Journalist Clive Myrie has spoken about the impact of being alone on his marriage. Clive, who has been married to wife Catherine for over 25 years, said that having spaces or interests that are your own, separate from your partner’s, can help a relationship.
Clive, 60, told the Guardian: “Figuratively speaking, at least. Having a space that’s your own; spending time alone, to bond when reunited. My wife, Catherine, has her own interests. I do, too. We celebrate out 25th anniversary this year, and each still have our own identities.”
On how his experiences of reporting on disaster zones and conflicts has affected him day to day has affected him, Clive admitted that it was “tough” and that he is aware PTSD “might hit me one day”.
He added that one of his coping mechanisms when not reporting the news is not to necessarily keep track of it: “Certain images lives with you forever, but I compartmentalise and rarely keep track of the news when I’m not working. The separation is important, even if memories bleed through.”
Clive’s discussion with the media last year wouldn’t be the last time he would discuss his relationship with his wife. Earlier this year, he talked about why they had decided not to have children together and the impact of that on them.
One the factors, he suggested, was because of how much travelling he had to do for his job and how that would not have been fair on his offspring, reports the Mirror.
He said: “It wasn’t the danger of the job, just the travelling. We felt it would be selfish on children to drag them around the world. We’ve come from big families.
“I’m from a family of seven (children), Catherine’s from a family of five kids. We weren’t desperate for some kind of familial glue. You get to the point where it’s much more difficult to have a child and then you realise, do we really want that anyway?”
Speaking to the Times about the matter, Clive revealed that he and Catherine did try at one point, but they later decided it wasn’t for them.
“We were trying for a child, nothing seemed to be happening. We gradually decided it wasn’t for us. We come from such big families, our get-togethers are always huge. We’ve led a fully and happy life and we dote on our nephews and nieces,” Clive told the publication.
Clive met his wife in 1992 at a book launch where he was one of the guests, he would later say it was “love at first sight”. Six years later, the couple got married in Covent Garden in a ceremony at the Corpus Christi Catholic Church.