Line #26 Main/StarterMarriage


1	%%
2	%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1656392492084075100
3	%% Please do not add a new image without discussion in Image Pickin'.
4	%%
5	->''Mark and Ellen had gotten married a little after Tom and Kitty. It was a mistake from the first day. Two nice people not made for each other. ... Then it broke wide open and they were divorced. Mark was thankful there had been no children.''
6	-->-- ''Exodus'' by Leon Uris
7
8	AliceAndBob got together, they got engaged, and they got married. Everyone expects that they'll live HappilyEverAfter and [[GrowOldWithMe grow old together]]. Then the news is broken that AliceAndBob are getting a divorce, even though they haven't even been married five years. What happened?
9
10	Reasons for the divorce vary: one or both of them [[InLoveWithLove lacked maturity to sustain a long-term relationship]], AliceAndBob had radically different goals and ideals in life, [[CharacterFlawIndex flaws (big or small)]] that they overlooked are coming to light, they married for the wrong reasons and/or [[FourthDateMarriage too early.]] Whatever the reason(s) given, generally the marriage lasts less than five years and doesn't produce any children, so it's easy for the former spouses to cut each other out of their lives. It is also always the first marriage for at least one spouse, very often both, and may be followed by a more stable long-term marriage for one or both parties.
11
12	May be the result of RelationshipWritingFumble, FourthDateMarriage, MarriedTooYoung, Alice and Bob being StrangledByTheRedString, or simply the idea that TrueLoveIsBoring. It may be used to prevent ShippingBedDeath. May or may not result in one or both halves of the ex-couple going on to become a SerialSpouse if subsequent relationships are similarly doomed.
13
14	Compare SteppingStoneSpouse and SexChangesEverything.
15
16	TruthInTelevision, sadly.
17
18	----
19	!!Examples:
20	[[foldercontrol]]
21
22	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
23	* [[ImpliedTrope Implied]] in ''Manga/CaseClosed'' with Kogoro Mouri and Eri Kisaki. Comparing their ages to that of their daughter Ran, she must have been born when the couple were around 21, with a WholeEpisodeFlashback showing Eri leaving for her first day of work as a lawyer while Ran is already in preschool. By the present day of the series, they've been living separately for ten years and can't lay eyes on each other without making snide remarks, but [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther still haven't divorced, will do anything for each other at a moment's notice, and frequently miss each other when they aren't together]]. The closest thing to a specific reason for their separation is given in [[Anime/DetectiveConanFilm02TheFourteethTarget Movie 2]], which states that Eri walked out on Kogoro because he insulted her cooking shortly after rescuing her from a HostageSituation. Kogoro had wanted to tell Eri to take time off and recover, but [[PoorCommunicationKills couldn't bring himself to just say that]].
24	[[/folder]]
25
26	[[folder:Comic Books]]
27	* In ''ComicBook/{{Persepolis}}'' Marjane and her boyfriend Reza feel stifled from having to hide their relationship due to scrutiny from the Iranian police, so they decide to marry. They discover however they don't have much in common, and their marriage means she has to stay in Iran and deal with oppression from the fundamentalist government. Their eventual divorce coincides with Marji's decision to finally leave Iran for good. Fortunately, her family was never on board with the marriage in the first place for this exact reason and it's revealed her [[CoolOldLady grandma]] she has been married ''thrice''.
28	-->'''Grandma:''' The first marriage is practice for the second.
29	* ''Franchise/TheFlash'': PlayedForDrama. In a flashback in Flash #197, it was revealed that [[Characters/TheFlashHunterZolomon Hunter Zolomon]] had only been married to his college sweetheart Ashley for a few months after they graduated college together and joined the FBI before Hunter's tragic mistake that cost the life of his father- in- law, causing Ashley to [[GriefInducedSplit divorce him]] and him being kicked out of the FBI. Hunter still very much loves Ashley but knows it's unlikely she'll forgive him; he accepts the divorce and tries to move on with his life. Later, when Ashley learns that Hunter transformed into supervillain Zoom, she left the FBI to come to Keystone City to take over his former spot as the local metahuman profiler to help reform him--showing that she still loves him and regrets leaving him. Tragically it's implied that, had that misjudgment on Hunter's part that cost the life of his father in law never happened, Hunter and Ashley would have had a long and lasting marriage.
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder: Comic Strips]]
33	* ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'':
34	** Anthony’s marriage to Thèrése was seen as this by everyone…except Thèrése.
35	** Connie’s marriage to the unseen Pete Landry was a short lived and unhappy affair. Initially it was implied that he was the father of Lawrence, making him a DisappearedDad. But years later, it was retconned that Pete was just his stepfather and Lawrence’s biological father was Paolo DeSliva, a doctor in Brazil that Connie dated while on a medical aid program.
36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
39	* At the end of ''Film/AnimalHouse'', it is revealed that Boon and Katy got back together, and married in 1964, only to divorce in 1969. [[WordOfGod Apparently]], they later [[YoYoPlotPoint marry again, divorce again, and remarry yet again]].
