Divorce lawyers have the challenging task of overseeing cases involving failed love and broken trust. As difficult as it may be to witness that on a daily basis, at least there's never a dull moment in their jobs. Every once in a while, there comes a case that is just so outrageous it's hard not to become invested in it. From crazy husbands and wives to petty disputes over the most ridiculous things, divorce lawyers are never short of an interesting divorce tale. The following stories about clients who filed for divorce for the most outrageous reasons were submitted by divorce lawyers from around the world. If you don't believe love is real, these stories will further solidify your stance on that.
Don't forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!
#1 Audible Masticator
She was a loud chewer at the dinner table. He developed a complex and literally needed out as he couldn't bear to eat with her. It was like a Seinfeld B-plot: "She's an audible masticator, George. I can't handle it! I've been taking her for soft food: soup, noodles, once I told her this breakfast place had the best oatmeal in town just so she wouldn't order the french toast."
#2 Parakeet Pottymouth
He taught the parakeet certain cuss words for his wife. The parakeet lives with the man now. In her defense, if you hate certain sounds or cuss words, they can quite literally drive you to insanity. And this is a parakeet we're talking about—some of them never shut up.
#3 Super Shallow
My dad was a divorce lawyer. He had a client who wanted to divorce her husband for two reasons: 1) He did not have enough hair on his chest. 2) He did not drive fast enough. Keep in mind this was in the '70s when chest hair was a bit more important.
#4 Bathroom Fight
I’m an intern but the judge I work for used to do divorce work. He has some crazy stories but this one is probably the most outrageous, though the divorce was pretty justified. Every morning this couple would sit in the bathroom together while one of them had their morning #2. One would sit on the toilet and the other on the rim of the bathtub. This particular morning the wife was on the toilet and husband on the edge of the tub. They started to argue about their relationship so the wife started throwing things at him, while he was in a vulnerable state. He filed for divorce that same day or the next.
#5 A Hardheaded Couple
I dropped into court to visit a family friend who was a judge and had quite a treat. A wealthy area farmer and his wife were in court that day fighting about possessions and assets. The judge had enough. After briefly reviewing the history of their case, he offered the couple one last opportunity to retire to a conference room and come to an agreement. Both refused. Their lawyers were clearly as weary as the judge. The judge then asks each party which room in their house was their favorite room. She picked the kitchen and he picked his loadout room. The judge then informed them that because the matter had dragged on for so long, he was going to decide the matter of the property. She was awarded everything in the kitchen and he, the loadout room. Everything else was to be sold at auction with the profits equally divided. Then the judge told them... Now neither of you is happy, right? They clearly were not.
#6 Unwanted Custody
A colleague handled a case where money was not an issue but the kids were. Neither parent wanted them. It reminded me of my own family: my parents always told each other when they were fighting that if they got divorced the other had to keep me and my brothers.
#7 Not Worth The Ransom
She was kidnapped in Mexico and he refused to pay the ransom. Eventually, her family managed to pay and she was left on the side of the road. I don’t know how much they wanted as ransom, but it was substantial as the conversation between her family and him was how they had to liquidate investments to get that amount. She may have told me, she may not. Something in pesos and I didn’t know the conversion rate, it was all a random number to me.
This happened about 7 years ago. He wasn’t with her on the trip. She was traveling with cousins and went downstairs alone to get ice cream to wait for them to get ready. I do not know all the details. She was extremely distraught talking about it and it was not necessary to pry. It was clearly traumatic and even tough I had a million more questions I left it alone.
#8 Issues Over NASCAR
I had some friends get divorced because she legit hated Dale Earnhardt and he legit hated Jeff Gordon.
#9 Bingo And Netflix
Paralegal here. I still remember an early case I worked on: a man divorced his wife for her Bingo addiction. 10 to 12 times per week she went to bingo. She was 82 he was 86. But the all-time greatest case I ever worked on involved these two 20 somethings. They were irreconcilable because she kept watching their Netflix show without him.
#10 Gold Digger
I was a legal assistant when this case came in, but this lady divorced her husband of two months because he got her an iPad case for her birthday instead of the expensive jewelry she wanted. Obviously, there was no sympathy for the lady in this case. Everyone who knew the guy cheered him on and even threw him a party to celebrate his departure from a toxic relationship.
