But he also knows if it didn't work the first time after five years of marriage, there is no reason to believe a second time would be successful. "The feeling isn't there," the case information specialist at Astra Tech in Waltham, said. "It's emotion. It’s either there or it’s not."

New research shows that when married people become single again, whether by divorce or a spouse's death, they experience much more than an emotional loss. Often they suffer a decline in physical health from which they never fully recover, even if they remarry.

And in terms of health, it's not better to have married and lost than never to have married at all. Middle-age people who never married have fewer chronic health problems than those who were divorced or widowed.

"It's one of the happiest moments of your life: tying the knot to the one you love most. But that might mean you'll be loosening the belt too.

In the few short years of marriage, a couple is twice as likely to become obese as are people who are merely dating, according to a new study.

Newly married Pedro Mejia already suspects that his marriage will mean a few more pounds on the scale.

"I am worried," he said. "I'm starting to gain weight already and we just got married."

The idea that couples "let themselves go" after marriage is backed up by mounting evidence. Professor of nutrition Penny Gordon-Larsen from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill conducted the study in the July issue of Obesity, which looked at the romantic partnership and obesity."

"Living happily ever after needn't only be for fairy tales. Australian researchers have identified what it takes to keep a couple together, and it's a lot more than just being in love.

A couple's age, previous relationships and even whether they smoke or not are factors that influence whether their marriage is going to last, according to a study by researchers from the Australian National University.

The study, entitled "What's Love Got to Do With It," tracked nearly 2,500 couples -- married or living together -- from 2001 to 2007 to identify factors associated with those who remained together compared with those who divorced or separated."

"Rhonda Brewster and her husband have decided they don't want to be married to each other anymore. But while they're ready to move on, they still can't move out.

They don't want to sell their home, in Huntsville, Ala., in a down market. They can't afford two households until Ms. Brewster finds steady work. So for now, they are living under the same roof but on separate floors.

The "kids are OK with it." says Ms. Brewster, a 39-year-old freelance writer and stay-at-home mother. "They just know that mommy lives upstairs and daddy lives in the basement."

Unwinding the ties of matrimony is rarely simple or inexpensive, but for many couples, the sour economy is complicating the process further."

"We have been waiting, impatiently, for the ending that we want. We - by which I mean married women - have watched the parade of press conferences, heard the mea culpas, been unmoved by the tears and held out for the plot that turns out differently. Because while the cameras are always focused on the errant husband, we are transfixed by the wife. From Clinton to Craig to Spitzer to Edwards to Ensign we wonder: Why does she take this? Why do we take this? So when Jenny Sanford broke the mold and dispatched her husband to face the cameras alone, we cheered. Maybe this time she’d leave him. Maybe there was hope for us.

Gossip is how we establish cultural norms. Talking about others is our way to test the social boundaries - to learn what raises eyebrows, what is met by shrugs - without directly talking about ourselves. We tell one another, and sometimes we believe it, that we really don’t care if the guy had an affair; what we care about is that he disappeared for five days. Or abused his power as a boss over an intern. Or was callous enough to cheat on a wife who'd had cancer, and foolish enough to believe a presidential candidate could get away with being that callous. And yes, we care about all those things, and more. But we also care about - are fascinated by - the fact that the guy had an affair."

"During the six years that Kay Haskins and Dan Brigham were in a serious relationship, marriage came up only occasionally. Neither one was ready at the same time, and in 2004 they broke up. But in February 2008, Haskins and Brigham reconnected, and fell right back in love. He then told her the grim news--his prostate cancer, diagnosed in 2001, had returned. This time, marriage became the priority. They got engaged two months later, and planned for a May 2009 wedding.

By early spring of this year, it was clear that Brigham was not going to last much longer. Still, Haskins, 54, was determined to give her fiancé- and herself- their last wish as a couple: to be married.

On Thursday, April 16, soon after Brigham, 65, slipped into a coma, an ordained chaplain at the hospice performed a nonbinding ceremony, uniting Brigham and Haskins as man and wife."