I disagree with your comment that marriage is not meant to last forever. If you haven't heard the marriage vows lately, there is a part in there that says TILL DEATH DO US PART. Marriage is a serious convenant that two people enter into willingly to spend their lives together forever. If a person is not willing to give that type of commitment, then they should not bother tying the knot in the first place. The high level of divorce rate shows how immaturely people treat marriage now days.

If a person knows that a relationship is bad and then marries that someone even though they don't love them, then that should be a big stop sign or avoidance relationship sign to future significant others.

It was last year that Teri’s marriage to actor Jon Tenney broke up. They met in 1992 and even on their first date both believed that they had found ‘the one’. They married two years later with Teri insisting that it was ‘so great to be going through life with a soul mate’. In 1997 their daughter Emerson was born (Teri started filming the James Bond film when she was pregnant) and, later, she remarked that she felt fortunate to be with Tenney because ‘I have so much admiration for women who tackle motherhood alone. I cannot imagine it’.

So for her marriage to end, says Teri, was devastating. ‘I still feel a lot of guilt about the fact that Emerson won’t have a mum and dad together in the house while she’s growing up,’ says Teri, ‘and I’ll probably feel guilty about that for the rest of my life. I take our commitment to our child really seriously and splitting from Jon wasn’t an easy thing to do. I was really unhappy for a long time and I tried very hard to make our marriage work. I’ll never reveal what went on in our relationship, but it’s enough to say that it wasn’t an easy time. Jon’s a nice guy and it wasn’t easy to separate, actually, but I think he’s fixed some of the problems now. Sometimes it takes something radical like someone leaving you to make you want to straighten out your life and he’s taken those steps. He’s not an alcoholic, but our situation now is similar to him having been an alcoholic and then joining AA to straighten himself out.’ The marriage, says Teri, had been going wrong for a few years. ‘Because he’s a good guy, I didn’t want to leave and I didn’t want for Emerson to have to go through our divorce.

A lot of my friends told me I should get out of the marriage, saying that if I wasn’t happy, then I couldn’t be a good mum, but I didn’t look at it like that. I felt, “Well, who says that I’m the one who has to be happy? My daughter has to come first.” To me, my happiness was secondary to Emerson’s. That went on for years until finally I had to do something about it. The burden of waking up and spending hours of every day trying to find somewhere to put the pain just got too much for me and I had to get out. The whole thing was completely my fault. Not a damn thing changed about Jon from the day I met him — I just chose not to look at the red flags. ‘That was another reason why it took me so long to get out. I felt guilty for Emerson’s sake because I thought to myself, “I picked him, so I should deal with it.” I realised nine years later that I couldn’t. There were definitely things about Jon to love but,’ she adds sadly, ‘I don’t think I was ever in love with him. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever been in love at all.’ It is a sad admission given that Teri regularly used to top the lists of sexiest women on TV, but one that she insists is true. I don’t trust people easily and I find it difficult to open up and, to be honest, love isn’t on my list of priorities.

I’m single at the moment and I’m not looking for anyone. With the life I have. I’ve no idea where a man could fit in. Between my daughter, friends, my mother and work, there’s only about half an hour left in the day for anything else. And I don’t miss having a partner, although I’m sure that some day it would he great to meet someone who was equally fulfilled to share some happy experiences with. I can remember being in my 20s and feeling really empty: just wanting a guy to fill something missing in me. I don’t feel that any more. When people ask me about my love life, I have to laugh because I don’t even have one.

‘That was another reason why it took me so long to get out. I felt guilty for Emerson’s sake because I thought to myself, “I picked him, so I should deal with it.” I realised nine years later that I couldn’t. There were definitely things about Jon to love but,’ she adds sadly, ‘I don’t think I was ever in love with him. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever been in love at all.’