--- description: A marriage is more likely to end in divorce when the wife gets seriously ill, according to a new study. title: Getting a Divorce: Illness Leads to Divorce When Wife Gets Sick image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Health](/section/health/) ## Health Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Sex/Relationships](/tag/sexrelationships/) ## Sex/Relationships Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Divorce More Likely When Wife Gets Seriously Ill, Study Finds ## Video: Love & Money: Why You Might Need a Prenup [Watch (HLS stream): Love & Money: Why You Might Need a Prenup](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mZsGDb4G.m3u8) (1:39)  _Published 2014-10-27. Prenuptial agreements aren't just for multimillionaires and celebrities. Money contributing editor Farnoosh Torabi explains._  by [Justin Worland](/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Mar 9, 2015 12:29 PM CUT  by [Justin Worland](/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Mar 9, 2015 12:29 PM CUT A marriage is more likely to end in divorce when a wife is seriously ill, according to a new [study](http://hsb.sagepub.com/content/56/1/59.abstract "undefined"). The study, published in the _Journal of Health and Social Behavior_, found that a marriage was 6% more likely to end in divorce when a wife was diagnosed with serious illness than in marriages where the wife remained healthy. The study looked at data from more than 2,700 marriages with at least one partner over the age of 50\. A husband’s illness did not affect the chances of divorce. The study did not explain how illness may have led to divorce, but lead author Amelia Karraker said that illness can stress a marriage in many ways. “Life-or-death experiences may cause people to re-evaluate what’s important in their lives,” said Karraker, an assistant professor at Iowa State University. “It could be that women are saying, ‘You’re doing a bad job of caring for me,’ ‘I’m not happy with this,’ or ‘I wasn’t happy with the relationship to begin with.’” Nearly a third of the marriages evaluated ended in divorce while nearly a quarter ended in the death of one spouse. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3737088/divorce-illness-marriage/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3737088/divorce-illness-marriage/"},"headline":"Divorce More Likely When Wife Gets Seriously Ill, Study Finds","datePublished":"2015-03-09T12:29:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T05:00:36.397Z","description":"'Life-or-death experiences may cause people to re-evaluate what’s important in their lives'","url":"https://time.com/3737088/divorce-illness-marriage/","keywords":["Sex/Relationships","Mental Health","Mental Health/Psychology"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/sexrelationships/","name":"Sex/Relationships"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3737088/divorce-illness-marriage/","name":"Divorce More Likely When Wife Gets Seriously Ill, Study Finds"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Love & Money: Why You Might Need a Prenup","description":"Prenuptial agreements aren't just for multimillionaires and celebrities. Money contributing editor Farnoosh Torabi explains.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/mZsGDb4G/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-10-27T21:51:21.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mZsGDb4G.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3737088/divorce-illness-marriage/","duration":"PT1M39S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3737088/divorce-illness-marriage/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```