Wanted: Wife who is smarter and five years younger

HAPPINESS is ... marrying someone smarter than you – at least if you are a man.

The secret to a happy marriage for men is choosing a wife who is smarter, better educated and at least five years younger than you, say experts.

Academics have discovered that a bride should also be from the same cultural background. Sticking to the formula would increase the chances of a long and happy marriage by up to 20%, the team from the Geneva School of Business found.

The findings predict a happy future for the likes of pop star Beyonce Knowles, 28, and rapper husband Jay-Z, 39. Add in a better education for the woman – Beyonce has her high school diploma, unlike husband Jay-Z – and the chances of lasting happiness improve further.

The study, published in the European Journal of Operational Research, looked at 1,074 couples aged between 19 and 75.

The researchers concluded that a wife should be at least 27% more intelligent than her husband. She should hold a degree, while he should not. Marrying a divorced person cuts the chance of wedded bliss.

Nguyen Vi Cao, who led the research, promised: “If people follow these guidelines in choosing their partners, they can increase their chances of a happy, long marriage by up to 20%.”

The researchers studied interviews of more than 1,500 couples who were married or in a serious relationship. Five years later, they followed up 1,000 of the couples to see which had lasted.

They found that if the wife was five or more years older than her husband, they were more than three times as likely to divorce than if they were the same age.

If the age gap is reversed, and the man is older than the woman, the odds of marital bliss are higher.

However, ladies, be warned: Another study shows that being the smarter partner has its dangers. Dr Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist from the London School of Economics and Political Science, said the smarter a man is, the less likely he is to cheat on his partner.

His theory is based on the assertion that through evolutionary history, men have always been “mildly polygamous”.

That has changed today, however, and Dr Kanazawa explained that entering a sexually exclusive relationship is an “evolutionarily novel” development for them.

His findings may be of some comfort to Cheryl Cole as she deals with husband Ashley’s alleged wandering ways.

Both findings also beg the question a wife might ask herself: “If I’m so smart, why did I marry him in the first place?”