The First Year Of Marriage
One in five (20%) people looking back at their first year of marriage have admitted they had regrets about getting married within the first year of their big day. In an online survey carried out by Ipsos for Channel 4, 20% of 16-54 year olds looking back at their first year of marriage said that they had the occasional regret or many regrets. Almost 1 in 5 (17%) also said that their first year of marriage was more difficult than expected. Almost half of all divorcees admit that they were already having regrets about their union within the first twelve months of married life (47%). The survey was conducted to coincide with the Cutting Edge documentary Newlyweds: The One Year Itch about the reality of modern day married life. When asked where the feeling of regret stemmed from, 27% of these respondents who had regrets in their first year of marriage said it was down to the fact that they `got married because they felt they had to'. Men experienced this pressured feeling even more so with over 2 in 5 (43%) of regretful husbands admitting they felt marriage was something they `had' to do. 27% of those who had regrets say that the regrets stem from the feeling they `married without really being in love'. Similarly, almost half of divorcees who had regrets in the first year, had regrets that stemmed from the belief that they got `married without really being in love' (48%).
Technical note The Ipsos research was undertaken between 10th to 14th June 2010. Channel 4's160on-line panel questioned a sample of 1,055 nationally representative 16-54 year olds using an on-line questionnaire Figures used within this press release do not include 3 respondents who were widowed for whom no further questions on their marriage were asked nor do they include those who were married for a year or less at the time. 443 respondents had been married for over a year or divorced and, of these, 418 were happy to answer further questions on their marriage. 44 of those happy to continue here were divorced.
