Common Reasons Men Over 60 Leave Relationships

Reassessment of Life & Mortality

As people age, they often think more about how much time they have left. That can provoke questions like: Am I happy? Am I where I want to be? If what a relationship offers feels stale or unfulfilling, those questions may push someone to leave rather than stay in what feels like the familiar but unsatisfying.

Lack of Emotional Connection / Intimacy

Over years, many couples drift. Emotional closeness, affectionate expression, meaningful shared conversation, and physical intimacy may decline. When someone feels lonely inside a relationship, that can become a powerful motive to walk away.

Resentments & Unresolved Issues

Old wounds or long-ignored incompatibilities (communication, values, priorities) often accumulate. If they are not addressed, they can lead to bitterness. By 60+, many people feel less willing to “keep going” without resolution or change.

Desire for Autonomy / Personal Growth

Some men feel they’ve spent decades fulfilling roles (provider, father, husband) and subordinating their own needs. Later in life they may feel freer to focus on themselves, explore new interests, or simply live in a way that feels more authentic to who they now are (or want to be).

Health, Energy, and Practical Concerns

Ageing can bring physical limitations, health issues, decreased energy, and concerns about dependency or becoming a burden. These issues can shift priorities (e.g. wanting peace, less care giving stress).

Financial or Practical Complications

Later in life, financial security, assets, retirement concerns, or liabilities become more significant. People may worry about how staying in a relationship (or divorcing) will affect their economic well-being. Some partners have low resources, or there are fears around dependency.

Reduced Tolerance for Discomfort or Compromise

When you’re younger, you may tolerate a lot of friction, delay in change, or lack of satisfaction. By 60+, many feel “time is too precious” to endure ongoing discomfort; they may decide it’s better to leave than persevere in something that doesn’t work.

Shifting Social Norms & Lower Stigma

Divorce at older ages (sometimes called “gray divorce”) has become more common. There’s less social stigma around ending unsatisfying marriages or long relationships later in life. That can make the option of leaving more psychologically possible.

Empty-Nest & Changing Roles

When children leave home, much of the shared life is already past — routines that were family-centred change. Some couples realize their connection was largely through those roles, and without them the relationship feels different.

Psychological / Jungian Insight

From a Jungian perspective, these reasons often reflect deeper processes of individuation:

Shadow work and unmet parts of self: If throughout life a man has repressed certain desires, emotions or unexpressed parts (e.g. creative impulses, emotional vulnerability), by 60 he may feel these parts more insistently demanding recognition. If the relationship doesn’t allow them to emerge, walking away may seem like the only path toward authenticity.

Meeting the Self: Individuation involves moving toward the Self (in Jung’s sense) — a more integrated, balanced psychological center that includes unconscious material. Sometimes staying in a relationship that suppresses that process feels like an obstacle to growth.

Confrontation with the Anima / Animus: As people age, inner opposites come more clearly into focus (for example, relational/emotional qualities vs. strength/independence). Conflicts around these can push someone toward change if they can’t find harmony in the existing relationship.

Desire for wholeness and meaning: At later stages, existential questions become more pressing (legacy, meaning, death). If a relationship doesn’t support or resonate with these questions, it may be abandoned in favor of something more meaningful or more aligned with the individual’s evolving identity.