When Kim Uzzell got divorced, she thought keeping the family home was the secure option.
But the divorce settlement meant her ex-husband kept her pension, while she took on the mortgage and credit card debt. Years later, she says the experience changed how she thinks about love, marriage and finances.
Kim, 55, from Norwich, met her first husband at 15. They bought their first house at 18 and married at 19, with two children following when Kim was 23 and 24.
Kim was juggling young children, a mortgage and a demanding career as a stockbroker. She began to drift apart from her then-husband, who worked as a long-distance lorry driver.
In 2010, when Kim was 39, the pair decided to separate. “We stayed together for longer than we probably should have. We felt we needed to stay together for the children and because we couldn’t afford to leave, due to the cost of childcare and the mortgage,” she says.
