They say it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. Better still — by our estimation, anyway — is to have loved, lost, and then loved again.

That's what happened to a charming couple from a small suburb of Sydney, Australia, called Blacktown.

Mervyn and Barbara Cronan, both 68, first tied the knot in 1957, and then divorced eight years later. Then, a chance meeting in 2005 brought the two together again. The old passion reignited, and the Cronans remarried on May 13, 2006 — the anniversary of their original wedding.

To celebrate the occasion, their four children — Teena, Debbie, John, and Vicki — recently joined them and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren at a family barbecue.

"It was fantastic, having all the four kids together for the first time," Mervyn Cronan tells the Blacktown Sun.

And the two have much to celebrate. All told, the Cronan's now have a whopping 15 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren.

Added Mervyn: "You can't buy these feelings."

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But why are we telling you about it? Firstly, because the same people who host Daddy Divorce Camps are in the process of putting together a Mommy Divorce Camp. And second, because while these getaways are intended specifically to help daddies, mommies and the rest of the family are supposed to benefit as well.

For about $600, attendees receive crash courses in a range of divorce-related issues — from legal and financial, to family and child matters — along with anger management and stress reduction techniques. Workshops take place to rebuild confidence and assist in the healing and closure process. Campers can also indulge in some extracurricular activities like sports, a comedy show, and poker.

The poker skills aside, it would seem enormously beneficial for at least one member of a splitting couple, if not both, to get better acquainted with the above issues — and take an anger management course or three. Also, as long as Daddy's new confidence doesn't turn into bullying, we'd much rather be dealing with a man in the process of finding himself, than one lost in a sea of fear, anger, and self-pity.

Take the story of Xiao Li, a pint-sized 12-year-old girl from Shenyang, Liaoning Province. According to China Daily, Xiao hasn't grown an inch since her parents divorced four years ago. Poor Xiao now stands a wee 3.9 feet tall and is towered over by her larger classmates.

Apparently, Xiao has suffered from depression ever since her parents split, an ailment doctors say can affect the production of growth hormone even to the point of slowing a person's physical growth.

Now we can't confirm the accuracy or science behind any of this. But that doesn't take away from the power of Xiao's heartbreaking story. The awful truth is that divorce does tend to damage the kids, or at least affect their emotional and, it seems, physical development.

Yours truly had front row seats to a painful separation and divorce as a child which left emotional scars that may never completely heal. It's important to remember, however, that bearing witness to divorce will likely do less harm to a child than witnessing a lifetime of family dysfunction.

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Take Jermaine LaJaune Jackson, a.k.a. Muhammad Abdul Aziz, and his second wife Alejandra Genevieve Oaziaza. The two split in 2005 after nine years of marriage, from which point Jermaine's been as much help as an umbrella in a hurricane.

Alejandra's broke and taking care of their two pre-teen sons, Jaffar and Jermajesty. (Jermaine has six other kids, and Alejandra two from a previous relationship with Jermaine's littlest brother, Randy.) She's now even resorted to living with Jackson's 78-year-old mother, Katherine, and says that Jermaine is responsible for $22,741 in debts and unpaid loans.

All to which Jermaine responds: "Get in line, woman!"

"I do not object to an appropriate level of child support," is his official line, according to court documents filed Tuesday as part of their ongoing divorce proceedings. "However, the reality is that [Alejandra] has knowingly misled this court into believing that I have income which I do not. I currently do not have any employment..."

"Thus I find myself in a Catch-22 situation where while I need money, I also need to be very cognizant of what employment I do undertake so as not to degrade my market value and ability to obtain legitimate work in the future. Unfortunately (and sadly), this troubling situation is very common in the entertainment industry."

Still, it's not for lack of trying. Since April, Jermaine's been in talks to team up with La Toya and Tito to serve as judges on a CBS show about the search for the next big band of brothers. We'd watch that!

He also says that he'd be happy to watch the kids if Alejandra wants to get off her butt and get a job.

Bottom, shmottom. We're sorry to report — seriously, we really are — that things have managed to go from really bad to really, really bad for Britney Spears.

Out of patience with her ridiculous behavior, the judge in Britney's custody battle is now threatening to take away visitation rights with her kids if she doesn't pull it together.

As you've surely heard, this is the same judge who threw Kelly Ripa into an existential tailspin earlier this week by wresting custody of the kids away from Spears.

"The court expressly indicates that a missed test, refusal to submit to a test or failure to respond to the testing agency's call ... shall be deemed ... a failed test," Commissioner Scott Gordon wrote in documents released yesterday.

Gordon's ruling gives the child services monitor — who's expected to supervise Brit's visits with her boys Jayden James, 1, and Sean Preston, 2 — the power stop the show "immediately" if she demonstrates any wacky behavior.

The judge has also now mandated that Spears finish "at least three individual counseling sessions" and "at least three joint counseling sessions" with K-Fed by the next court date.

We can't say we're confident about Britney's chances here, but, as we explained earlier this week, bottoming out might be the best thing for her at this point. Judge Gordon, by all accounts, is a pretty nice guy and we're sure wants the best for Britney, too.

Awful, really. Worse though is that fact that MTV — you know, the cable channel for kids — still plans to debut Britney's new single "Gimme More" on Monday! That's so wrong on so many levels, we honestly don't know where to begin.

