‘MY MARRIAGE DIDN’T SURVIVE LOCKDOWN’

Project manager Natalie Stone, 27, was with her partner Jake, a transport co-ordinator, for 11 years. They got married in May 2018, but she moved out at the end of last year and now they’re getting divorced.

She says, “Jake was my childhood sweetheart and we got on brilliantly. We liked to have lots of date nights – going to the cinema, out for dinner, and meeting up with friends. But when the pandemic hit last March, we started to grow apart. Without the distractions of the outside world, we didn’t communicate properly and our sex life just tailed off.

“Most nights we would sit in front of the TV, barely speaking. We never argued, but it highlighted the fact that we had little in common and had lost our connection.

“Jake lost his job in April and I was working from home, which put further stress on us. I had a lot of time to think about what I did and didn’t want in the future and to reflect that life was short and I needed to make the best of it. I knew the next step in our relationship would be children and I didn’t want to bring them into a relationship I had mixed feelings about.

“When restrictions eased in July, I hoped things would get better between us, but they didn’t. In August, I sat Jake down and told him I thought we should split up.

“He was heartbroken and said he didn’t feel the same way, so we tried counselling. I really did want it to work, but I couldn’t recapture what we had. In December, I moved out. Jake had started to say we should put up the Christmas tree and I just knew I couldn’t have that ‘happy family Christmas’ that he so clearly wanted. It wasn’t fair on either of us to try to keep going.

“We have agreed to get a divorce and sell the house. It’s so sad. I never imagined when I walked down the aisle that it would end in divorce, but here I am – one of many whose relationships couldn’t stand the test of the pandemic.”