40	* ''Film/IGiveItAYear:'' Nat and Josh marry, and none of their friends think it will last. Their friends are correct.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Literature]]
44	* ''Literature/AdrianMole'':
45	** Adrian's love interest Pandora deliberately has one of these; it's a marriage of convenience, since her husband is gay, and she believes that first marriages should "be got over with quickly."
46	** Adrian's own first marriage counts as this since it lasts only a few years. He and his wife Jo Jo have too many cultural and social differences to be sustainable; he's working-class English, she's a Nigerian aristocrat. Adrian says that when she told him she'd wear "traditional dress" to the wedding, only to show up in traditional ''Nigerian'' dress (whereas he'd been expecting a white dress and veil) he knew it wasn't going to last.
47	* In the ''Literature/AliceSeries'', her cousin Carol got rather [[FourthDateMarriage quickly]] married to a navy guy. The marriage lasted only a year and, years later, Carol admits that she rushed into the marriage, not really knowing the guy beyond finding him funny. And realizing that he was seeing other women on the side was one more reason for the divorce. [[spoiler:Her second marriage, to Larry Swenson, is much longer-lasting and happy.]]
48	* ''Literature/ACryInTheNight'': Jenny and Kevin's marriage was shortlived. He was Jenny's [[FirstLove first serious boyfriend]] and they married shortly after she finished college when she was about 22 years old; Kevin was around the same age. Jenny unexpectedly fell pregnant with Beth shortly afterward, then had Tina a year later. Kevin wasn't remotely ready to be a father and committed husband, especially as he wanted to focus on his acting career (he even tried to talk Jenny into a termination during her first pregnancy). He moved out shortly after Tina was born and the divorce was finalized not long after that, they having only been married for less than three years. Although hurt, Jenny found that she wasn't as devastated by the divorce as she would've expected. It's implied Jenny rushed into the marriage - despite her grandmother's disapproval of Kevin - because she [[IJustWantToBeLoved desperately wanted]] the large, supportive family she always dreamed of (while she adored her grandmother, it was [[RaisedByGrandparents just the two of them for years]] and Nana's death proved how fragile such a family unit can be).
49	* ''Literature/TheHike2023'': Maggie's marriage to her ex-husband Adrian was brief, only lasting two years before they divorced (and it's implied they were living apart for some of that time as well). Maggie admits that she'd already been having doubts about their relationship before the wedding, having become increasingly aware of Adrian's more selfish and snobby side, but she went ahead with it because she'd just found out she was pregnant and she was too afraid to call off the wedding so late; Joni also suggests she was holding out hope the marriage would work out in the long-run. Needless to say, that hope was quickly dashed.
50	* ''Literature/LetMeCallYouSweetheart'': Kerry's marriage to her ex-husband Bob only lasted about six years. She was willing to make things work, especially as they had a baby together, but Bob wasn't interested and quickly moved on with his second wife, who just so happened to be his new boss' daughter. In hindsight, Kerry thinks that the only good thing she got out of the relationship was their daughter.
51	* Marina Gregg's first husband [[spoiler:Arthur Babcock]] in the Literature/MissMarple novel, ''Literature/TheMirrorCrackdFromSideToSide.'' He was a realtor who just wasn't prepared to keep up with the lifestyle of a Hollywood star.
52	* ''Literature/OnTheStreetWhereYouLive'': Will Stafford states he married his ex-wife straight after he graduated law school and that within a year "we both knew it was a mistake". Emily Graham remarks that she could've saved herself a lot of pain if she'd caught on so quick about her own disastrous marriage, which also occurred right after she finished law school.
53	* ''Literature/TheOverstory'': Olivia and Davy, who get married impulsively in college and end up only being married for two years.
54	* They don't get married, but the romance between Wedge Antilles and Qwi Xux ends like this in ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends''. Qwi comments that almost everyone ends up in such a relationship at some point, but usually as teenagers; because of her [[LaserGuidedAmnesia recent forced memory loss]] and his teenage enlistment in the Rebel Alliance they never really had the opportunity.
55	* It's eventually revealed that the female protagonist in ''[[Creator/JohnWyndham Trouble With Lichen]]'' had a brief and unhappy marriage, more or less on the rebound, after running away from her research into the antigerone.
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
59	* ''Series/Babylon5'': The relationship between Captain Sheridan and [[spoiler:Captain Lochley]] is implied to have crashed and burned in no more than a couple of months.
60	-->'''[[spoiler:Captain Lochley]]:''' We met, fell crazy in love, got married, realized it was a huge mistake, fell crazy ''out'' of love, and divorced.
61	* ''Series/{{Cheers}}:'' Frasier's first marriage to Nanette Guzman, which happened during their college days. It didn't last long, they split up and broke off contact. Frasier's quite surprised to meet her again, and his current wife Lilith more than a little annoyed to find Frasier had a wife he never mentioned before. Things get worse when it turns out Nanette is still ''very'' attracted to Frasier.
62	* ''Series/{{Girls}}'': Both Jessa and Marnie have brief, season-long marriages that end in divorce.
