Why tie the knot with someone you have lived with for years – and what happens next? Three women share their stories
On the surface, marriage might not appear relevant to many Australians today. Indeed, most women and half of men say that’s so. De facto couples enjoy the same legal rights as their wedded counterparts, one in seven Australians are in a de facto relationship, and a new survey showed a 15% drop in marriage rates among young Australians between 2001 and 2021. Yet sometimes even long-term de facto couples are choosing to marry, even after decades (and multiple children) together.
Why? And more pertinently: after such a long time, does it change anything?
