Instead of throwing him out, setting her lawyers on him or sobbing hysterically, Laura called bullshit.

What ensued was her husband going through a mid-life crisis and Laura giving him the space to do that in his own home. By letting him have his solitude, he worked through his issues in his own mind and came back to his family.

Laura’s initial article on the ordeal was published in the New York Times last year, causing great controversy along the way. Here is an excerpt:

“Here’s a visual: Child throws a temper tantrum. Tries to hit his mother. But the mother doesn’t hit back, lecture or punish. Instead, she ducks. Then she tries to go about her business as if the tantrum isn’t happening. She doesn’t “reward” the tantrum. She simply doesn’t take the tantrum personally because, after all, it’s not about her.

Let me be clear: I’m not saying my husband was throwing a child’s tantrum. No. He was in the grip of something else — a profound and far more troubling meltdown that comes not in childhood but in midlife, when we perceive that our personal trajectory is no longer arcing reliably upward as it once did. But I decided to respond the same way I’d responded to my children’s tantrums. And I kept responding to it that way. For four months.

“I don’t love you anymore. I’m not sure I ever did.”

His words came at me like a speeding fist, like a sucker punch, yet somehow in that moment I was able to duck. And once I recovered and composed myself, I managed to say, “I don’t buy it.” Because I didn’t.

He drew back in surprise. Apparently he’d expected me to burst into tears, to rage at him, to threaten him with a custody battle. Or beg him to change his mind.”

Since then, the article has evolved into a book. Here is Laura talking about it on ABC News last week:

Is this method a revelation? Could more marriages have been saved with the same attitude? After all, in just about every argument there can come a point where you know you’ve gone too far, said too much, to ever reverse the situation. Could the same ring true with divorces?

Of course, every marriage and every break up is different, but what I love is that Laura believed in her husband enough to know that he was just freaking out. He got through it, but I wager that if she’d reacted – yelled, screamed, fought back – that we would be looking at just another divorce statistic rather than this book.

Says Zoe: “Nothing says “I’m over you” to your ex-boyfriend than hiring a Monster truck and gleefully driving over his car, or in the case of Miss ABBIE CORNISH (who recently split up with one RYAN PHILLIPPE) chopping all your hair off, dying it gigablonde and wearing a spectacular red dress (and a saucy smirk) down the red rug.”

I completely agree. Head to Primped.com to check out the photos and read the rest of the post.

Last time I broke up with a boyfriend, I went nuts on my post-break up makeover too. But unfortunately it didn’t turn out quite the way I had in mind.

I dyed my hair dark brunette, cut a short fringe in (not the best idea on semi-wavy, semi-curly hair with a perpetual cowlick in front) and stacked on close to 10kg. The dark hair made my skin look pasty and I felt like I always had to pack on the make up to compete with the drama of my locks. Awkward much?

Yeah, way to show him! I learned my lesson very quickly. Never, ever do anything that drastic until you’re truly over it/him.