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Want more sex? Try getting divorced

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Contrary to popular belief, divorcees get more sex than either married or single people, according to a survey of British bedroom habits.

Not only that, but retirees get more action than those still at work, the UK’s Daily Telegraph reported.

The astonishing results, from a survey of more than 1800 Britons commissioned by the UK’s Stella magazine, showed that 11 percent of divorcees had sex more than 21 times a month, almost twice as much as married people and more than any other group, including cohabiting couples and single people.

The online survey also found that that 22 percent of men over the age of 55 had taken the impotency drug Viagra and that 37 percent of women owned a sex toy.

Trust was said to be the most important part of any relationship, beating off competition from companionship, humour and financial stability, with sex in a lowly fifth place.

“There is a lot of rebound sex among divorcees, a sense among men perhaps that they are now ‘off the leash’,” said Rosie Campbell, a social psychologist with consultancy Campbell Keegan.

“When you consider that anyone reaching retirement age now will be a baby boomer who is fitter, more active and wealthier than previous generations at the same age, it is hardly surprising they are having more sex,” she said.

“[English poet] Philip Larkin said sex was invented in 1963, so anyone retiring now is likely to be much less embarrassed about sex and not willing to accept a decline with age.”

The survey also found that on average married couples have sex nine times a month, that 34 percent of Britons said that the best sex of their lives was between the ages of 25 and 34.

Twenty-five percent of people had been unfaithful, with 29 percent of men and 21 percent of women admitted to having had an affair. Those aged 18 to 24, on the other hand, were much more faithful with only 10 percent confessing to cheating.

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Keeping vegetables fresh

Question: Some of my fruit and vegetables seem to wilt rapidly when I put them in the fridge. How do I stop this?

Not all vegetables and fruit need to be kept in the fridge; some are cold sensitive, others can lose much of their moisture. If fruit and vegetables are to be refrigerated, cool them first in the refrigerator, then place into paper bags or perforated bags; this reduces sweating a moisture loss.

Keep leafy and root vegetables, including silver beet, broccoli, carrots and parsnips, in perforated plastic bags, to reduce shriveling or wilting due to water loss. By removing leafy tops from carrots, parsnips, turnips and beetroot, their storage life can be extended by weeks in the refrigerator.

Some fruits and vegetables, such as citrus fruits, passionfruit, cucumbers, capsicums and eggplants lose their moisture once refrigerated and start to wilt; wrapping them in plastic will help prevent this.

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Brad and Ange: Back in the game

Brad and Ange

The couple act like sweethearts in front of thousands of spectators at the Super Bowl.

It’s the game that stops a nation, but Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie managed to almost steal the show with a spectacle of their own, kissing and hugging in front of a stadium of spectators at Super Bowl XLIV in Florida last week.

Apparently keen to put an end to reports of an imminent split, the couple repeatedly embraced close to the window of their VIP skybox after flying to the event separately.

Brad – who spends a lot of time doing relief work in disaster-struck New Orleans – only pulled himself away from Ange to cheer on the city’s team, the Saints, as they won the game. But it seems that not everyone was convinced.

“Brad and Angelina are trying to show that they’re in sync with each other and happy to be together, but to me this feels contrived and exaggerated,” body language expert Toni Coleman told US magazine Star.

“In my opinion, you could tell these are two actors. Angie was doing the ‘movie-star-we-are-in-love’ kiss.”

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Katie escapes Tom

Katie Holmes

Amid growing pressure to have a second child, Katie Holmes ditches her wedding ring, her diet and her inhibitions with friends her own age. Matthew Denby reports on how she’s finally broken free.

There is suddenly something very different about Katie Holmes, and it isn’t just that her wedding ring has been nowhere in sight of late. With her husband Tom Cruise and his security guards and Scientology minders no longer a constant presence, she’s smiling again – and friends say the old Katie is back.

In the two weeks since she was seen arriving, grim-faced, at an LA medical centre amid talk Tom, 47, has been asking her to have a baby, Katie’s life appears to have changed beyond all recognition.

The 31-year-old has shed her husband’s restrictive world, driving herself around LA without any staff three times in the past week, and hitting the Sundance Film Festival on her own, partying with friends her own age, and drinking and eating to her heart’s content.

With Tom tied up with his film Knight And Day, Katie was relishing time out to be herself as she hit Park City, Utah, for the festival.

“She was relieved Tom couldn’t come. She felt liberated,” a friend of the actress told US magazine Star. “That’s why she partied so hard. Tom keeps her on such a short leash she can feel suffocated. But without him there to restrain her, she was a whole different person. There was definitely a vibe of ‘the leash is off, let’s party’.”

But it wasn’t just Katie’s relaxed mood that drew attention – according to reports, she was not wearing her wedding ring during the visit, and the tipsy actress was seen flirting with her The Romantics co-star Adam Brody, 30.

