I just finished talking with my friend and she took a break from her BF of 4.5 years about 5 weeks ago (they're still on break). She told me that she decided she needed a break and that very same day she met her BF and told him they need to go on break.

However, he is talking about marriage turning into divorce so I guess the dynamics are quite different and I haven't been married yet so I can't really comment on it from that point of view.

I can say that my parents were seperated 2 or 3 times before getting married and filed for divorce after a year of marriage (never went through with it) and they have been married for 33 years now.