Would you welcome the DIVORCE REVOLUTION?

Around 100,000 couples divorce every year, with spouses still forced to go into battle. But it could finally be time to end the blame game

Anyone who’s been through a divorce will tell you it’s one of life’s more stressful events. It can be costly, lead to the loss of your home, and make you anxious about your now uncertain future. Yet, if that wasn’t enough, right now you can’t divorce in the UK without one of you taking the blame. One spouse has to allege adultery, unreasonable behaviour or two-years desertion on a marriage petition, rather than say it simply didn’t work out.

This ‘blame game’ culture can act like a grenade to an already delicate situation, super-charging hostility between a couple, while also discouraging people from leaving unhappy or abusive marriages. Plus, the damage done to children caught between warring parents can be irreparable.

Yet a new bill, backed by the House of Commons and Lords, is paving the way for ‘no fault’ divorces. Under The Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Bill, which is in the latter stages of discussion and could come into being next year, a spouse will only need say the marriage has broken down irretrievably, making proceedings fairer and easier, while a new option will allow divorcing couples to jointly apply. A handful of critics are concerned it’ll trigger a spike in divorce rates, yet a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said, ‘When divorce cannot be avoided, the law must not create conflict between couples that so often harms the children involved.’ Woman speaks to one divorcee who welcomes this divorce revolution.

Of divorces in 2018, 46% of opposite-sex couples and 76% of same-sex couples cited unreasonable behaviour as the reason.