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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Polly Hudson

Women cope better when their partner dies. I’ll have to go before him, out of spite

Senior couple having coffee and embracing on back porch of vacation home
Stepford wife or husband? The data says men rely more on their partners. Photograph: Posed by models; MoMo Productions/Getty Images

David Mitchell is probably the only male on the planet who could get away with defending mansplaining, so that is what he has done. “I feel there’s an unfairness to the term, which is taken to be men explaining things in a boring way to women,” he told the Sunday Times. “Because they do it to each other, and they take turns, and that’s what men call a conversation.”

In the same interview, Mitchell and his comedy partner Robert Webb are asked how each counselled and supported the other through various personal challenges. They are confused and slightly aghast at the idea that they might have discussed such matters. What do men talk to one another about, then? “Well, yes,” says Mitchell. “That’s a question [my wife] Victoria’s asked me many times. And I never really know.”

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