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Falling out of love replaces infidelity as top cause of marriage breakdown in survey of divorce lawyers Extramarital affairs are no longer the leading reason why couples decide to split up, according to accountancy firm Grant Thornton’s latest annual study of divorce in the UK. Instead, “growing apart” is now the most popular motivation to file for divorce. Divorce lawyers interviewed by the firm said in 27% of cases falling out of love had led to a marriage breakdown. Extramarital affairs, which had been the prime reason since the survey began in 2003, fell to second place, with 25% citing this. Unreasonable behaviour was given as the reason for 17% of marriage breakdowns and 10% of couples cited a mid-life crisis. Of course couples could be indulging in fewer flings, but Louisa Plumb, associate director, forensic and investigation services at Grant Thornton, suggested that, as in so many areas of life, celebrities could be a factor. “The movement in the reasons for divorce is interesting and certainly difficult to explain. We are seeing an increasing number of ‘celebrities’ putting up with alleged affairs in their marriage or relationship – with Abbey Clancy staying with Peter Crouch, and Cheryl Cole looking set to go back to Ashley. “It may be that this is starting to have an effect on the behaviour of couples affected by extramarital affairs, with more marriages than before surviving a bout of infidelity.” Christine Northam, a counsellor working for the charity Relate , said she thought the change “reflected a slight shift in people’s expectations of relationships”. She said: “While in the past an affair would have been the signal that all was not right in a relationship, now that is not necessarily the case. People are not necessarily having those affairs before they decide the spark has gone out of their relationship.” One thing most celebrities don’t generally have to worry about is money, but this was the reason cited by 5% of divorcing couples. Despite the economic downturn and inflation putting pressure on household budgets, that figure hasn’t increased since last year, but divorce lawyers believe couples have been influenced by the recession. Of those surveyed, 82% said they thought people had delayed divorce proceedings because of the recession, with 54% saying that the lack of value and/or liquidity of personal assets was the greatest contributor to this delay. However, some lawyers said their clients had taken advantage of the economy and divorced during the recession in order to benefit from lower income and asset values and give their partner a lower settlement. “While the economy has officially been out of recession for over a year, there are still clear indicators that financial concerns are one of the driving factors in both the timing of divorces and the settlements that have been awarded,” said Plumb’s colleague Geoff Mesher. “With cuts in public spending and the economy continuing to falter, it would be unsurprising to see a continuation of this trend as asset values and income levels remain unpredictable.” David Salter, joint national head of family law at Mills & Reeve , dismissed the idea that footballers’ wives were behind any changes in couples’ behaviour, but agreed the recession had made a difference. “The downturn is making people very wary about what is at the end of the day an elective purchase,” he said. “House prices have fallen terrifically. Where before you would have sold the house and bought two new homes, that may not be possible any more. Assets are very difficult to value and people are concerned about their jobs.” The research also showed an increase in the number of lawyers working on pre-nuptial agreements for clients after a high-profile divorce case last year . Divorce Family finances Divorce Hilary Osborne guardian.co.uk