The only ground for divorce in the UK, in England and Wales, is a statement that the marriage has irretrievably broken down. That has been the position since 6 April 2022, when the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 came into force. You no longer have to prove adultery, unreasonable behaviour, desertion, or a set period of separation. You file a statement, the court accepts it, and the process moves forward. The same rule applies to ending a civil partnership.
Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own divorce laws. Everything below is England and Wales only.
What Changed in April 2022
The old law required you to pick one of five “facts” and prove it: adultery, unreasonable behaviour, desertion, two years’ separation with consent, or five years’ separation without consent. That framework has been removed in full. In its place is a single statement of irretrievable breakdown, which the court takes at face value. No evidence of wrongdoing is required, and neither spouse has to justify the decision.
The second change is just as important. Your spouse can no longer block the divorce. Under the previous law a respondent could contest the petition and keep proceedings running for years. That option is gone. Once a valid application is filed, the divorce proceeds whether or not the other person agrees.
Who Can Apply
Two threshold rules decide whether you can use the English and Welsh courts at all.
You must have been married for at least one year. There are no exceptions, however urgent the situation feels.
You also need a jurisdictional link to England and Wales on the day you file. Any one of the following is enough:
- You and your spouse are both habitually resident in England or Wales.
- You both last lived together in England or Wales and one of you still lives there.
- Your spouse is habitually resident in England or Wales.
- You are habitually resident in England or Wales and have been for at least 12 months before filing.
- England or Wales is your permanent home (your domicile) and you have lived there for at least six months before filing.
- Both of you are domiciled in England or Wales.
- Either of you is domiciled in England or Wales.
For joint applications the rule is a little broader: the court can take the case if either party is habitually resident in England or Wales, even without meeting the other thresholds.
What the Statement Actually Involves
Because the ground is a statement rather than a case to be proved, the application form does most of the work. You confirm that the marriage has broken down irretrievably. You do not give reasons, attach evidence of fault, or describe what went wrong. The judge is not weighing whether the breakdown is bad enough.
You will need your original marriage certificate or a certified copy. If you married abroad and the certificate is in another language, you also need a certified English translation. The application takes both spouses’ full legal names and current addresses, and you can file online through GOV.UK or on paper using form D8. The court fee is £612, with help available through form EX160 if you are on a low income or receiving certain benefits.
Sole or Joint Application
You can apply on your own or jointly with your spouse. A joint application signals that the decision is mutual and avoids one person being named as the respondent. The legal outcome is the same either way. If a joint application stops working because cooperation breaks down, you can switch it to a sole application mid-process.
What Happens After You File
Filing is the start, not the end. Three stages follow before you are legally single.
The Twenty-Week Reflection Period
Once the court issues your application, a mandatory 20-week waiting period begins. It is designed as a cooling-off window, though most people filing have already spent a long time arriving at the decision. The court will not shorten it. This is the time to work through finances, including property, pensions, savings, and debts, because the divorce itself does not deal with any of that.
Conditional Order
After the 20 weeks you apply for a Conditional Order. A judge checks that the legal requirements are met and, if they are, the court issues a certificate with the date and time the order is granted. You are still legally married at this point.
Final Order
At least 43 days (six weeks and one day) after the Conditional Order, you can apply for the Final Order. This is the document that actually ends the marriage. Once granted, you are legally single and free to remarry.
In a sole application, if the applicant does not apply for the Final Order, the respondent can apply after a further three months. The court has discretion over whether to grant it. Leaving a long gap is risky: if you apply more than 12 months after the Conditional Order was granted, the court may want an explanation and in some cases a short hearing before issuing the Final Order.
From start to finish, the fastest realistic timeline is around 26 weeks. Most divorces take longer, usually because the financial side is not yet resolved.
The Final Order Does Not End Financial Claims
This is the point that catches people out, and it matters more than the grounds themselves. The Final Order ends the marriage. It does not end your financial ties. Your ex-spouse can still bring a financial claim against you years later unless a court order specifically prevents it.
The clean break comes from a separate order. Where both of you agree on how to divide assets, a consent order sets the agreement out and a judge checks it is fair before approving it; the filing fee is £60. Where you cannot agree, a contested financial remedy application costs £313 to file and leads to a more formal process. Pensions sit inside this, not inside the divorce itself, and a pension sharing order is usually the cleanest way to split retirement savings.
The Final Order also affects your will. Once it is granted, your ex-spouse is treated as having died before you for the purposes of any existing will, so any gifts to them or appointments as executor fall away. If that leaves gaps, your estate could pass under intestacy rules in a way you did not intend. Updating your will after divorce is, in any practical sense, not optional.
If You Are in Scotland or Northern Ireland
None of the above is the law where you are. Scotland and Northern Ireland kept their own divorce frameworks, and the “no fault” statement that applies in England and Wales does not extend to them. If you are filing in either jurisdiction, you need advice specific to it.