Adam Clayton says he’s divorcing ‘amicably’ – but is it really possible to end a marriage without conflict?

U2’s Adam Clayton and Mariana Teixeira De Carvalho have ‘amicably divorced’ – but is a harmonious spilt possible, and if so, how?

Mariana Teixeira De Carvalho and Adam Clayton recently announced that they had divorced. Photo: Donato Sardella/Getty

Liadán Hynes

Before we go even further, let’s be clear, this not me telling you to have an amicable divorce.

I wrote a book about putting your life back together after going through a divorce, How to Fall Apart, so people speak to me about their own divorces fairly regularly. And one of the things I have noticed they find most upsetting is a sense, often brought on by the unasked-for advice of others not going through a divorce, that they are not doing this right. They’re failing. Letting their kids down by not managing to have a pleasant, friendly, divorce. Conscious uncoupling was a stick with which to beat every person not achieving a separation hallmarked by the kind of sun-drenched wholesomeness we saw in Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow’s pastoral divorce announcement in March 2014.