subject: Grounds For Divorce In England And Wales [print this page] In England or Wales, you can only divorce once you have been married for a year. There is only one ground for divorce, which is the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage. You have to prove the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage by establishing one or more of the following facts: adultery, desertion, unreasonable behaviour, or undergoing a mutually agreed 2-year separation or a 5-year separation.
To get a divorce using adultery as the reason you need to prove, through sufficient circumstantial evidence or through your spouses admission, that your spouse has had sex with another person of the opposite sex and that you find it intolerable to continue living with your spouse. If a liaison of a sexual nature that falls short of sexual intercourse has taken place you can use the unreasonable behaviour ground to obtain a divorce. Divorces in which the name of the third party is used in the petition generally becomes more acrimonious and take longer, it is wiser to resist the temptation to name them. You have only 6 months from when you found out about the adultery to file your divorce petition with the courts.
To divorce using unreasonable behaviour as a reason you must show that your spouse has behaved in such a way that you cannot reasonably be expected to live with them. Unreasonable behaviour is the most common fact used to obtain a divorce. The petitioner sets out their allegations of unreasonable behaviour against the respondent in the divorce petition.These allegations may include having no common interests, pursuing a separate social life, heavy drinking, violence or a list of many other things. Using milder allegations in your petition can make it easier to agree a divorce petition with your spouse in advance, thus speeding up the divorce.
The least used grounds for divorce is desertion. Your spouse must have deserted you and left you to fend for yourself for at least 2 years without your prior consent.
If you and your spouse have been living apart for 2-years you can use this separation to file a divorce petition. The separation must be by consent and you must both agree to the divorce.
To get a divorce based on 5-years separation, you and your spouse must live apart for at least five years immediately prior to the presentation of the divorce petition. You do not need your spouses consent to obtain this type of divorce.
