"Ugly ideological baggage": Why I will never get married - The Saturday Story
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 2 May 2026
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Marriage rates are at their lowest since 1850, and it's predicted by 2050 just 3 in 10 of us will have tied the knot. Cohabiting is now the fastest-growing family type in the UK. So what’s happening? Feminism, atheism, a mistrust of state intervention, or just an old fashion 'trend' dying out? And should cohabiting couples get the same rights as married ones?
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Read by:
- Hannah Betts, features writer, The Times.
- Will Roe, executive producer, The Story.
Producer: Dave Creasey.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is The Story on Saturday. I'm Luke Jones. |
| 0:12.2 | The number of people getting married is falling. It's predicted that by 2050, only three in ten people will be married. Meanwhile cohabiting families, |
| 0:23.6 | so unmarried people in long-term relationships, are now the fastest growing family type in the UK. |
| 0:30.6 | So what is happening? This week in the Times feature writer Hannah Betts laid out her argument for why she is never going to marry her partner of 10 |
| 0:38.1 | years, but also why she, like millions of others, are calling for the same rights as married |
| 0:43.0 | people. It's a concern too for feature's writer Simon Mills. His piece is read by Will Row. |
| 0:49.5 | Music Why I will never get married by Hannah Betz. |
| 1:16.7 | Your husband's so wonderful, charming heart. |
| 1:19.6 | People are forever informing me. |
| 1:22.8 | He is not my husband, I retort. |
| 1:25.8 | He's the person I'm currently sleeping with. |
| 1:27.6 | How they laugh. Only, I'm not joking. I'm currently sleeping with. How they laugh. |
| 1:30.7 | Only, I'm not joking. |
| 1:35.0 | Terrence and I may have been together for 11 and a half years, but I will never marry him, nor he me. |
| 1:42.4 | We are not outliers here. |
| 1:45.5 | While figures for those getting hitched are declining, |
| 1:48.6 | the Office for National Statistics reveals |
| 1:50.9 | that the number of cohabiting families rose from 2.9 to 3.6 million |
| 1:56.6 | between 2012 and 2022. |
| 2:00.2 | Space-sharing but unmarried couples being Britain's fastest-growing family type. |
| 2:06.1 | In a poll of more than 2,000 people, 60% believed that unmarried couples should have |
| 2:11.9 | the same right as those who marry to leave assets to each other free of inheritance tax. |
... |
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