The Author of “Happily Ever After” Got Divorced

I still remember the day she handed me that book...

It was neatly wrapped in gold paper, tied with a white ribbon that smelled faintly of lavender. She gave me a soft, sympathetic smile, the kind that says, I’ve been there, but I’m better now.

“She wrote four books about marriage this year,” someone whispered proudly. “She’s helping women all over the world fix their relationships.”

I forced a smile, too. I didn't know what else to do or say. I didn’t have the strength to say that my own relationship was falling apart in slow, quiet agony.

I felt sad because of the challenges I was facing in my marriage. My partner and I had gone through a very difficult split, and surviving each day felt like a near-death situation.

The Year My World Tilted

It was 2021. That was the year my heart truly broke.

I had just found out that the father of my son had chosen someone else. It wasn’t just a brief affair; they already had a child together.

Everyone knew. Everyone except me.

When I finally found out, the world went silent. The kind of silence that makes even your breath feel like betrayal.

And there she was, my friend, my mentor, the author of “How to Keep Your Marriage Alive.” She handed me one of her books and said, “This might help.”

I wanted to scream. I wanted to ask, Did it help you? Did it help anyone? But I just nodded, went home, sat on my bed, and stared at the cover.

The cover showed a perfect couple smiling. The tagline read, “Love never fails when two hearts choose daily.”

I couldn’t help but think how ironic it was. One heart had stopped choosing me a long time ago.

Life’s Cruel Joke

The following year, I heard that her husband had left.

For another woman.

Just like mine.

The same woman who wrote about talking things through and staying committed, and who ran workshops on forgiving and bringing back love, was now getting a divorce.

When I saw her again, she was no longer the radiant woman with wise quotes and perfect smiles. She looked human. Her eyes were red from crying, and her voice shook as she said, “I never thought this would be me.”

And that’s when it hit me . None of us think it will be us.

We think that knowing more, praying, working hard, and loving can keep us from getting our hearts broken. But life often brings down even those who believe most in happy endings.

The Paradox of Advice

Maybe that’s the thing about people who teach. Sometimes they write about the lives they wish were theirs.

Maybe her books weren’t lies. They were lifelines, a desperate attempt to hold on to something that was already slipping away.

Maybe I judged her too quickly. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that love doesn’t fail because we don’t try. It fails because people do.

We grow, drift apart, make mistakes, want things, and sometimes lose.

Sometimes, even the wisest advice can’t save us from ourselves.

When Stories Turn

Now, when I look at that gold-wrapped book on my shelf, I don’t see irony anymore.

I see how fragile we all are, trying to understand love and hoping we can master it, when really, we’re always just learning.

Maybe love isn’t something we’re even meant to keep. Maybe we should honour it while it lasts and let it go when it no longer fits who we are.

Behind every “perfect marriage” post and every quote about trust and forever, there’s an untold story, a private pain, and a question that remains to be answered.

And so I wonder:

If even the teacher of love can lose it, what hope do the rest of us have?