Who will you choose?
One in seven adults revealed that they are not with the loves of their life, a huge 73% of people have made do with their current partners because the love of their life simply slipped away.
Adriana said:
‘I have met guys that I have thought could be potential boyfriend material while I have been with my partner, but I am with him for a reason, I love him. I would have left him if I wasn’t happy with him, but you have to be realistic and see that although the ‘there is only one person for every person’ sentiment is really lovely, there are other people who could be compatible with.’
More surprisingly, a quarter of adults have been in love with two people at once!
Lucy says:
‘As an agony aunt, I read a lot of cases where this has happened. If you take out a list and write the pros and cons of each person down, they are equal, it is an awful situation to be in. At some point you have to choose and trust your instincts.’
17% admitted that they have met the love of their life while they have been with someone else and 46% would be prepared to leave their partner for this person given half a chance!
Men appear to be the more loyal of the sexes as 37% said that they would stay with their partner to avoid hurting them. Given the instinctive nature of men to sleep with as many women as possible, these results are surprising, however, when men have children with their partner their investment is much more than if they were simply living with them or dating.
Siemens Festival Nights has found that the most people fall in love only twice in their life, and as a consequence have been heartbroken once. For the unlucky ones, one in twenty have been heartbroken five times in their lives.
Rebecca said:
‘I knew after the first date with my man that he was the one. I even called my Dad up and said, ‘this is the one I am going to marry!’ if you can be yourself with your partner then this is one of the best signs that you will be ok.’
Someone close to me once said that if you can’t see yourself with someone after two weeks then they are not the right person for you. The results revealed that it took these participants a little longer, but the sentiment was the same: 60% revealed that it took a matter of 10 weeks to realise that the person they were with was their special someone.
Claire Jarvis, Director of Communications for Siemens said:
''The survey highlighted some colourful revelations about people's love lives. The results showed it can be hard to find 'the one' and although the general perception is that women tend to fall in love more often than men, it was intriguing to see that in reality both men and women fall in love on average two times in their life. What is alarming is that so many people claim to be in long term relationships or even married to someone who isn't the true love of their life. And if there are people out there who are genuinely in love with two people at the same time, they must face a huge dilemma. Interestingly, more than half of those polled thought they have been in love on occasions but looking back don't believe it was the 'real thing.'
19 is the average age that most adults fall in love and have been through at least four or five partners before finding the person they want to spend the rest of their life with. 75% of the adults believe that definition of love changes as they get older.
Claire Jarvis added:
''Although many of the adults polled said they weren't with their true love, the majority claimed to be in head over heels with their current partner, which is really encouraging. Love is a fundamental in everyone's life and a dominant theme in all forms of art and culture. Many famous opera stories like La Traviata and the Magic Flute centre on a powerful love story, and our upcoming events at the Crystal in London, which are open to the public, are no exception."