A
couple which has been married and bound together for up to twenty whole
years, has stunned many people with what they did after splitting up.
Michelle Mahoney and ex-husband Jeff Becerra
Michelle Mahoney and ex-husband Jeff Becerra, a former California
couple have stunned people after they turned their divorce into a
music-and-food-filled celebration for their friends and family, Daily
Mail UK reports.
The couple, both 48, married 24 years ago, but after two years of
separation and counseling, they agreed that it was time to dissolve
their partnership.
Speaking with Daily Mail UK, Michelle said that they decided their marriage would go out with a bang.
'I'm a party girl,' she said. 'I thought it would be
something that would be slightly controversial but really fun, and I
thought why not? It was our last hurrah.'
The divorce party
So on Saturday the Berkeley pair invited over their friends and
family, handed out fortune cookies with messages such as 'Eat, drink and
remarry!' and ended their marriage in style.
They even had a cheery 'Just divorced' sign painted on the back of a car
Not that it went down well with all their guests.
'Almost everyone had a surprised element to their response,' Michelle said. 'I would say maybe 70 per cent were supportive and some people didn't come because it didn't make them feel comfortable.
'Whether it was because of the sanctity of marriage or their own marriage I don't know.'
The couple's two daughters were supportive
But she says while 'a lot of people who came to the party out of
support, but not out of understanding,' many left with their eyes
opened.
'Probably half of the people that were there were initially
uncomfortable with how to handle our new relationship - who to be
friends with, who to talk to about it all,' she said.
'So to invite them as a couple into our lives as separate
people now, it actually removed all of that. It said "We're still here,
we're still the people we've always been."'
And a big part of that was keeping their sense of humor.
'We wanted it to be fun,' she said, 'we wanted to make
jokes all along the way because there's a huge stigma around divorce -
and there shouldn't be, given that half the marriages end in divorce.
'We wanted to normalize it. We're the same people, we love each
other, we always have - we just don't want to romantically love each
other for the rest of our lives.'
It was also helpful to reaffirm to their relatives - including
daughters Rylie, 20, and Emma, 18 - that they would carry on as a family
unit.
Michelle says that she knows t he party has ruffled a few feathers, but that she doesn't judge anyone for their own choices.
'I don't blame them, but it's not my choice - or my husband's,' she said.
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