I am getting to the age where a lot of my friends who I thought were in solid relationships are breaking up. And divorcing. The people I always counted on to be together are no longer together.

What I don’t get is – Relationships can be hard. Really, really, really hard. I love Conrad. I love him desperately. Some days are easier than others – some years are more difficult than others. We have been through times that people don’t know about, we have been through a lot of junk.

But we stay together because we don’t have a choice. We love each other so much that nothing and no-one else will do. We joke that if we split up, we’d still have to live together because we can’t live without each other.

It makes me so sad to see people deciding not to be together after decades of love and commitment, and sometimes children. I know that people have their private lives and things may not always be what they seem, but I just get confused – is our love stronger? I don’t think so. Do we just see our relationship differently?

Since day one our most important rule (there aren’t really rules…) is honesty. Brutal honesty. This has definitely helped through every situation. Rather than always questioning whether what he says is true, or hiding my true feelings, we both know what’s what. If there’s an issue, we both know about it and are both aware that it needs to get sorted. Sorting it is another issue entirely, but at least it’s all out there.

I just know we will be together, and there is not a doubt in my mind that we are both working our butts off to remain that way.