When my 9-year ex and me broke up, it was like she unzipped her skin and this cold, terse, uncaring, unloving person crawled out. First time I'd ever seen it. And we didn't break up over some catastrophic event. We just ran our course and became roommates, not lovers. It became apathetic, on my end anyway. Her behavior during the breakup was like when you watch a horror flick and the person becomes possessed and their facial expressions and demeanor changes. I can say with 99.9% confidence she would have went for the maximum allowable alimony payment and tried to squeeze every last bit of $ out of me. And women coach each other on this on what to do, and 99% of the time it's "NUKE the f*ucking bastard!!!" No remorse or logic or civility. It would have been really bad for me.
But...
I never married her. I had the foresight. We had no kids. We were just bf/gf living together. We never claimed to be married nor had any joint account so all the common law BS was out the window, too. So when we broke up, I lost $7.00. Yes, seven US dollars. She took the salad tongs that weren't hers, lol. Value=$7.00. That's it.
To put in NFL terms, I feel like she came at me with an 8-man blitz (all LBs and the FS) and I side-stepped it and threw a dart to my WR for a 20-yard gain ala Aaron Rodgers.
Take that B*ITCH! haha
Lesson for young DJs: You can be in a caring, loving, monogamous relationship, if that's what you want, without being married. Don't give in to pressure or old, outdated social norms. For those of you wanting kids, shoot for having them without marriage because if there's one thing I'm 110% convinced of it's kids=DIVORCE. Just search for women over 40 on any dating site. 90-95% are "Divorced with Kids."
Good luck.