TREVISO- (MaraviPost)-An Italian man filed to end his 77-year marriage at the age of 99 after discovering decades-old love letters that revealed his wife had an affair in the 1940s.
The case, which emerged from Treviso in northern Italy, quickly became one of the country’s most unusual and widely discussed divorce proceedings.
The couple had been married since 1934 and had raised five children together over nearly eight decades.
For years, neighbors and family described them as a model of endurance in a region where long marriages were once the norm.
That image was shattered in 2011 when the husband, while sorting through old papers at their home in Treviso, came across a bundle of letters.
The letters, written during World War II, detailed a romantic relationship his wife had with another man.
Though the affair had occurred more than 60 years earlier, the discovery reopened wounds that had long been buried.
According to court documents filed in Treviso, the 99-year-old cited the betrayal as the reason he could no longer continue the marriage.
Italian media reported that the man told his lawyer he felt he had lived a lie for most of his life.
The filing drew immediate international attention because of the sheer length of the union it sought to dissolve.
Legal experts noted that Italian law allows for separation at any age, and that emotional harm is considered valid grounds regardless of how much time has passed.
The wife, then 96, reportedly expressed shock and sadness at her husband’s decision.
She told local reporters in Treviso that she had hoped the past would remain in the past.
Despite the heartbreak, the couple’s five children urged both parents to seek reconciliation.
That appeal, however, did not change the husband’s mind.
For many in Italy, the story became a reflection on memory, forgiveness, and whether time can truly heal certain wounds.
It also sparked debate about privacy, with some asking whether secrets from youth should define a lifetime.
The court in Treviso eventually granted the separation, marking the legal end of a marriage that had lasted through war, reconstruction, and the birth of modern Italy.
In the end, what began as a quiet discovery in an old drawer ended a union that had outlasted generations.