63	* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'': Dean hastily marries his girlfriend Lindsay when they're eighteen, and the marriage is soon on the rocks because they both tend to act selfish and inconsiderate towards each other, with both of them realizing they simply aren't well suited for each other. This comes to a climax when Dean cheats on his wife with Rory, his ex-girlfriend he has lingering feelings for, and they divorce soon after. Years later in the revival, Dean has moved on from Rory and is now HappilyMarried and has started a family.
64	* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': This is a RunningGag for Ross. The show starts with Ross confirming he and his wife Carol are now divorced after she came out as a lesbian. They were married for four years. However, she ''is'' pregnant at the time, and they go on to co-parent their son and stay in each other's lives as AmicableExes, making it a DownplayedTrope. Ross then marries Emily in a FourthDateMarriage, and she divorces him for accidentally saying Rachel's name at the altar. Eventually, Ross and Rachel marry -- because they were very drunk, in Vegas, and thought it would be funny. Once sober, they then divorce. At this point, the gang agree that Ross's "thing" is to be "the guy that gets divorced".
65	* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', [[spoiler:Jimmy and Chloe]]. They were very sweet together at first but gets increasingly rocky due to the involvement of first Clark, then Davis. Ends with a huge TearJerker when [[spoiler:Jimmy [[BreakTheCutie shouts at Chloe and declares marrying her is the biggest mistake of his life]].]]
66	* ''Series/TheStarterWife'' centers around a woman whose husband leaves her once he starts to make it big in the film industry. Leaving a wife once you make it big so you can find a proper trophy wife is apparently a big thing in these circles. She's devastated to find out that this is what she's become.
67	* In an episode of ''Series/{{Castle\|2009}}'', this is the case for one of the suspects and his ex-wife, which he doesn't remember because he gained amnesia at the time of the murder. At the end of the story, they've decided to give it a second chance.
68	* In ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'', numerous times Kelly has said a variation of, "I hope my first marriage/husband goes okay."
69	* ''Series/StElsewhere'': In "In Sickness and in Health", Dr. Ehrlich and Roberta "Bobby" Sloan [[FourthDateMarriage get married after a very brief courtship]]. Three episodes later in "After Dark", they separate after only 16 days of marriage after they realise that they are incompatible.
70	[[/folder]]
71
72	[[folder:Music]]
73	* [[Music/TheStrangerAlbum "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant"]] by Music/BillyJoel tells "The Ballad of Brenda and Eddy," HighSchoolSweethearts who get married and divorced, all within the summer of '75.
74	[[/folder]]
75
76	[[folder:Theatre]]
77	* From ''[[Theatre/CompanySondheim Company]]'': Joanne's first marriage happened when she was just out of college, and apparently lasted only a year, until her husband announced that he wanted to move back to Chicago and she refused. As she tells Bobby:
78	-->'''Joanne:''' I was too young, but I was old enough to know where I was living, and I had no intention of leaving New York.
79	* ''Theatre/TheLastFiveYears'' tells the story of a couple from the beginning of their relationship to their divorce. The relationship fits the criteria: InLoveWithLove, DifferingPrioritiesBreakup, both characters are young, divorce comes within [[TitleDrop five years]].
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Webcomics]]
83	* Wombats in ''Webcomic/{{Digger}}'' have marriage forms that are friendly towards these types of relationships. Marriage contracts are generally [[http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=549 1 to 5 years with renewal option.]]
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Western Animation]]
87	* Lampshaded on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', which shows Bart (now a teenager) in a relationship with a [[HighSchoolSweethearts high school girlfriend]], who mentions that they're supposed to vow to be together forever and get divorced within five years.
88	* On ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' the title character's cousin Erin gets married in season two. By season five (2-3 InUniverse years later), they're getting divorced; apparently Erin only wanted to get married because the guy, Brian, gave her herpes and she [[DefiledForever didn't think anyone else would want her]]. {{Subverted}}, however, when they reconcile. (Except for the wedding, all of this happens off-screen, though it affects Daria and her family indirectly.)
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Real Life]]
92	* Neopagan handfastings have the option of being for life or "AYearAndADay." After that period, the couple have the option to go their separate ways with no hard feelings or renew their vows again.
93	* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_marriage Hollywood marriages]] between young actors often end up being this. It's not uncommon for some to rack up ''several'' starter marriages. In fact, the list of actors and other celebrities who don't have a starter marriage under their belt is probably shorter than those who do.
94	** Music/JessicaSimpson and Nick Lachey's marriage stands out, as it was documented in ''Series/NewlywedsNickAndJessica''. It became this when they divorced after four years.
95	* Among U.S. first and second ladies, Betty Ford, Karen Pence and Jill Biden all had early starter marriages they don't like to talk about.
96	* Both Americans who married into the British royal family, Wallis Simpson and Creator/MeghanMarkle, had starter marriages before marrying their royal husbands.[[note]]With Wallis' first two marriages, they separated around the five-year mark, though did not formally divorce until after ten years.[[/note]]
97	[[/folder]]

Context Main / StarterMarriage