Marriage Quote by Geraldo Rivera

A journalist asking to "give divorce a good name" is less a personal confession than a media-era mission statement: rebrand the thing everyone whispers about as something you can say out loud without flinching. Rivera’s phrasing borrows the language of PR and politics - “give it a good name” - as if divorce were a maligned public figure in need of a better press cycle. That’s the tell. He’s not arguing the legal mechanics; he’s arguing the story we tell about it.

The intent is corrective, even crusading. Divorce, in the cultural imagination Rivera grew up in, often functioned as a moral failure stamped onto a family’s forehead. By treating it as a reputational problem, he’s implying the stigma is the real villain, not the separation. The subtext is familiar to anyone who’s watched daytime talk culture: if you change the narrative, you change who gets blamed. “Good name” suggests dignity for people who leave, permission for people who stay friends, and an alternative to the old script where someone must be the sinner.

Context matters: Rivera’s career sits in the long shift from mid-century propriety to tabloid candor, from keeping private life behind curtains to broadcasting it as public debate. Coming from a journalist, the line carries a wink of self-awareness: he knows headlines and framing shape what society decides is shameful. It’s also a little self-serving, as rebrands often are - an attempt to launder personal choices through cultural progress. That tension is why it lands: it’s advocacy and image management in the same breath, a modern American double exposure.