“Katie and Adam really bonded on set, and were excited to hang out,” says one report. “Katie looked like she was flirting with him, standing really close, touching his arm a lot.”

While Tom’s Scientology religion frowns on heavy drinking, a giggly Katie was seen enjoying red wine and champagne as she hit the party circuit, putting an end to any speculation that she’s pregnant.

In scenes that would give security-minded Tom a heart attack, Katie went out on the town alone and mingled freely with fans.

“She shocked everyone by calling off the heavy protection and making a low-key exit after a press call for her movie,” a festival source told Life & Style magazine. “She even posed for pictures and chatted with fans.”

Sporting a healthy new glow to go with her smile, once super-skinny Katie seems to have left behind the strict diet and exercise regimen that’s marked her marriage to Tom.

One staffer at Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Park City says, “Katie came in by herself, sat down at the bar and ordered a nice bottle of red wine. She ordered calamari and raved about the batter. Then she ordered steak and mashed potatoes, saying she wanted a really substantial meal to fend off the cold.”

Katie returned home a changed woman.

Your say: Do you think Tom holds Katie back? Share your thoughts below.

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Johanna Griggs: How love saved me

Joh Griggs

The TV host is happier than ever despite divorce, near financial ruin and no more babies. Katherine Chatfield reports.

The warmth of that sunny smile says it all. Life has turned full circle for Johanna Griggs since her dark days as a lonely single mum who struggled to pay the bills and provide a home for her two sons.

At 36, the Better Homes and Gardens host is on top in her career, deliriously happy in her marriage to Todd Huggins, and grateful that the pain of her divorce from her first husband, actor Gary Sweet, is finally in the past.

Joh cries when she talks about the moment she knew Todd, a big teddy bear of a man, was the one she wanted to spend her life with. When she got home from a three-week assignment in Italy in 2005, she learned Todd had visited her sons, Jesse, now 14 and Joe, 13, every day she was away, helping them with their homework and kicking a ball around the backyard.

“It floored me,” Joh recently revealed in a telling interview.

“I said, ‘Why would you do that?’ And he said, ‘Joh, I already know I want to be with you but I don’t want the boys to think I only want to be with you. I want them to know I want to be with them as well.’”

Todd, a builder, is the foundation she has built her new life around: he is her rock and a second father to Jess and Joe, whom he dotes on and treats as his own sons.

“He’s just been this incredible strength and stability for all of us,” says Joh. A former Commonwealth Games swimmer, Johanna was just 20 and a fresh face on television when she fell “madly in love” with Logie-winning actor Gary.

Charismatic and nearly two decades older, he swept Joh off her feet and she became the third Mrs Sweet in 1994. But their marriage broke down just three years later.

Joh has never gone public on the reasons behind their bitter split but recently, 12 years after they parted, she told the(sydney)magazine, “I think [Gary] likes the idea of everything, he wants the normality, but the reality of that is hard for him.”

At 24, Joh was a single mum of two toddlers, broke as well as broken-hearted after being sacked from her dream job by the Seven Network during the troubled marriage.Unable to afford to live in her own home yet desperate to keep it, she moved back in with her parents.

Despite her world crumbling around her, she didn’t give up – even setting herself the task of losing the more than 20 kilos she’d carried since her last pregnancy. Then, she bravely began the climb back to a career in television – and another chance at love.

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Pauline Hanson says goodbye Australia

Pauline Hanson

Out of politics, and out of here, the former One Nation leader tells Glen Williams why she’s packing her bags.

Pauline Hanson sits serenely on her Queensland verandah and drinks in an inspiring view. It’s from this cool, polished deck she’s found a much-yearned-for peace in the midst of many turbulent years. After all, this is home. She built it, poured her soul into it.

Today her mood is part melancholy, part excitement. She is no stranger to conflicting emotions. Ultimately, she follows her heart.

And that’s precisely what this iconic copper-haired Aussie battler turned politician has decided to do. The packing cases in the corner of her lounge room are a dead giveaway.

After much soul searching, Pauline is moving on. She’s selling her property at Coleyville, south-west of Brisbane, and leaving Australia. She plans to take a cruise, then settle in New Zealand’s South Island for a few months, before relocating to the United Kingdom.

Wherever the wind takes her, Pauline knows one thing for sure: after deregistering Pauline’s United Australia Party, she is bidding farewell to politics for good.

“We never know what’s around the corner,” Pauline says, explaining her decision to leave Australia. “I’m 56 this year. So, while I’ve still got my health, I want to get out there.

“I’ve been tossing up whether to sell this place or not. It’s not an easy decision, I’ve loved it here. But it’s a lot of work for a single person and I think it’s time for me to move on.”

So why is she leaving the country she spent so long trying to help shape through politics?

