A 70-year lesson in how NOT to divorce

On Monday we will celebrate the 70th wedding anniversary of the Queen and Prince Philip. Their marriage has been a superb symbol of what those traditional solemn vows — to love and cherish, in sickness and in health, till death us do part — should really mean.

Since they wed in 1947, the divorce rate in Britain has soared. Most of us know as many divorced couples as we do happily married ones.

We’ve all witnessed the pain a collapsing marriage can bring: the trauma for the children, the horrible wrangling over money. depressingly, today 42 per cent of marriages end in divorce within just 15 years.

So it’s unsurprising some of the most senior experts in family law are calling for an overhaul of our divorce laws. They want, among other things, to end the need for one spouse or the other to prove fault or blame — in order to avoid the spiralling legal bills and recriminations that result.

But rather than striving to make it even easier for couples to separate, might it not be better for our esteemed judges to reflect on the values of that older generation — who did not quit when marriages were under stress.

When Philip was given consent to marry the future Queen, he wrote: ‘I am sure I do not deserve all the good things that have happened to me . . . to have fallen in love completely and unreservedly. Lilibet is the only thing in this world which is completely real to me.’

Even now, their bond remains undimmed. yes they are privileged, but all marriages face the same problems at one time or another. The royal couple have had to weather the storms created by rumours of infidelity in their marriage and their children’s disastrous relationships.

We all know how easy it is to chuck it in when the going gets tough, as father-of-four Ewan McGregor has, replacing his wife of 22 years with a younger model.

yet I have seen with my own parents the enriching joy and comfort that comes with a lasting union. They will celebrate their 69th wedding anniversary in February, if they make it, in the care home they share. Even now, though Mum is struck by alzheimer’s, her eyes shine when dad trundles through the door on his walking frame.

as Mum once told me, and as the Queen and Philip have demonstrated, the secret to a happy marriage is love, laughter, loyalty — and a determination to last the course.