In the first year of dating my xH... he was dealing with a 'Fatal Attraction,' type woman he had lived with prior to meeting me... his house burnt down, and then my mother was in a horrible car accident and in a coma for 6 weeks. We married a little over a year after we started dating.
It has always been my supposition that our mutual traumas caused us to 'survival bond,' and gave us a skewed impression of our emotional ties with one another.