“I know I will never be given a chance to re-enter Parliament again,” Pauline explains.

“Our governments lack enough people with the fortitude to speak up without fear or favour. Over-regulation, increasing taxes and lack of true representation are affecting our way of life. I feel very much for the young ones. Once it was common for them to own their own home. Not now. It’s a harder place. Sadly, the land of opportunity is no more applicable.

“Plus, there are a lot of things I want to do,” she adds. “Every country has something unique to offer. And I want to experience that, to live it, and not just for a brief time.

Your say: What do you think about Pauline leaving Australia?

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Susie Maroney pregnant and trapped

Susie Maroney

Woman’s Day reveals the shocking court records detailing the violent criminal past of the man Susie plans to marry. Naomi Toy and Jonica Bray report .

After years of tragedy and heartbreak, marathon swimmer Susie Maroney has pinned her hopes of lasting happiness on a man who whisked her off her feet and declared she was his “soul mate’’.

But this man – Darren William Anthony May – looks set to be the source of further agony in Susie’s life as fresh details emerge about his violent criminal past.

Woman’s Day can reveal the crimes which saw him jailed for 12 months involved threatening to kill his then estranged wife, Kylie May, and engaging in a campaign of abuse and harassment against her.

His war of hate against Kylie including threatening to hurt her family and smash up her mum’s home with a baseball bat; kicking down a locked door in front of his children and beating their mother’s new boyfriend with a vase; and calling Kylie’s phone more than 140 times in one day.

For now, Susie, 35, is doing what many loyal, lonely and lovesick women do – she’s standing by her man.

Yet those close to the two believe it is more a case of her being stuck with him. Sources close to the couple claim Susie is pregnant with Darren’s child, which is why he popped the question after only an eight-week courtship.

“I have heard from people in Cronulla that Susie is pregnant,” reveals one insider, who’s known Darren for more than a decade.

“A lot of people have been talking about it. It would make sense as to why they are rushing things.

“I understand they are happy about it, but they are not happy that Darren’s background has been made public. I don’t think he has told her all about his past and it’s not a great way to start a relationship. It was so quick, the way that they were engaged.”

Another source, who lives near the couple, claims speculation is so rife that Susie is pregnant that people are already waiting to see hints of a baby bump emerge on the svelte swimmer’s frame.

Susie herself revealed recently that she is already planning to have children with her new fiancè, admitting, “It’s something we both want so much.”

But a family friend says not everyone is thrilled by the developing relationship. “I’ve heard Pauline [Susie’s mum], is not happy that she’s pregnant or marrying Darren – and that has come about after hearing about his criminal background,” the friend says.

Just a few weeks ago, Susie looked to be the happiest she’d been in a long time, kissing and hugging Darren for the world to see around Cronulla, the Sydney beachside suburb where she lives.

But days after going public with their whirlwind romance, it was revealed Darren had a criminal past, serving two separate stints in jail, the most recent for assault, breaching an AVO and stalking.

Your say: What do you think about Susie’s situation, do you feel sorry for her?

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Love ‘can survive’ long-term relationships

Sexy seniors are happier

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No matter how vigorously retailers push red roses and cheesy cards, Valentine’s Day is generally treated with disdain by anyone over the age of 25.

But it seems it is not just the expectations of expensive presents and romantic platitudes older people abhor. Countless studies have shown that many people believe that romantic love fizzles the longer a couple has been together. After 10 years of marriage, couples supposedly feel more like friends than lovers and are likely to get unhappier as the years go by.

As Oscar Wilde wrote: “One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.”

But a 2009 study from New York’s Stony Brook University has found that, contrary to popular belief, long-term relationships don’t kill romantic love.

Study leaders Dr Bianca P Acevedo and Dr Arthur Aron surveyed a wide cross-section of people who had been married for 10 years or more, as well as groups of students and other young people in newer relationships. The interviewees were quizzed about their feelings for their partner, how those emotions had changed over the course of the relationship, their self-esteem, and how they felt about life in general.

Surprisingly, the majority of the married people reported a high level of romantic love, disproving theories that such emotions are impossible in long-term relationships.

“Contrary to what has been widely believed, long-term romantic love (with intensity, sexual interest and engagement, but without the obsessive element common in new relationships) appears to be a real phenomenon that may be enhancing to individuals’ lives,” the researchers wrote in Review of General Psychology. “[It is] positively associated with marital satisfaction, mental health and overall wellbeing.”

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Kate Middleton chooses sheltered Lady Louise, 7, as bridesmaid

William and Kate: How happy will they be?

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Kate Middleton has asked Prince Edward’s seven-year-old daughter, Lady Louise Windsor, to be her bridesmaid.

Kate is set to marry Prince William, the second in line to the British throne, on Friday, April 29, and Louise is the first girl to be asked to accompany the bride down the aisle.

