Charles and Camilla are not alone in remarrying late in life - in fact, it seems more and more of us are finding new romance in retirement.

WELL in the end, it all went very well really, didn't it? No bonfires, street parties or state coaches, but Camilla looked very elegant, Charles look very relieved, there was some glorious music, no-one dropped the rings and their assorted children and families seemed suitably jolly and happy for them.

It was, in fact, a typical second wedding for a couple of 50 somethings.

And there's going to be a lot more of them. Not for Charles and Camilla, we hope (never mind how they feel, the rest of us just couldn't take the strain) but for many other people of their age and even older.

Because, it seems, it's never too late to make a fresh start.

Latest to join the ranks of those in grown-up love tangles is John Birt, former director general of the BBC. He's 60, has been married for 40 years and now he's split from his wife to marry another one.

Not much fun for his first wife, obviously. Devastating, in fact. After 40 years, you can be forgiven for thinking you're in for a smooth run into the retirement home and the tartan blanket.

But no. And we should all be careful, because it's a growing trend.

Half of all divorces occur in the first ten years of marriage, but longevity's no guarantee of security. Growing numbers of people are now getting divorced after 20, 30, even 40 years of marriage. Couples such as David and Josceline Dimbleby, Charles and Joanna Dance, Rick and Jill Stein.

You'd think that maybe after all that time, couples would have got used to each other. Breaking up would seem more of a hassle than staying put.

It's not just that we're living longer - 40 years of the same face across the breakfast table might just get a teeny bit monotonous - but we're staying younger longer. And we're not prepared to settle for second best, not even in our dotage. The early years of marriage are hard work - you're trying to pay the mortgage, get on in your careers, bring up the kids, care for elderly parents.

But once the house is paid for, the children independent and the pension planned, then couples have got time to take stock and look at their partners in a new light. Tricky.

They might welcome the chance of a few decades of unencumbered happiness together. Then again, they might recoil in horror and think that this is their absolute last chance of choosing happiness with someone else. And seize it before it's too late.

In one way, despite all the pain and anguish it inevitably causes, it's sort of cheering. Well, it's nice to know that life, love and passion go burning on at an age when previous generations would have been content to sit toothless and dribbling in the corner out of the way. Or be dead.

And when it is easily accepted that 50, 60 or even 70 somethings walk out on marriage somewhere between the silver and golden weddings, it's cheering for those of us who are still together. Because when it is so easy to walk out, then people must stay simply because they want to.

On the other hand, if it can still happen after 40 years, it does sort of keep the rest of us smug marrieds on our toes.

Published: ??/??/2004