Interesting question. I must say that my current wife is probably the only one of three I "Like" as well as love.

Hello Curious Dina, most often when couples married it's because they think they are so much in Love that they cant live without him or her.Now then when after so many months it's when their true colors come out so to speak.And then either you stay with him or her because there are some things you like about them and try to ignore whatever it is that bugs you of him or her.I know because it happen to me. Yes I love my husband but didn't like him..I am a widow now.

Yes, I both love and like my spouse, most days ;-). I do not think you have real love without like.

I am sorry to say that no, I don't like her much anymore. We got married way to soon, and after almost 22 years together, I have actually grown to dislike her.

Hello Curious, yes there is a difference between liking and loving a person. There is also that thing called being in love too. My hubby and I have been married for 6 years. I like him, I love him, and I'm in love with him until he pisses me off lol. ; )

He's my best friend. I like him more than anyone else I know. We were good friends before we started dating and then some big spark got ignited and we went through that wonderful hot and heavy stage of new relationships. But after 25 years, that's gone. What's left is deep affection, still some passion, tremendous respect, and lots and lots of like.

If I had no other reason for liking my wife, it would be the following: Who else would have put up with me for the last 40 years with minimal complaints? There are many more and better reasons. She and I are not social butterflies. We have each other. We communicate about all the important things. We disagree but we don't argue. When I've been down or made mistakes, my wife was always there for me.

And ... the woman is a stone fox - always has been, always will be! That would buy a lot of forgiveness if there was ever anything I had to forgive her for.

I have only one complaint and it is petty. She never read either of the books I wrote, though she did brag about them to her friends back in the days when they were first on the market. On the other hand, I read every word she's ever had published. But I guess reading a few ten page articles isn't like reading two 125,000 word books, especially when one is in very tiny typeface and the other is about abused women, many of whom she met when she would come to my office. They were a little brash sometimes. One who is prominent in the book once told my wife that she was planning to steal me from her. But, that was the professional life I led. There was no way it could have happened and in reality, she never tried; she was just a little alpha and wanted to see what would happen.

However, during the year that I was writing and editing the books and spent all my free time locked in my office, she never made a peep. I did the same for her when she was writing. What's curious is that our major writing took place at the same time so there was little difficulty for either of us. Most of our writing took place after the kids were asleep so they didn't feel the impact of it at all.

We don't live in the past. We don't ever bring up differences we had in the past. If it happened yesterday, it was finished yesterday. No recriminations, no guilt trips and no taking emotional hostages.

Its been a wonderful forty years and hopefully, the next forty will be even better.