Gores Exemplify the Rise of the Late-in-Life Divorce

The Gore divorce has marriage experts everywhere discussing it, and late-life divorce in general. Divorces like the Gores are bound to become more common, most agree, both because couples are living longer, and because of generational shifts in marital expectations. “Baby Boomers are part of the 'Me' Generation—what's better for 'me,'” says one divorce lawyer. Another psychiatrist says that the divorces often happen when couples don't spend enough time together—like the Gores.

Al and Tipper are “no longer invested in a singular life like they were before,” he tells USA Today. Bill and Hillary Clinton, for all their problems “are very much a couple. They have a political life together.” The Gores, however, may once have had such a bond, but “they were less and less invested in each other … They have their separate lives and they were both relatively happy being without the other person.” (More Al Gore stories.)