50% of marriages fail
Wilde referenced the statistic that 50% of marriages fail, using the analogy that if 50% of planes crashed, nobody would keep flying.
Snapshot · Call Her Daddy
Olivia Wilde: Dating, Double Standards & Dealing with Scrutiny
Explore episode
Jun 17, 2026
Where this was said
The Oscar Wilde Quote and Olivia's Evolving Views on Marriage
At 30:30 · chapter starts 28:20
Cooper praises the film's opening Oscar Wilde quote as a bold declaration, and Wilde clarifies it's not cynicism — it's a warning about entitlement. Marriage, she argues, too often becomes the end of actively loving rather than the continuation of it. Esther Perel's dictum that 'love is a verb' anchors the argument. Wilde brings in therapist Terry Real's observation and floats the crash analogy: if 50% of planes went down, nobody would fly. Yet people marry daily [1] — Olivia Wilde "Half of all marriages fail — so why do people keep doing it? Wilde's analogy is brutal: nobody would board a plane with a 50% crash rate. B…" 29:10 . She's not anti-marriage — she appreciates ceremony, ritual, promise. But the institution has historically been unfavorable to women, and she can't pretend otherwise. She ends with characteristic self-aware humor: knowing herself, she'll probably get married again at 85.
Marriage at 50%: Would You Board That Flight?
Half of all marriages fail — so why do people keep doing it? Wilde's analogy is brutal: nobody would board a plane with a 50% crash rate. But she's not anti-marriage; she's anti-entitlement, arguing that marriage fails when active loving becomes passive expectation.
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