A recent study by insurers Ecclesiastical has shown that the population of soapland has a divorce rate four times the national average. The figures, accumulated from five years of watching Coronation Street, EastEnders and Emmerdale have shown that characters have a 20 per cent chance of being jilted at the altar or their spouse dying on them.

They recorded and analysed the details of every marriage ceremony between 2003 and the present day in each of Britain's three most-watched soap operas. There were 48 marriages in total and here are their key findings:

• 11 (23%) weddings were called off, by either the bride or groom, during the actual ceremony.
  
  
• 36 of the weddings did take place, but only 11 (30%) of that number remain intact today.
  
  
• 39% have ended due to separation or divorce.
  
  
• 5% were annulled (in real life, the national rate of annulments is approximately 0.07%).
  
  
• 5% were later found to be invalid.
  
  
• 22% have ended with the death of one of the spouses.
  
  
• 13% of all ceremonies took place during the Christmas/New Year period.

Each of the soaps also treated marriage differently:

• Weddings in EastEnders are most likely to end before they have started - 39% are called off at the altar, compared with 7% in Emmerdale and 19% in Coronation Street.
  
  
• The characters in EastEnders are most likely to experience the death of a spouse.
  
  
• Coronation Street has the greatest number of civil wedding ceremonies, and Emmerdale has the least.
  
  
• The soap that has the greatest number of Christmas/New Year weddings is Coronation Street.
  
  
• The divorce rate across all three soaps is very similar, although the statistics are considerably higher than in reality. Over five years, 39% of the soap weddings ended in divorce.

In reality, 6-10% of marriages end in divorce over a five-year period and the averarge length of marriage at which divorce occurs is 11.6 years. Recent figures suggest that more than 300,000 people will divorce this year, costing £28,000 per couple.

So that's how things go in the soaps, but in real life divorce needn't be a costly, messy business. Lawpack's Separation & Divorce Kit can talk you though the process and help you get divorced without the expense of a solicitor. Paula Jones, of Gravesend, said ‘Having used a DIY divorce kit easily, it makes you wonder what all the money we spend on lawyers goes on. It saved me a lot of money.’

Further information
Do you want a divorce?
Do you need a solicitor for your divorce?
What are the grounds for divorce?
10 tips on how to avoid a messy divorce
How to protect yourself financially on divorce
10 things you need to do after a divorce
Thousands copy Mills and do their own 'DIY divorce'