# Who has been married the longest? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 11, 2003, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-been-married-the-longest/147929 "2003-01-11T07:53:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-been-married-the-longest/147929/41 "2003-01-13T17:34:45Z")
17 years and change (and I’ve done most of the changing!) ---
**Author:** ![montana\_cricket](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@montana\_cricket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/montana_cricket)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-been-married-the-longest/147929/42 "2003-01-13T19:44:14Z")
We’ll have 10 years in August, with 12 years together…longer than a lot anymore I guess. Our secret (or mine) has been to try to see the other side of a disagreement, understand about outside interests/committments and when things get tough, try to talk rationally about them without assigning blame where it’s not due. My folks just celebrated 42 years and his just celebrated 39 I think. We are an anomaly in this world of multiple divorces… ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-been-married-the-longest/147929/43 "2003-01-13T19:46:08Z")
17 years and change (hi, **Dinsdale** ). My husband and I have figured out what we fundamentally disagree about, so we don’t bother to actually have those arguments anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-been-married-the-longest/147929/44 "2003-01-13T21:23:23Z")
Lots if inspiring stories for LadyLion and myself who have been married as of now negative 75 days 😃 ---
**Author:** ![7string](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/8baadc/32.png) [@7string](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/7string)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-been-married-the-longest/147929/45 "2003-01-13T23:58:24Z")
I definitely don’t qualify as the longest wed. But, I bet I qualify as the most times wed. Every year I take my wife to a tropical paradise and I re-marry her. In May we will have been married 5 times. He have two goals: Most times re-newed (46 times by a couple married 51 years), and we want to get married on every [major] island in the Carribean. She wants to be in control of all the things I don’t want to deal with and vice versa; she’s almost never in a bad mood; she always smiles; she knows the perfect times to ignore me; she’s not materialistic; and, when I get cranky (I’m the quintisential tempremental artist) she bannishes me to my recording studio (what a woman!). And, just for the record, it was me that proposed the idea of renewing every year (all puns intended). I also make her get a new dress every time. This last time I surprised her with a 2Kt diamond (we were kinda poor the first time through and we only bought what we could afford at the time). So, I guess you could say, I’ve only been married less than a year. ---
**Author:** ![BelZarak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BelZarak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BelZarak)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-been-married-the-longest/147929/46 "2003-01-14T00:55:47Z")
Thanksgiving marked 10 years since Polanya and I met. Our 10th wedding anniversary will be this April. Very short “dating” period, but so far the happiness of our marriage has made up for it. -Belz ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-been-married-the-longest/147929/47 "2003-01-14T02:20:52Z")
Coming up on twenty years this August (it only _seems_ like fifty). We agreed long ago that there would be no divorce. Murder, maybe, but no divorce. Hey, these are the jokes, folks. I know you’re out there, I can hear you breathing. For better, for worse, in sickness and in health. Well, as some of you are aware, lately there’s been more of the sickness than we had expected. Still, we think back on the good times, and hope there’ll be more to come in the future. We’ve seen friends go their separate ways, some in bitterness, some in acceptance, and even some in friendship. and if you were to ask me why they couldn’t make it work while we did, my only answer would be commitment. For a relationship, be it a marriage or otherwise, to work both of the parties involved have to be committed\* to making it work. How you do that is different for every couple. For some it means never going to bed angry. For some it’s knowing when to shut up, when to talk, when to joke and when to be serious. Every couple has to find their own way through the minefield. And if you think you won’t ever step on a mine, you’re either delusional or the luckiest damn couple in the universe. The important thing is what you do _after_ the mine goes off. \*Insert obligatory “and some of us should be” joke here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-been-married-the-longest/147929.md?page=2)