I agree that they overcame many obstacles that would have prevented most people from ever even getting married. I also agree that they had a powerful bond. But I would argue that their bond was mostly mental, like friendship.
There's usually an age disparity in sexual relationships [1] and I would argue that this is because men in general prefer slightly younger women. The fact that Mileva was born 4 years before Albert already makes their relationship highly uncommon (around 1 out of 30 couples).
So maybe Albert married her because she was reliably, intelligent, and had a great character. But that doesn't mean that she had to be in line with his sexual preferences, which then would make it likely that they'll eventually get bored of each other.
I would argue that this is because men in general prefer slightly younger women.
It takes two to tango. Your assumption de facto dismisses the choice of the woman in the relationship, as if her opinion is irrelevant.
I think there are multiple factors involved in that trend, one of which is that women tend to be more socially savvy than men. I think women tend to prefer men who are a little older because, on average, a man needs to be a little older to have a similar level of social savvy and this is a critical detail for a personal relationship.
There are other things in your comment that I don't agree with. But I don't care to elaborate, so this is where we get to "agree to disagree" I guess.
Thank you for actually discussing the details of the article with me.
There's usually an age disparity in sexual relationships [1] and I would argue that this is because men in general prefer slightly younger women. The fact that Mileva was born 4 years before Albert already makes their relationship highly uncommon (around 1 out of 30 couples).
So maybe Albert married her because she was reliably, intelligent, and had a great character. But that doesn't mean that she had to be in line with his sexual preferences, which then would make it likely that they'll eventually get bored of each other.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_disparity_in_sexual_relati...