Most people are blindsided when it comes to their spouse’s affair. Few expect a spouse would betray them in such a devastating way. Let’s face it, don’t we all demonize those who cheat? We certainly don’t think we have married a spouse that could be so morally reprehensible, right? 

Even the spouse that cheats is often shocked it happens. Because we equate faithfulness with morality, shame and guilt coincide with danger and excitement.

Here are some statistics I found, and many statistics on infidelity differ. However, every statistic has infidelity in marriage at an alarmingly high rate. 

On many websites, they claim that about 25 percent of marriages see at least one incident of infidelity. 

According to an estimate from the journal of Marriage and Divorce, they say “70% of married Americans cheat at least once in their marriage.” That is an alarming statistic. 

The General Social Survey states that “20 % of men cheat compared to 13% of women.” Overall, men cheat more, but women who cheat have risen because more women have entered the workforce. 33.3% of men and 28.6% of women have affairs with a coworker. It is the 2nd highest place that affairs take place. First is affairs with friends that the couple knew. 

And most interesting of all, more middle-aged people cheat overall, and men report the highest level of cheating in their 70s. Women report the highest rates of infidelity in their 60s, with 16% of 60- to 69-year-olds reporting to have had sex outside of marriage. 

Consider how many couples don’t report affairs to research groups in all of these statistics. Unless you are asked by a survey, who goes on record? Kinda scary, right?

With these statistics on infidelity in marriage, you would think that there would be a concerted effort to prevent this before it is even an option. 

Infidelity is one of the most common reasons for divorce. The idea that “this could never happen to me” is how we lie to ourselves about the real potential for infidelity. Just consider the numbers.

But I want to tell you something. I find couples that survive infidelity and move beyond it agree that the marriage already had major cracks before the affair. Once they repaired those cracks, the marriage was even better than before.

So, here are 10 ways to fortify your relationship against infidelity.

For complete show notes, go to http://reviveyourmidlifemarriage.com/79