You can get a marriage annulled when something was legally wrong with it at the moment of the ceremony — bigamy, incest, underage marriage without proper consent, mental incapacity, duress, fraud about something essential to the marriage, or a permanent inability to consummate. Annulment declares that a valid marriage never existed in the first place, which is why the defect has to trace back to the wedding itself rather than to anything that went wrong later. If you want to end a marriage that was valid when it started but has since broken down, you need a divorce, not an annulment.
The grounds, deadlines, and consequences vary by state, so the framework below reflects the general law most jurisdictions follow.
Two Categories of Annulment: Void and Voidable
Before looking at the grounds, it helps to know which bucket your situation falls into, because the bucket controls how urgently you need to act.
A void marriage was never legally permitted to exist. It’s treated as nonexistent from the moment the ceremony happened, whether or not anyone goes to court. Either spouse can challenge it, a third party with standing can challenge it, and even the state can. There’s generally no deadline. Getting a formal court order is still standard practice, though, to clean up property rights, public records, and benefit eligibility.
A voidable marriage is legally recognized until someone successfully challenges it. Only the spouse whose rights were violated can bring the challenge, and deadlines apply. If nobody files, the marriage stays valid indefinitely. A voidable marriage can also “cure” into a valid one if the wronged spouse keeps living with the other after learning the truth, which makes timing far more important for voidable grounds than for void ones.
Grounds That Always Make a Marriage Void
Two situations make a marriage void in virtually every jurisdiction.
Bigamy
A marriage is void if either spouse already had a living husband or wife from an undissolved prior marriage. Under the Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act, which many state statutes track, entering a marriage before dissolving an earlier one is a prohibited marriage.1South Dakota Law Review. Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act Bigamy is also a crime in every state, with penalties ranging from misdemeanor charges to felony convictions carrying several years in prison.
Incest
Marriages between close blood relatives are void. The Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act prohibits marriages between ancestors and descendants, siblings of whole or half blood, and uncle-niece or aunt-nephew pairs, including relationships created by adoption.1South Dakota Law Review. Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act These marriages have no legal standing regardless of how long the couple lived together or whether either party knew about the relationship.
Grounds That Make a Marriage Voidable
Voidable grounds cover real defects that existed at the ceremony, but the marriage isn’t automatically invalid. You have to go to court, prove the problem, and do it before you lose the right.
Underage Marriage
If one or both spouses married below the legal age of consent without the required parental or judicial authorization, the marriage is voidable. The age threshold varies by state. The underage spouse can petition for annulment, but courts in many states treat continued cohabitation after reaching adulthood as ratification, which can permanently bar the claim.
Mental Incapacity
A marriage is voidable if either spouse could not understand the nature of the marriage contract at the time of the ceremony. This covers permanent cognitive disabilities and temporary impairments alike, including severe intoxication or being under the influence of drugs during the wedding. The question is whether the person had the mental ability to understand what they were agreeing to at the moment they said their vows. If the spouse later regains capacity and chooses to stay in the marriage, that choice can eliminate the right to annul.
Duress or Force
Marriage requires voluntary consent. When someone was physically threatened, coerced, or forced into the ceremony, the marriage is voidable. The pressure must have been severe enough to override the person’s free will; family pressure or social expectations generally don’t meet that standard. The coerced spouse must file, and must do so within the applicable deadline after escaping the coercive situation.
Fraud Going to the Essence of Marriage
Fraud is the most litigated and most misunderstood annulment ground. The law does not care about every lie told during courtship. To qualify, the fraud must go to what courts call the “essence” of the marriage: a deliberate misrepresentation about something so fundamental that the other person would never have married had they known the truth.
Classic examples include concealing a pregnancy by someone other than the spouse, hiding a permanent inability or refusal to have children, or secretly intending never to live together as a married couple. Courts have historically focused on misrepresentations involving sex and procreation as the core essentials of marriage.
Lies about wealth, social status, education, character, employment, or criminal history almost never qualify. Courts treat these as “accidental qualities” of a person rather than essential aspects of the marital relationship. The defrauded spouse also has to prove genuine reliance, meaning the lie actually drove the decision to marry. If a judge finds you had other reasons for marrying and didn’t truly depend on the misrepresentation, the annulment fails.
Physical Incapacity
A permanent inability to consummate the marriage is a separate voidable ground in most states. Three elements must line up: the condition existed at the time of the ceremony, the petitioning spouse didn’t know about it, and the petitioning spouse hasn’t voluntarily continued living with the other after learning the truth. Medical documentation is typically required. General health problems don’t count. The incapacity must be specifically related to the ability to have sexual intercourse and must be incurable.
Deadlines and the Risk of Losing the Right
This is where most annulment claims quietly die. Voidable marriages come with deadlines, and missing them leaves divorce as the only option.
The time limits vary by state and by ground. For fraud, many states give you a window of a few years after you discover (or should have discovered) the deception. For underage marriage, the clock often starts at the minor’s eighteenth birthday. For physical incapacity, deadlines typically run from the date of marriage. Void marriages, by contrast, can generally be challenged at any time because they were never valid to begin with.
Beyond formal deadlines, there’s a broader doctrine called ratification. If you discover the problem and keep living with your spouse as a married couple, courts treat that as acceptance of the marriage. Continuing to voluntarily cohabit after learning about fraud, for example, signals that you’ve chosen to stay, and a judge may refuse to annul on that basis.2Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 23 Chapter 33 – Grounds for Annulment of Voidable Marriages The message from courts is consistent: if you find a defect, act on it promptly or accept the marriage.
What an Annulment Doesn’t Give You
People often chase annulment because the idea of erasing a marriage sounds cleaner than divorce. Financially, it can be the opposite.
Because annulment declares that the marriage never existed, in most states there’s no marital property to divide and no automatic right to spousal support. Each person walks away with whatever they individually own. If your spouse earned significantly more during the marriage, or if you gave up a career to support the household, that financial sacrifice may not be recognized at all.
The major exception is the putative spouse doctrine, which protects someone who genuinely believed in good faith that the marriage was valid. A court that finds you’re a putative spouse can divide property acquired during the relationship using the same principles that apply to divorcing couples, and may award support. The spouse who lacked good faith doesn’t get the same protection. If both spouses knew the marriage was invalid from the start, neither qualifies, and no property division or support is available. Not every state recognizes the doctrine, and the specifics vary among those that do.
Children are a different story. The Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act explicitly states that children born of a prohibited marriage are legitimate,1South Dakota Law Review. Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act and every state follows that principle. Courts retain full authority to issue custody and child support orders in an annulment proceeding, just as they would in a divorce. In some states, the presumption that a husband is the legal father may not apply automatically after annulment, so the judge may need to formally establish paternity as part of the case. Once parentage is established, custody and support determinations proceed under the usual family-law standards.
If significant assets, debts, or support claims are on the table, talk to a family law attorney before choosing annulment over divorce for the symbolic appeal of erasing the marriage.
Religious Annulment Doesn’t Count
A religious annulment, such as a Catholic declaration of nullity, has no legal effect. It addresses whether the marriage was a valid sacrament under church law, not whether it was a valid civil contract. A religious annulment does not change your legal marital status, does not affect custody or property rights, and does not eliminate the need for a civil divorce or legal annulment. A civil annulment, in turn, has no bearing on your standing within any religious institution. If you need both, you have to pursue them separately through completely different processes.