Estranged wife is asking for ‘divorce on demand’

DIVORCE on demand could become law if a woman succeeds in escaping her “loveless” marriage, the Supreme Court has heard.

Tini Owens, 68, has been barred from divorcing her husband Hugh, 80, because his behaviour was not sufficiently bad to meet the requirements of the law.

Mr Owens’s lawyer told a panel of judges that widening the interpretation of the law to allow her appeal “would amount to divorce on unilateral demand”.

Mrs Owens has attempted to split from her husband of 40 years on the grounds that his behaviour meant she “cannot reasonably be expected to live with [him]”, one of the grounds for divorce under British law.

But Mr Owens insisted the couple could stay together and in 2016 a family court judge ruled that allegations that he focused too much on work, did not

‘[Mrs Owens] is seeking, in effect, to change the law and introduce divorce on unilateral demand’

provide her with attention or affection, and was “unpleasant and disparaging” towards her, comprised “minor altercations of a kind to be expected in a marriage” and not serious enough to grant her a divorce.

The case has prompted family lawyers to campaign to allow “no-fault” divorce. Last year Court of Appeal judges ruled against Mrs Owens, but criticised the law.

Philip Marshall QC, who leads Mrs Owens’s legal team, told justices at the Supreme Court yesterday that a “modest shift” of focus in interpretation of legislation was required.

He argued that the judge in the original case, His Honour Judge Tolson, had focused too much on whether Mr Owens’s behaviour was objectively unreasonable, as opposed to his wife’s experience of it. The judge did not have enough regard for the “impact upon Mrs Owens”, he said.

But Nigel Dyer QC, leading Mr Owens’s legal team responded: “[Mrs Owens] is seeking, in effect, to change the law and introduce divorce on unilateral demand.”

The court reserved judgment for a later date.