Lessons in love: how a Hong Kong marriage school can teach couples to live happily ever after
As divorce rates accelerate in Asia, the founder of a Hong Kong school teaching the secrets to a successful marriage tells us the key to wedded bliss lies in the first three years, when conflicts must be resolved before it’s too late
Patricia Graff and her sister enjoyed a happy childhood in France, where their French father and Japanese mother ran a bakery. “I grew up in sweetness,” she says.
But out of the blue, when her parents were in their sixties, her father decided to file for divorce.
“For me it was a big shock and devastating for everyone in the family. We lost a huge part of our legacy at every level. I saw how you can destroy very quickly something you’ve built for decades,” says Graff, who studied law but was working for a Japanese advertising and public relations company in Paris at the time.
Graff’s Chinese boyfriend of 10 years got a banking job in Hong Kong, but she stayed on in France with her mother, helping her move to Paris and adapt to a new life.
“For my mother it was really hard. She lost everything, she couldn’t see how her life could be or how to take care of herself,” says Graff, who now teaches couples how to be happy in marriage.
