“I was nothing but happy (after the divorce). That was my only emotion,” she said. “I was so happy I wanted to run around all over the place.”

Stories like hers are increasingly common around the world as the number of “gray divorces” – splits among couples aged 50 and older – rises each year. The trend has been seen in countries like the United States and elsewhere, but takes on particular significance in Asia, where people generally live longer.

Many places like South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China are battling demographic crises as birth rates fall and elderly populations swell.

The surge in gray divorces is also often driven by women – who have long faced restrictive gender norms in conservative Asian societies, as well as legal, financial, and social barriers to seeking divorce. That’s now changing; in Japan, for instance, among couples splitting after decades of marriage, twice as many women as men filed for divorce in 2024.