An overwhelming majority of parents who are unfaithful to their spouse cite their children as a reason to stay married.
Victoria Milan is a dating website which caters to married people looking for an affair. It surveyed 9856 of its Australian members, both male and female. Of those who had children, 94 per cent said their children were one of the reasons they would not get a divorce.
Eighty nine per cent of respondents said they did not think their children would understand or accept it if they were to divorce their spouse.
Victoria Milan CEO Sigurd Vedal said that some couples with children will stay together despite being “desperately unhappy in their marriages”.
It is “easy to understand why couples do what they can to stay together”, he added, as divorce “can cause heartache for children that can lead to issues in later life”.
The survey also revealed that 71 per cent of Victoria Milan users believed that their affair was actually making them happier in their long-term relationship and staving off the possibility of divorce.
Staying together for the sake of the children may be a sensible approach. According to another recent study, divorce can affect children even if the parents’ split is amicable.