Mission matchmaker: Real-life ‘Hitch’ takes Dubai lovebirds to task over relationship mistakes.

World-renowned author of 20 books, Hellen Chen, spills the secrets on why divorce rates are on the rise in the UAE and the biggest blunders committed by single men and women

By Bindu Suresh Rai ( Emirates247.com )
Published Friday, May 31, 2013

As a kid once, perhaps my biggest unchecked joy was the ability to lead a life of blissful ignorance, when matters of the heart were all but a twinkle in the eye of what lay in wait of a very complex teenage existence and pretty much the sum of my adulthood.

Back then, a numbers game was the inability to process most of my algebra homework or the results on a test sheet that could swing either way depending on the previous day’s failed attempts at staying awake through revision.

Today, a number is the very nucleus of a relationship mantra according to a world-renowned matchmaker, who aptly sweeps aside the Mars and Venus theories to take a crack at the complexities of relationship which ravaged Dubai residents.

Confused? As was I when ‘Matchmaker of the Century’ author, Hellen Chen, spoke about the correlation between numbers and the increasing incidences of residents over 30 here, green lighting a singles lifestyle, while newly married couples were winding up in divorce quotes within a year of their nuptials...