We\'re closer since we got divorced

They couldn\'t stand each other when they were married, but now these couples share holidays, dates and heart-to-hearts... Suzy Ashworth is a divorce consultant who works for National Family Mediation — an organisation encouraging divorcing couples to make their own arrangements about property and children. She says many are keen to remain friends after divorce — and cites her own relationship with her ex-husband as proof. ‘With rising costs many couples are keen not to go to court and  to keep costs down,’ she says. Suzy and her ex-husband Julius Stobbs divorced in 2009 after seven years of marriage. They are so close that Julius has a key to Suzy’s home, which she shares with her new partner, lawyer Simon Bethel, 38. ‘Julius and I still love each other, even though we’re not in love with each other,’ she says. ‘I know if I was in any kind of trouble, Julius would move heaven and earth to help me.’ Suzy and Julius met at Cambridge University, where they studied law, and married in 2002. Their daughter Faith, now seven, was born in April 2004. It was when Faith fell catastrophically ill the following year that problems began.