A photo of Kim Hee Sun and his husband. Australian researchers have identified what it takes to keep a couple together, and it's a lot more than just being in love.

Living happily ever after needn't only be for fairy tales. Australian researchers have identified what it takes to keep a couple together, and it's a lot more than just being in love.

A couple's age, previous relationships and even whether they smoke or not are factors that influence whether their marriage is going to last, according to a study by researchers from the Australian National University.

The study, entitled "What's Love Got to Do With It", tracked nearly 2,500 couples - married or living together - from 2001 to 2007 to identify factors associated with those who remained together compared with those who divorced or separated.

It found that a husband who is nine or more years older than his wife is twice as likely to get divorced, as are husbands who get married before they turn 25.

Children also influence the longevity¹ of a marriage or relationship, with one-fifth of couples who have kids before marriage - either from a previous relationship or in the same relationship - having separated compared to just nine percent of couples without children born before marriage.

Women who want children much more than their partners are also more likely to get a divorce.

A couple's parents also have a role to play in their own relationship, with the study showing some 16 percent of men and women whose parents ever separated or divorced experienced marital² separation themselves compared to 10 percent for those whose parents did not separate.

Also, partners who are on their second or third marriage are 90 percent more likely to separate than spouses³ who are both in their first marriage.

Not surprisingly, money also plays a role, with up to 16 percent of respondents who indicated they were poor or where the husband - not the wife - was unemployed⁴ saying they had separated, compared with only nine percent of couples with healthy finances.

And couples where one partner smokes and the other doesn't, are also more likely to have a relationship that ends in failure.

Factors found to not significantly affect separation risk included the number and age of children born to a married couple, the wife's employment status and the number of years the couple had been employed.

“从此他们幸福地生活在一起”，并不是只有童话故事里才有这样的情景。澳大利亚研究人员近日找到了夫妻白头到老所需的要素，而爱情仅仅是其中的一部分而已。

澳大利亚国立大学研究人员的最新研究表明，伴侣的年龄、情史、甚至是否吸烟，都会影响婚姻能否长久。

这项名为“爱情的作用究竟有多大”的研究在2001年到2007年间，跟踪记录了近2500对夫妻或同居伴侣的生活，试图找到影响夫妻分分合合的因素。

结果表明，如果丈夫比妻子年龄大九岁及以上，或者结婚时男方不到25岁，离婚的机率会翻番。

孩子也会对婚姻或伴侣关系的长久有影响。婚前就有孩子（不管是他们自己的，还是前次婚姻留下来的）的夫妻，有1/5最终都分开了，而婚前没有孩子的夫妻中只有9%最终离异。

如果女方比男方更想要小孩，婚姻解体的可能性也很大。

双方父母也会影响婚姻关系。研究显示，父母曾分居或离婚的夫妻中，约有16%的人婚姻以失败告终，而如果父母没有经历过这些，孩子离婚的机率只有10%。

另外，二婚或三婚夫妻的离婚机率比初婚高出90%。

经济状况当然也会影响到婚姻关系。16%自称经济窘迫或者丈夫（而不是妻子）失业的受访者称已分居，而在经济状况较好的伴侣当中，这一比例仅为9%。

仅有一方吸烟的伴侣，最终分手的机率也较大。

对婚姻维系危害不大的因素包括：子女的数量和年龄、妻子的就业状况以及双方工作时间长短。