Couple holding hands with one wearing a hospital braceletIt makes for grim listening: “If a man becomes terminally ill, and his wife becomes the caretaker, there is a 2.9% separation rate,” Stephen Barlett read on his podcast Diary Of A CEO. “If the woman is terminally ill, and their male partner becomes the caretaker, they leave at a 21% rate – which basically means that men are approximately 624% more likely to separate from a woman if the woman gets sick.”I’m not usually much of a Stephen Bartlett fan, but it’s a sentiment I’d heard over and over again in various TikToks from creators I love. The soundbite comes from a 2009 study which found, “A woman is six times more likely to be separated or divorced soon after a diagnosis of cancer or multiple sclerosis than if a man in the relationship is the patient,” and a subsequent 2015 study.