This female silliness, he said, is the main thing that destroys marriages.

I agreed that staying angry too long produces nothing positive, but I wouldn't accept the word silly.

More than half of failed marriages are due to women being angry with their husbands, he said.

What about men? I asked. Don't they ever do anything wrong? He was willing to blame men for 20 per cent of divorces. Where did he get that figure, I wondered, but he was now on to women's silliness boring men so much that they seek a relationship with a new woman.

It's not only the men who get bored, I argued. And we women could just as easily go after a new guy when we are bored.

He invoked his seniority, citing long experience to assert that women have far fewer such opportunities than men as they grow older. Men may be ageing too, but they are also growing smarter and richer, he said.

Debatable, I said, thinking about several models and actresses who are getting old but are still good-looking. You shouldn't underestimate modern women.

He tried to enlighten me further. Married women should have children so they can focus on the kids rather than their husbands. This would make them less silly, he said, and their husbands might feel guilty about chasing other women if there are youngsters around.

I couldn't agree that having children might make men think more carefully about leaving his wife. They are plenty of divorces in families with children.

He insisted that women should have children if they really want to hang onto their husbands.

I countered that if my husband really wanted to find a new girl and leave me, I would prefer the divorce to keeping him around me and my children.

There is no use keeping a man who doesn't love you anymore. Having children may tell him he has a family duty, but his heart disagrees.

At least the children would make sure that the wife remains his No 1 girl, my friend said.

How selfish men are! And how desperate the women in this world are!

I prefer love, not duty. If he really wants to go, then go. Men are always trying to explain that having an affair doesn't mean they don't love their wives.

Fortunately, few women are willing to accept this.

My friend then said I would change my views as I get older.

I don’t think so. It's not our mothers day anymore. You gentlemen should not expect modern women to maintain a relationship like this forever like our mothers did, and the evidence is in the rising divorce rate.

I related the conversation to another man one of the most important men in my life and he said 90 per cent of men think like my older friend. (How men love statistics!)

But he wonders why so many women still want to stay with men who cheat on them. Modern women are better educated, more independent and better able to leave, but so often they don't.

The only answer I could offer was that women don't always seize that opportunity not because they are afraid of losing their husband's financial support, but because they are afraid of being alone.

This may be the legacy of their mothers. Maybe there aren't enough examples around of women successfully leaving their husbands and living happily ever after.

I just don't know.

But it's only fear, and once fear is overcome, there's nothing to stop a woman grabbing that opportunity for a new and better life.