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Yep, Britney Spears — America's candy-coated sweetheart — has hit an (old) Elvis low at the tender age of 26. And to that we say? Super!

The girl was clearly engaged in a dogged day-to-day media campaign to ruin any credibility she had left with fans, family, friends, and, most important of all, her destiny-deciding judge. Her part conscious/part unconscious young woman on-the-verge display was a painfully off-key, glaringly obvious cry for help.

Any why not? The marriage is toast, the career is in the later stages of decomposition, Britney's brain — judging by all outward appearances — is cooked. And now, Commissioner Scott Gordon has ordered Britney to surrender her two sons, ages one and two, to ex-husband and consummate father-figure, Kevin "Pass that Shit" Federline.

With this latest development, we are now firmly encamped with that kid under the yellow bed sheets on YouTube. Enough! Leave Britney alone!

Get the girl some help and let this be the end of her nightmare, because the next stage in this highly-illogical man-made disaster follows far too closely on the red stiletto heels of Marilyn Monroe.

Remember the British grandmother we told you about several months back? The plucky 51-year-old who decided to marry Osama bin Laden's youngest son, 25 years her junior?

Well, thinks didn't work out. Under the threat of murder and the disapproval of Osama's influential Saudi family, Jane Felix-Browne has thrown in the towel and decided to divorce the 26-year-old Omar.

"We are both in fear of our lives," she tells the British paper the Sun. "It was a really, really good marriage, a strong marriage," she says. "But I cannot stand by and watch my beloved husband die before my very eyes. I love him enough to let him go. I want him and his son, who is just three, to return to as normal a life as possible.

According to Jane, Osama's family had been humiliated by their marriage, and were threatening to have Omar imprisoned in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he runs his scrap metal dealership.

In a desperate move to save their marriage, Jane, a Parish councilor from Moulton, Cheshire, wrote to Saudi Arabia's king last week for help, but has received no reply.

"I will never marry again," Jane says. "My heart will always be with Omar and I will take my love for him to the grave."

We would have loved for dear old Jane to get her happy ending. But, as Shakespeare illustrated so well in Romeo and Juliet, sometimes outside forces do triumph over — well, if not love, than at least good sex with a wealthy 26-year-old.

Charlie Sheen is seriously paying for his sins of the ‘80s at the hand of ex Denise Richards. Now the out-of-work actress is trying to take away Sheen's overnight privileges with the couple's two daughters, and airing some foul-smelling laundry to do it.

According to court papers filed by Richards this week and obtained by Access Hollywood, Sheen is still exhibiting "inappropriate behavior... and conduct," including "his attraction to underage women and his sexual explicitness on the Internet, including revealing his private parts."

Richards' criticism extends to Sheen's new fiancée, Brooke Mueller, who, according to Richards, drummed up press for her marriage with Sheen at the expense of the children. In the filing, Richards claims Sheen and Mueller told her they "did it for the press... he wanted to get the cover of People and Us magazine."

Richards even managed to bring her nanny into the action. In a declaration included in the court filing, the nanny, Diana Alvarez claims she witnessed Sheen hitting the family dogs, and threatening to hit the couple's daughter Sam. Alvarez also alleges Sheen "yells... and routinely curses" in front of the children, and "completely ignores" the youngest daughter Lola.

Just so we're on the same page, last month Richards was lambasting Sheen for his lack of discretion because of statements he made in the press. This is just more proof that basic principals of reason go entirely out the door during a nasty divorce. There is no way we've heard the last from Richards on this one, as the out-of-work actor has plenty of time on her hands to make life miserable for Sheen.

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These are just a few things that — if we were advising Britney Spears — we might suggest to distract the world from her recent "comeback" at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Sadly, though, the queen of pop, as in the sound something makes when it explodes, collapses, or "snaps," has decided to refocus her attention — and the media circus that follows her every move — on K-Fed. Terrific.

Out of the blue, Spears has called for a meeting with her grub-like ex to bring some closure to their divorce and custody settlement.

She wants to "put an end to this public debacle," a source close to Spears is telling People magazine.

Good luck with that.

True to form, the Fed is reportedly holding out for more cash. "Kevin [has] refused," the source tells People. "He needs more money so he's determined to win this."

Spears already pays Federline $20,000 a month in spousal support, but the aspiring pimp is reportedly broke as a result of 'business expenses,' according to court documents filed in August.

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That's why it's so hard to now learn — after nearly a year of silence - how Witherspoon was so completely overwhelmed by her split from fellow actor Ryan Phillippe.

"Right around Christmastime I was sitting in a parking lot and I felt like I just couldn't get out of the car," she says in the October issue of Elle magazine. "And I thought, OK, half of the parking lot has dealt with [a breakup]."

"There's this moment in Walk the Line where June Carter says, 'I was never aware of how much I was seen.' I was very aware of how much I was seen. It was this moment of self-discovery and loss of identity and who was stepping out of the car — you know?"

It's easy to recommend wearing divorce like a loose garment, but the impracticality of that exercise only hits home when we hear of someone as strong as Witherspoon wilting under the pressure.

On top of all the lawyers, the fighting and the bitterness, there's that realization that divorce has become part of your identity — ingrained in your being. Sure, Witherspoon literally had the world watching on, but divorce, as her experience shows, can overwhelm even the best of us.