#11 Wedding Gone To Waste
I knew a couple who were married for only a few hours. The bride's side of the family was being disrespectful to the groom's side at the reception. He brought this up on the way to the hotel after the reception which caused a heated argument. The bride called up her family who arrived at the hotel and started a fight with the groom in the lobby. The groom called his side of the family as well. The hotel lobby turned into a screaming match field and they separated there and then. It was such an extravagant wedding. What a waste.
#12 So, So Petty
Not a divorce lawyer, but I got out of my first marriage because shortly after we got married, he decided he didn't like the way I talked and asked me not to talk when we were out.
#13 Can't Handle The Hoarding
He was frustrated by her hoarding. She was frustrated by his utter uselessness. He filed for divorce, and she was my client. Her prized possession was a room or two full of scrapbooking materials. His prized possession was a yard full of junk cars that he never worked on. They had no children and no real assets.
They hated each other more than any two people I'd ever met, and the only terms they would agree to were these: he gets the scrapbooking stuff, and she gets the cars. My client also took the house, as he had no income and didn't want it anyway. It was the shortest divorce decree I ever drafted. I intentionally squeezed it onto one page, and the judge and I had a good laugh over it.
Once the decree was signed and filed, she hauled all the scrapbooking stuff to the yard, and he removed it to the dump. She then called a junk shop I referred her to and had all of his cars removed from the yard.
#14 Joke's On Her
He got tipsy at the wedding and she did not like it. She decided to divorce him right after the honeymoon (which she went to without him). Moreover, this was all an elaborate scheme of divorce-robbery, because the guy was loaded, and so was his entire family...
They were loaded because they were a family of EXCELLENT lawyers, and he was a third-generation lawyer, with all the smarts and experience of his predecessors combined. Let's just say it did not go well for her.
#15 Justice Is Served
A son of good friends of my parents got married. They were extremely well off and bought the newlyweds a luxury home to get them started. Right after the honeymoon, she became distant, and after six months she stopped attending family events. On their first anniversary, she filed for divorce. She was in for a windfall given she would get half of the value of the house. Apparently, the look on her face when she was told the title of the house was in the name of the parents was priceless.
#16 A Misdiagnosis
My client put his wife in an assisted living facility based on a misdiagnosis. While in the facility, my client started dating another woman. He used a lot of money on his new girlfriend and other miscellaneous things. She eventually got off the medication and got better. Suffice to say, she was not happy about what had transpired.
#17 The Exorcist
Failed exorcisms. The client had an inner ear condition that caused chronic vertigo, but her symptoms could be treated with medication. The husband was an evangelical who became convinced that his wife: 1) had become possessed and that her vertigo and general crankiness with his methods were evidence of demonic possession, 2) the medications she was taking was enabling bad spirits to hide inside her, and 3) the only proper recourse was an exorcism. He would hide her meds until she got dizzy and then try various methods of exorcism. This included:
Sweating it out under layers of blankets, freezing it out with bags of ice, or surprising it out by scaring her. The final straw was that he tried to ‘surprise it out of her’ by pushing her down the stairs as they were heading out for dinner. Yeah, clearly this man was deranged.
#18 Crazy Ex
My former co-worker left his crazy wife almost 20 years ago for another woman. She has him back in court three to four times a year, yet she's been fired by like, seven attorneys and even has had a judge flat out tell her it would be in her best interest if she didn't appear in her court again.
#19 A Nutty Situation
My grandfather's brother was a judge who presided over state issue marriages from time to time. One couple he married returned six months later to "confirm" the wedding and end their trial marriage.eHE thusly informed them that there was no such thing and that they had been married for six months. They subsequently broke up.
#20 Nosy Mom
Not me, but my friend divorced her husband because his mother still coddled him at age 40, with his consent. They lived with his mother, which is common in Asia. By coddle, I mean that she would walk straight into their room after his shower and powder his back for him. They couldn’t lock their bedroom door because his mother would come in as and when she wanted. If they locked the door, she would knock repeatedly asking what they were doing.
#21 No Nightlights Allowed
I knew a guy from a high school job who divorced his wife of two months because she would sleep with a nightlight. He, on the other hand, could only sleep in total darkness. They apparently never lived together until after getting married. He hated her nightlight so much that he would often sleep on the couch instead, but sometimes he would claim the bed for himself and lock her out of the bedroom for the night.
