay together for the long haul
  tend to be the ones who keep updating their agreements and expectations instead of assuming the 25-year-old
  version of them knew everything.
• Don’t sacrifice your whole self to the marriage. A healthy partnership is built on two whole,
  growing individuals not one person disappearing to keep the peace.
• Ask early if you’re truly compatible long-term. It’s easier to adjust course at year 10 than
  at year 40, when decades of habits and financial ties are in play.
• Remember that starting over is hard, but sometimes healing. Many people who go through gray
  divorce report a mix of regret and relief and, eventually, a sense that they reclaimed their voice.

Famous or not, long-term couples that divorce after 40 years are reminders that love is less about the length
of the relationship and more about the quality of the connection. Time is powerful, but it isn’t magic.
Building and keeping a life together still takes honesty, flexibility, and the willingness to grow in the
same direction.