Until April 2022, getting divorced in England and Wales usually meant blaming someone. Unless you'd been separated for years, you had to prove your spouse's adultery or "unreasonable behaviour," even if you'd both quietly agreed the marriage was over.
The case that forced the issue
Owens v Owens [2018] UKSC 41 is the case that made this impossible to ignore. Mrs Owens wanted a divorce, but the court ruled her husband's behaviour didn't meet the legal threshold for "unreasonable behaviour," so her petition was refused. She was left married to someone she'd already left, with no option but to wait out five years of separation to get divorced without his agreement. Even the Supreme Court said it regretted the outcome it was legally bound to reach. That public discomfort is a big part of what finally pushed the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 through.
What actually changed
Since April 2022, a spouse (or a couple jointly) can get divorced simply by stating the marriage has broken down, no blame, no evidence, no need to prove anything against the other person. Couples can now apply together instead of one person having to "win" against the other. There's a mandatory 20-week minimum wait before the conditional order (what used to be called "decree nisi"), built in as a reflection period rather than a punishment. It also closes a loophole domestic abusers had used: contesting the divorce to keep control over a partner who wanted to leave.
What the numbers actually show
It's tempting to point to 2022's divorce rate, the lowest since 1971, and call that proof the reform is working. I did exactly that when I first researched this. But the more recent data doesn't support it: in 2023, divorces jumped back up to close to pre-pandemic levels. The ONS's own view is that 2022's dip was most likely the new system finding its feet, a processing backlog in the Act's first year, not evidence that no-fault divorce made people less likely to divorce. If anything, that's a better outcome: removing a barrier didn't flood the courts or "make divorce too easy," it just let people get on with something they'd usually already decided to do.
Why this matters to me
What strikes me most about Owens v Owens is how long it took for an obviously unfair outcome to actually change the law. Researching this made me realise how much of family law only really gets tested once you're in it: right now I'm reading about what the reform changed, but I won't properly know how well it works for real families until I'm the one sitting across from them. That's part of what draws me to this area of law in the first place.
This reflects the law as I've researched it, most recently checked in September 2026.
Not legal advice. For your own situation, speak to a qualified solicitor.