This was an eccentric, late-40s man working at a Burger King who acted like all the other high school coworkers were his best chums, and often told us these weird stories. I'm glad I don't work with him anymore.
#22 Talking Behind His Back
A friend of mine divorced his then-wife because she would only speak French when her family would come over. She was Spanish, as was her family... To add, her family spoke English, French, and Spanish, and he could only speak Spanish and English. She got bored with being married to him—her family basically talked poorly about him whilst he was there. It was only when he recorded a conversation whilst they were there that he found out what was going on.
#23 Overfeeding The Dog
I worked as a paralegal for a divorce lawyer. Case analysis was one of my main responsibilities. I kid you not. A recently married couple of two years broke it off because the husband would not stop feeding the dog. The dog got outrageously fat. Apparently, she saw a connection between the dog and future children.
#24 Farmer In A Suit
My 90-year-old client and his son retained me to initiate divorce proceedings with his 88-year-old wife. They’d been married 60 years. The wife had recently taken to beating him with his own cane because their daughter poisoned her into thinking he was hiding money from them. The battle came down to husband and son versus wife and daughter.
At their first court appearance, my client showed up in an old 1950- style pinstripe suit and fedora. He was a farmer his whole life, and this was clearly the only suit he owned. He was such a meek and lovely old gentleman. I had to pass my client onto a new lawyer midway through the proceedings because I accepted a new job.
#25 Still Breastfeeding
I heard of a woman that had her marriage annulled because the groom insisted to bring his mother on their honeymoon. Then, on the honeymoon, the bride discovered the reason he wanted to bring his mother was to breastfeed him. Yes, the groom, a grown man, was still breastfeeding.
#26 Ruined By Gambling
Divorce lawyer here. One client filed for divorce because he owed his bookie $70,000. He didn't want to leave his wife but he figured he would get half the house in the divorce, which was worth $700,000 and pay his debts. He had already blown through their life savings by gambling. He was the worst guy.
#27 Wavering Canine Loyalties
Not me, but my friend who specializes in family law. The wife wanted to divorce her husband because he kept taking their dogs for walks while she was at work, making it (unintentionally) so they’d rather cuddle the husband instead of her after a long day.
#28 Divorce Shame
I met a divorce lawyer in India and you know what's unique for a divorce lawyer in India? Divorce! The profession didn't really exist until about fifteen years ago, and even now it's very difficult convincing people that they really do need a divorce because it's so shameful in the culture.
#29 Slowly Chipping Away
I had a client file for divorce because every morning his wife would ask him how he takes his coffee...for seven years.
#30 Too Gullable
Our client was served divorce papers for sending a couple hundred thousand dollars overseas in a scam. Actually, it was over half a million AUD. He was emailing a ‘Baltic woman’ back and forth over a period of time, and he sent the dollars totaling to the $500K. No video calling or anything, just emails.
#31 Like Ross In Friends
Not that outrageous, but our client’s wife (soon to be ex) of 20 years left him for her gym instructor, whom he introduced, and who’s also a woman. I have been made aware on numerous occasions that this happened to Ross in Friends with a lady named Carol and potentially in Seinfeld as well. I should point out, however, that this is a fairly common occurrence and frequent cause for divorces around the world. I do believe there is a study on the effects of the released hormones when working out and the similarity with hormones that cause arousal.
#32 The Worst Person
My terrible cousin told his wife she had three chances to give him a son. A daughter was born first. Strike one. A son was born second. Then, they found out the boy couldn't eat gluten. So my cousin divorced her and has made zero effort to see his kids. He would take off work and instead of spending time with the babies, he'd tell her to "Just act like I'm at work and do all your normal stuff." Then he'd watch tv all day.
#33 Too Much Make-up
The story of the couple in Algeria always gets me. The groom sees his new wife the morning after the wedding without makeup, takes her for an intruder, and proceeds to sue for over $10K for psychological trauma.
#34 Everquest Drama
not a divorce lawyer, but I had a friend whose parents divorced for irreconcilable differences over time spent playing Everquest.
#35 "Brb, Going To Get A McRib"
When I was working at the DA's office, there was a woman who had intimate relations with her son's friend. Luckily for her, the boy was of age. The awkward part was that the husband was the high school baseball coach for both of the boys. My job at the time involved going through the evidence, including all of the text messages, where they eventually decided upon divorce. The only thing I really recall is that the man interrupted the text conversation about the affair to say "Brb, going to get a McRib." The texting resumed about 40 minutes later.
