Can You 'sincerely' Stay Without Being With Your Spouse For 8 Years?

In the cause of searching for greener pastures, men/women leave their spouses behind and live in different cities of the world.
I know a woman whose husband left in Nigeria for eight years before she could join him in London.
She never had an affair with any other man until she eventually joined her husband.
Do you think this is real?
Can you wait that long?