Carol Vorderman doesn't believe in having "one partner for life."
Carol Vorderman on monogamy
The former 'Countdown' host - who has been married to Patrick King and has children Katie, 31, and Cameron, 25, with him but was also married to Christopher Mather - explained that while she had grown up with the "convention" that she should find one partner and be married by the age of 18 but has "ignored" that idea as she has got older and now has "special friends."
She said: "I'm nearly 62 now and our mothers told us that we should marry when we were 18 or 19 years of age so we grew up with this convention that we should find one partner for life and all the good fairy tales tell you that they married and lived happily ever after. My view is not quite like that. If people do have a very happy and long marriage, that is wonderful. Congratulations. But the fact is that half of marriages in divorce and almost three-quarters of marriage end in divorce. So I prefer to live my life - and people should speak about it in this way - in chapters. You try to have happy chapters and I think that's what you're looking for next. "
"I have ignored looking for one person. I have special friends. It's not realistic to expect one person to fulfil all your needs. The younger generation has a much freer approach to sexuality. After sexuality, the second most popular is bisexuality. But my generation couldn't talk about that. It's a taboo that particularly applies to women of age 60 plus, we were taught that we should marry who should look after us. Now the vast majority of women work. This is a time to break the nonsense taboo that every person should be looking for one other person that satisfies everything in their life. That's one hell of a pressure."
The former 'Loose Women' anchor went on to explain that some of her relationships with her "special friends" have lasted longer than her marriage and insisted that marriage is not always "realistic."
Speaking on ITV's 'This Morning', she added: "No they don't know each other, but they know about each other, that's because these are very honest relationships. One of them has gone on for over 10 years, that's longer than my marriage. Another has gone on for seven years. I'm not saying that people shouldn't be happily married people, but that's not always realistic."
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