A woman who has been trying to divorce her husband for three years was recently denied the right to do that by the UK’s highest court, which ruled that an unhappy marriage that had broken down for years was not grounds for divorce.
68-year-old Tini Owens had been hoping to finally end her 40-year marriage to Hugh Owens, 80, but the five judges at the UK’s highest court unanimously upheld rulings by a family court and the court of appeal that the two must stay married at least until 2020, when they will have been separated for five years and Tini will be eligible for a divorce without consent or evidence of fault. The decision has been met with criticism from divorce lawyers who believe it makes people more likely to falsely blame their partners and come up with embellished and inflammatory causes for divorce, to make sure they don’t suffer the same fate as Tini.