One version of that story (PPL and never again) will go along the lines of the applicant trying to fulfil his "life long dream" with a resigned wife tolerating the training in an "if you must" attitude with the clear idea that the same guy who can't hang up a picture straight or fix the broken toilet flush at home will anyway never graduate.
Then he does... shock, horror. And she will go and fly with him after having nervous breakdowns each time they fly airline to the canaries and come back down a nervous wreck, doing a JP II on the tarmac and voting with her refound feet never on the pain of death coming close again to one of these infernal machines. Followed by nagging on cost, "time you could spend with me", e.t.c and that was it...
Seen it in variants, over and over again. So before folks should start spending serious cash on flight instruction, a good idea will be to get their partners on board, possible organize a flight with friends or other people to see if once they have their ticket, they will share the passion. If not, walk away (either from flying or....)
I'm lucky that I never had this problem in my life. My former relationship got into flying herself eventually, my wife enjoys our plane and even my mother enjoyed the few times she flew with my then ride (C150).
On the personal side, getting the PPL should be a means to an end, not an end to the means. Getting a license for the sake of that, well, the result is predictable. Getting it in order to fly, to travel, to do things, they may look differently.