Related: The making of a modern princess

The wedding will be a rare public outing for Louise, who has been kept out of the spotlight by her parents Edward and Sophie because she was born with exotropia, a rare condition that causes a severe squint.

Louise is said to be “ecstatic” at the invitation to be a bridesmaid, and is eagerly anticipating the big day.

“Sophie and Edward are both really pleased to see how happy this has made Lady Louise,” a royal source told the UK’s Daily Mail. “She really is the loveliest, kindest, little thing.

“Edward and Sophie have always been terribly protective of her but she is now at school. They know she is going to have to get used to being in the limelight.”

Related: Prince William announces his engagement

William, 28, and Kate, 29, are also believed to have asked Viscount Linley’s eight-year-old daughter Margarita and their friends Rose Astor and Hugh Van Cutsem’s three-year-old daughter Grace to be bridesmaids.

Kate’s 26-year-old sister Pippa will reportedly be the maid of honour, bringing the total number of bridesmaids to four.

Your say: Do you think Prince Edward and Sophie have made the right decision allowing Lady Louise to be Kate Middleton’s bridesmaid when she has been so sheltered for most of her life?

Video: Royal wedding fever strikes the UK

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Olivia Newton-John tops sexiest song list

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If you’re stumped for a love song to play for your sweetheart this Valentine’s Day, fret no more. Billboard has published a list of the 50 sexiest songs released since 1958 based on popularity. And it is our very own Olivia Newton-John who takes the cake.

Her 1981 hit ‘Physical’ took out the top spot followed by Rod Stewart’s ‘Tonight’s the Night (Gonna be Alright)’. It is not until 10th spot, with another Stewart classic ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’, that the word ‘sex’ is even mentioned.

Making up the top five was Boyz II Men’s ‘I’ll Make Love to You,’ Next’s ‘Too Close’ and Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get it On’.

And in case you were wondering, the love god Barry White doesn’t even make the list.

Here is the top 50

  1. Foreigner, ‘Urgent’

  2. Cyndi Lauper, ‘She Bop’

  3. Ray J and Yung Berg, ‘Sexy Can I’

  4. Adina Howard, ‘Freak Like Me’

  5. Cassie, ‘Me & U’

  6. Tone-Loc, ‘Wild Thing’

  7. George Michael, ‘I Want Your Sex’

  8. Donna Summer, ‘Dim All the Lights’

  9. Prince, ‘Raspberry Beret’

  10. Johnny Gill, ‘Rub You the Right Way’

  11. Juvenile featuring Soulja Slim, ‘Slow Motion’

  12. Roberta Flack, ‘Feel Like Makin’ Love’

  13. Sylvia, ‘Pillow Talk’

  14. Def Leppard, ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’

  15. R Kelly, ‘Bump N’ Grind’

  16. Poison, ‘Unskinny Bop’

  17. Marvin Gaye, ‘Sexual Healing’

  18. Donna Summer, ‘Love to Love You Baby’

  19. Labelle, ‘Lady Marmalade’

  20. Peter Gabriel, ‘Sledgehammer’

  21. Missy Elliott, ‘Work It’

  22. The Pointer Sisters, ‘Slow Hand’

  23. Heart, ‘All I Want to do is Make Love to You’

  24. Usher featuring Young Jeezy, ‘Love in this Club’

  25. Karyn White, ‘Romantic’

  26. Akon featuring Eminem, ‘Smack That’

  27. R Kelly, ‘Ignition’

  28. Bell Biv Devoe, ‘Do Me!’

  29. Silk, ‘Freak Me’

  30. Gregory Abbott, ‘Shake You Down’

  31. Starland Vocal Band, ‘Afternoon Delight’

  32. 50 Cent featuring Olivia, ‘Candy Shop’

  33. Monica, ‘The First Night’

  34. Anita Ward, ‘Ring My Bell’

  35. Nelly Furtado featuring Timbaland, ‘Promiscuous’

  36. Toni Braxton, ”You’re Makin Me High’

  37. Color Me Badd, ‘I Want To Sex You Up’

  38. Donna Summer, ‘Bad Girls’

  39. Lil Wayne, ‘Lollipop’

  40. The Rolling Stones, ‘Honky Tonk Women’

  41. Rod Stewart, ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’

  42. Exile, ‘Kiss You All Over’

  43. Madonna, ‘Like a Virgin’

  44. Captain & Tennille, ‘Do that to Me One More Time’

  45. Donna Summer, ‘Hot Stuff’

  46. Marvin Gaye, ‘Let’s Get it On’

  47. Next, ‘Too Close’

  48. Boyz II Men, ‘I’ll Make Love To You’

  49. Rod Stewart, ‘Tonight’s the Night’

  50. Olivia Newton-John, ‘Physical’

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