Two marriages. Twelve years and fifteen years. Both ended in divorce.
Somewhere around 62, a reasonable question shows up: does that mean two Social Security checks?
Sadly, no.
But the real answer is better than it first sounds, because you are not choosing between nothing and something. You are choosing between records, and you get to take the best one.
Here is how it actually works. You can be eligible on every qualifying ex-spouse's record at the same time. Social Security will look at all of them. And then it pays you the highest single amount available.
Not the sum. The maximum.
Which means a second marriage that felt like a mistake at the time can turn out to be worth several hundred dollars a month for the rest of your life, purely because that ex earned more.
Let's go through the rules, how the comparison works, and the thing you absolutely must do when you apply or SSA may never check the better record at all.