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How To Not End Up Like Jessica Alba

The actor laments becoming roommates after a long marriage

Vicki Larson
Crow’s Feet: Life As We Age

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Courtesy of WallpaperCave.com

Actor and entrepreneur Jessica Alba and her husband of 16 years, film producer Cash Warren, recently announced that they are divorcing.

In an episode of Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt’s podcast, “BDA Baby” last summer, the mother of three — 16, 13 and 7 — shared the struggles of maintaining a long-term relationship:

“It’s all rosy for 2.5 years, but then after that, you become roommates. … You’re just going through the motions. It’s the responsibility. It’s a lot of, like, checking the boxes. We have, like, obviously the friendship, the comfort of, like, ‘you’re not going anywhere,’ and so sometimes you don’t treat those people the best, right? You don’t consider their feelings in the way that you would consider other people’s feelings. So that is something that I think is a constant one to work on. …If you’ve figured it out in your relationship, let me know.”

Actually, many couples have figured it out — by living apart together.

It’s hard to become roommates — or fall victim to what’s been called “roommate syndrome” — when you don’t share the same space. It’s also harder to take your partner for granted, treat them poorly or not consider their feelings when you don’t spend all your…

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