A Marriage Made in Hell

Why is it that some of the world’s worst marriages last on and on like the Energizer Bunny?
Here’s one for example:

Posy and Jacques, her French husband, have been married now for 18 years. They met when Posy was researching an article on where to stay in the Bahamas for a travel magazine and Jacques was managing a four star resort and aggressively looking for a fifth star.
Moving to the city from an adjacent state,Posy had attended a two year college in New York. Three days into her first semester at age 18, she began a five year affair with a 60 year old married professor. When he dropped dead of a heart attack, her family actually celebrated. She bounced back quickly, and immediately took up with another married guy, the editor of a major travel magazine. By and by his wife discovered the tryst, and the editor offered Posy a long-term assignment in the Caribbean.
Not being one to waste any time, her first night in the Bahamas she sidled up to Jacques at the hotel bar and accepted his invitation to sleep with him in the manager’s suite. Jacques was a mere ten years older than she is, and single, not her usual fare, but he was French and handsome. Besides, she got to pocket the expense money from the magazine by staying with him. Three months later, they were married on the beach and he was well on his way to getting the Green Card he coveted. Her parents were relieved that he was younger than them and had never been married to anyone except their daughter. Which they knew because they paid to have a background check done on him.

Posy now works for an Asian luxury hotel chain and travels 40 weeks of the year, maintaining long term relationships with boyfriends in three different Asian cities. Jacques is CEO of a consulting business he set up a half dozen years ago in their suburban basement, attempting to place professional hotel managers at luxury resorts. So far he has had two or three interested clients, but no interest from the hotels. So, while he and Posy wait for his business to take off, he has started a small French language private tutoring institute in his home. He students are mostly the stay at home wives of wealthy Korean and Japanese businessmen. One of his students recently gave birth to a Eurasian child, a clone of Jacques, which despite the mother’s entreaties, Jacques insisted was not his. Her husband sent her and the baby packing back to her family in Korea. This was fine with Jacques, because his true love is the gorgeous young wife of a Japanese comic book publisher. But, he’s not leaving Posy, even for his true love. Hey, he has his Green Card, and no wife around most of the time to bother him. She makes hundreds of thousands a year and he never has to sleep with her. Did we mention that as she has aged she has begun to closely resemble Kermit the Frog?
Posy consulted with a big time divorce attorney to explore leaving no-job Jacques, but her parents went ballistic. They told her that since Jacques has zero income, she’d be paying him alimony forever if they split.
So the blissful marriage lives on. And you could definitely say this lovely couple deserves one another.