#36 Karmic Justice
I knew a couple a little over a decade ago who I was close friends with. The wife wanted children and after several months of trying plus a doctor's visit later, he was found to be infertile. She filed for divorce several weeks later. Then, one random hookup later, she got pregnant from a one night stand while the proceedings were still going. He used that in the court battle and he ended up taking the majority of their possessions post-split due to her actions.
#37 Snowball The Cat
Paralegal here. A couple got divorced over a cat. The wife called the cat Snowball because of white fur and only wanted the cat to eat wet food or chicken breast. The husband called the cat Lily again because of white fur and he believed it should only eat dry food. These two argued for a year over custody of the cat but did not give a heck about their human kids aged 15 months, 4 years, and 6 years old.
#38 Motherly Pressures
I've had a lot of younger male potential clients come in for divorce consults with their mother. Then, during the consult, the mother does 98% of the talking, and it's clear who actually wants the divorce. (I'll usually escort Mom to wait in the lobby while I talk to the son directly, and most of the time he's just there to appease his mother.)
On a related note, I once had just the mother call in for a consult because she said explicitly she wanted her son to get a divorce. I politely informed her that's not how divorces worked...
#39 Find New Friends
I do my student practice at my family's law firm. A young woman filed for a divorce because her husband drank ONE drink during weekdays after a day of work. The guy wasn't violent, doing illicit substances, or anything like that. He was just a normal, polite guy who liked to have a cold one after a 10-hr shift. They were a very good couple and argued so rarely that this woman's friends told her to write down everything he did to upset her. She re-read it every day, just so she had reasons to be angry about.
My mom, a lawyer, set the woman straight, told her he was just doing what all guys did and to find herself new friends instead of ones ready to sabotage their marriage.
#40 Tupperware Dispute
This wasn't the reason, but it did happen during the course of the divorce. Neither side would follow the court orders. When they had to go back to court, they were fighting over cutlery and the man's grandmother's bowls. I assumed for weeks that these bowls were some sort of heirloom or expensive china. When they finally brought the bowls in to swap they were freaking Tupperware containers.
#41 A Big Overreaction
Not a divorce lawyer, but I used to practice criminal defense work. Once, I had a heavily pregnant client who attacked her husband (of less than a year) with an iron. The client was taken into a police cell and she was sobbing, insisting that her husband deserved it. She wanted a divorce. I asked what he had supposedly done, assuming he'd cheated or something similar. Turns out, she'd checked his phone and found a single adult website in his browsing history—from over two years beforehand... Not the most pleasant thing to discover, but hardly worth battering him half to death and demanding a divorce.
#42 In Love With His Car
y aunt had a case where the wife had glued all of the outdoor hoses together so he wouldn't spend more time washing his vehicle anymore. When the glue didn't work she just cut them all up. When he bought new ones, she filed for divorce. I guess she thought he loved his car more than he loved her?
#43 Uncomfortable Transitions
A client's husband was divorcing her because she had transitioned from a woman to a man, then back to a woman again after regretting the first transition. The husband realized he preferred men and couldn’t cope with the second transition back to a woman. They were two great people who just couldn’t make it work together.
#44 Speaking In Tongues
A divorced guy here. I divorced my ex-wife because she decided to be a super Christian that spent hours each day lying on the floor speaking in tongues. Also, she would have random conversations with former deceased relatives while doing mundane daily activities. The final straw was when I came home from work and my two-year-old daughter was in the fireplace eating ashes two feet away from her while she laid on the ground chanting and speaking in her made-up language.
#45 Enough
My great-great-grandparents had an interesting case. He was abusive, like "sell her out and then beat her for infidelity" levels of abuse. This was the 1910s, though, and in our state, you couldn't initiate divorce for cruelty. In fact, the only possible grounds for divorce was infidelity.
A few times, she tried just leaving him anyway. Once he came home from work and she, plus all eight of their kids were just gone. But he always found them, and since they were still married, he had every right to grab the kids and go back home with them.
Finally, she moved out and went to live with another man. She flaunted the new guy around town until her no-good husband got embarrassed enough to sue her for divorce on the grounds of infidelity.
Although she couldn't read or write, she put her X on those papers the minute he served her. It was a major local scandal (very Catholic community, divorce was rare), but she got what she needed to be safe.
