conscious uncoupling

Coined by the author Katherine Woodward Thomas, popularised by Gwyneth Paltrow, who used the phrase to describe her divorce.[1]

conscious uncoupling (countable and uncountable, plural conscious uncouplings)

1. (usually humorous) Divorce or similar separation.
   • 2015, Lois Joy Johnson, The Woman's Wakeup: How to Shake Up Your Looks, Life, and Love After 50, Running Press, →ISBN:

     Most “conscious uncouplings” after 50 are initiated by financially stable women who are still working or have enough money to set out solo.

   • 2016, Andrew Humphries, Richard Gibbs, Enterprise Relationship Management: A Paradigm For Alliance Success, Routledge, →ISBN:

     Few organisations have an enterprise relationship management strategy, few have documented processes and can verbalise how relationships are created and maintained. Even fewer can describe how relationships are exited in a way that all parties remain whole through 'conscious uncoupling'.

   • 2016, Lou Schachter, Rick Cheatham, Selling Vision: The X-XY-Y Formula for Driving Results by Selling Change, McGraw Hill Professional, →ISBN, page 109:

     As product selling and solution selling split off from accelerator selling (call it “conscious uncoupling” if you like), there are two major implications.