divorce

Uncoupling …

Well, Twitter nearly broke yesterday under the sheer weight of Jennifer Aniston memes following the news that Brangelina is no more. For those living (happily, I’m sure) far from the ceaseless thrum of social media and needing a translation, this means Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are getting a divorce, and that Jennifer Aniston is …

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A strange affair

Jolly though it is to see a politician in a tangle – and jollier still if it’s a French politician – I think our interest in Francois Hollande’s comings and goings is more than curtain-tweaking prurience.  In fact, I think it’s actually justified. The view when one of our own politicians is caught out being …

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Nigella is no wicked stepmother

Charles Saatchi’s bizarre stunt yesterday, using his almost-grown up daughter, Phoebe, to attack Nigella Lawson for ‘heartlessness’, seems to be an attempt to claim back the moral high ground. While he now has an unenviable reputation as a public wife-strangler and probably a much worse sort of monster in private, Nigella was widely seen in …

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Back to black?

Watching the Lawson-Saatchi marital tribulations, and not envying Nigella being papped packing her stuff or having a scruffy Sunday with friends, has made me think how useful it would be if we could return to Victorian dress codes. All right, divorce and separation were not big in those days, but death certainly was, and it …

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So this is Christmas

Christmas isn’t an easy time for any woman. You see us, battling around the shops, shoulders hunched, faces grim, as we do our best to grab the stuff that will, like magic pixie dust, transform our grumpy family (and isn’t every family grumpy in this cold, dark, wet, grey December?) into a Norman Rockwell festival …

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Blending in?

So, we’ve been a so-called blended family now for several years – first unofficially, then officially and now with our status sanctified by marriage. Does it get  any easier? I don’t think it does. To be fair, normal parenthood can be pretty damn stretching. Many is the time I’ve hit the bottle after a day …

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Detangling

My girls don’t usually ask me to write about anything. Normally, they’re begging me not to mention them, their friends, the strange ways of teenagers …. anything, basically, which even touches vaguely on their lives is strictly off-limits. Until I bought them new brushes the other day. One of the awful things for divorced children …

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How honest should you be with children about divorce?

How honest should you be with children about divorce?   As if divorce itself is not hard enough, parents also have to worry about the impact it is going to have on their children’s lives. It’s impossible not to feel guilty about inflicting this huge upheaval on your little ones. But how much do they …

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Storm in a teapot

For all those of you sweet enough to worry long into the night (don’t deny it, I know you have) over my Swedish Teapot Situation, here’s an update. Tradera, the Swedish version of eBay, sent me a very pleasant email, sympathising with my situation and suggesting that I contact the seller. Doh! As I had …

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