In the contemporary western society, the increase in life expectancy and the financially independent women, and the easer divorce process legislation are factors that contribute to increase the number of separations of married couples which stayed together for many years. Aiming to investigate the motivations, feelings, expectations and implications involved in this decision, we conducted a field study in Rio de Janeiro with ten women from middle and upper economic layers of the population, who were divorced from a long time marriage. From the discourse of participants emerged nine categories of analysis: the expectation of the marriage; reasons for separation; challenges in late life separation; alternatives for coping with difficulties; reaction from children, friends and family; professional life, before and after separation; affective and sexual life after separation; evaluation of the present moment and advice about marriage. The results show that, in spite of marital mobilizing feelings of sadness, disappointment and loneliness, the participants highlighted that it offers a good second chance in one s life. However, the results indicate that when they are approaching the sixties, the process becomes more challenging. This is due to physical and psychological changes, inherent in this phase, especially because contemporary society worships youth, beauty and fitness.