Oct 13, 2009
Christy Stead was 20 when she met Mark. They started dating when she was 23. Six months later, she was engaged.
"It was all terribly romantic to have the big proposal and the big diamond ring," says Stead. "My expectations were that it was going to be perfect. It was all a bit of a fairytale and we were always going to be in love and I could never imagine disagreeing. I certainly couldn't imagine not being together. I thought the old 'love is enough' would work it all out."
Unfortunately it wasn't that simple. Even after a conservative engagement of 18 months, cracks appeared as early on as their honeymoon. The couple split almost a year to the day they married. Stead is now one of a growing number of 20-somethings destined for divorce before she hits 30.
According to Statistics New Zealand, Kiwis in their 20s have the highest divorce rate of all age groups. In 2008, there were 18.9 divorces per 1000 married men and women aged 25-29, more than a third higher than all other age groups.
For Natalie, who grew up in a Christian household, getting married at 22 wasn't a big deal. She and boyfriend Simon had been together for four-and-a-half years. Her mother was against the couple living together and, with an OE on their minds, it seemed logical to get married first.
"The environment I grew up in, it was quite normal," she says. "All my friends got married in their early 20s because we all wanted to live with our partners. That was just what we did."
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