What are the reasons I can give to get a divorce?

Here are our top reasons you can give in order to get a divorce

Before you can get divorced in England or Wales:

1. You must have been married for more than a year;
2. Your marriage must be legally recognised in the UK (this includes same-sex marriage) and;
3. You must have a permanent home in England or Wales

If you don’t meet these criteria, you might be able to get a legal separation (for more information on this look here) or just wait for the year to pass then proceed with the divorce.

You might also be able to annul the marriage

What are the grounds for divorce?

The divorce laws were written at a time when attitudes to divorce were very different to how they’re perceived today. But you still have to navigate through this old-fashioned process as best you can.

To get a divorce you must prove that the marriage has broken down irretrievably for one of the 5 reasons below:

The 5 reasons are:

• Unreasonable behaviour
• Adultery
• Separation for 2 years with consent
• Separation for 5 years without consent
• Desertion

Here are some of the reasons women give for divorcing their husband because of unreasonable behaviour:

• Abusive husband
• Passive aggressive husband
• Controlling husband
• Narcissistic husband
• Alcoholic husband
• Lazy husband
• Immature husband
• Hate my husband and want a divorce
• His family
• Borderline husband and wants a divorce

For unreasonable behaviour, you will need to produce evidence with examples.

Here are some of the reasons women give for divorce because of adultery:

• Having an affair
• Getting another woman pregnant
• Unfaithful husband
• Cheating husband

For expert advice on a range of family law matters, visit our free family law advice hub.

Gathering Evidence with ONRECORD

It is important to start gathering evidence to help you with your case. Find out more about how ONRECORD’s online evidence gathering tools can help you.