Do Men Who Marry After 35 Really Have the Lowest Divorce Rate?

A viral social media graphic claims that men who marry after age 35 have the lowest divorce rates of any male age group.

The image uses actor Adam Sandler and his wife, Jackie, as its illustration. Sandler married at age 36 and has remained married for more than two decades, but one celebrity marriage cannot establish a statistical rule.

The broader claim contains a grain of truth: people who marry very young generally face a higher risk of marital dissolution than people who wait until they are more mature.

What has not been established is the graphic’s much stronger assertion that “after 35” is universally the safest category for men.

The correct verdict is:

Unsupported as written. Later marriage is often associated with greater stability than teenage or very early marriage, but available research does not justify treating age 35 as a universal threshold or declaring men marrying after it the lowest-divorce male group in every population.

What Research Consistently Shows

The clearest and most consistent finding is that marrying very young is associated with a higher probability of separation or divorce.

Teenagers and people in their early twenties may have fewer financial resources, less stable employment and less experience managing long-term relationships.

They are also still undergoing substantial changes in education, career, identity and social networks. Couples can grow in different directions as those changes occur.

People who marry later tend to have had more time to:

• Complete education

• Establish a career

• Become financially independent

• Develop emotional and communication skills

• Clarify their values

• Choose a partner more deliberately

• Recognize unhealthy relationship patterns

These factors can contribute to marital stability.

But they do not prove that waiting beyond a particular birthday directly prevents divorce.