TOM UTLEY The secret to a happy marriage It's certainly NOT five nights a month in a

Win a New iPhone 11 PRO: TOM UTLEY: The secret to a happy marriage? It's certainly NOT five nights a month in a Travelodge. By the standards of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, who celebrated their 72nd wedding anniversary on Wednesday, my wife and I are mere novices in the marriage stakes.

But, with our 40th anniversary coming up in the New Year, I reckon we're qualified to pass on a tip or two about the secrets of an enduring marriage.

I was going to write 'a happy marriage', but then, I thought this would be presumptuous. After all, 'long-lasting' and 'happy' don't necessarily mean the same thing. Indeed, I know couples who seem unable to stand each other's company (I hasten to add that Mrs U and I are not among them), yet they stay together year after year.

Enough to say that if I could peddle reliable advice on how to achieve happiness in a relationship, I'd be seriously rich.

As it is, I'll stick to what I know — or, at least, what I think I know. But more of that in a moment.

No such uncertainty appears to afflict the cut-price hotel chain Travelodge, which confidently announced this week that the key to a happy marriage is to spend five days apart from our partners every month.

Suspicious

This was the highly questionable conclusion the company drew from a survey of 2,000 people, which found that four in ten who regularly work away from their partners are 'extremely happy' in their relationships, while only three in ten of those who are together all the time make the same claim.

As for that five-days-a-month rule, the theory is that this is the optimum time to be separated. Apparently, it makes people realise how much they miss their loved ones, and more appreciative of their time together, while happiness falls away if the separation is any longer or shorter.

'Time apart is as important as time together,' says Richard Scott, 35, who regularly leaves his wife, Rebecca, at home in St Albans,

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