2023: THE YEAR IN RELATIONSHIPS

Plumbing the mystery of why some fan-favorite famous couples called it quits after decades

- Belinda Luscombe

THE CONVENTIONAL VIEW OF MARriage holds that its satisfaction levels are U-shaped. There's a hyped-up romantic part at the start, and then a decline as people come to terms with the fact that life with another person is only sometimes an escalator to the upper reaches of happiness and often more of an Iditarod to a less hostile locale. And then, slowly, satisfaction returns, either because people have made peace with their lot or because they have negotiated their way to a more perfect union.

But if 2023's catalog of prominent marital events suggests anything, it's that a long marriage is not always a forever marriage. Especially if it's between two famous, driven people. This year saw some newsworthy clearcutting in the old-growth forest of celebrity couples, as unions oft-cited as #couplesgoals crashed to earth.