My marriage broke up a year ago. I was married a very long time. I had a wife. It annoys the hell out of me when people refer to her as my ex-partner. What the fuck did we have? A business arrangement? I get marriage isn't so prevalent any more but I had a wife dammit! She was so much more to me than a dry clinical PC term like "partner" could ever describe. It just seems to trivialize the deepest relationship and connection you can have to me. When people ask how long my partnership lasted I usually say I never had a business but my MARRIAGE lasted 30 years. If you're offended I don't care. Marriage is a term of commitment, implying to me anyway a lifelong effort. Partnerships can and will end abruptly. It seems cynical to me to apply such a bland term to something that involves a huge investment of energy time and love.