At the time that Henry VIII managed to get his two marriages – to Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves – technically annulled, only the Church could grant divorces. And only men could seek divorce on the grounds of impotence, insanity or non-consummation. Remarriage was not allowed unless one partner died.

So how did Henry do it, and achieve the notoriety of being the most famous divorcee in history? He broke away from the Catholic Church in 1553.

In 1670, English law took over, but divorce was still a man’s prerogative and he could apply for it on the grounds of life-threatening cruelty, or adultery, and it required an Act of Parliament. Being highly expensive, only the rich could afford a divorce. Divorced women had no claim on the property or finances of their husbands, and any children stayed with the father.

In 1801, Jane Campbell became the first woman to be granted a divorce in Britain. Her grounds? Her husband had committed adultery with her sister. With the help of witnesses, she even managed to retain custody of her children.

Finally in 1857, the Matrimonial Causes Act enabled ordinary people to divorce. A man could still move for divorce on grounds of adultery, but a woman needed to give evidence for “aggravated adultery”. This meant that besides her husband had not only cheated on her, he had also subjected her to sodomy, rape, cruelty, or had been incestuous.

The Court for Divorce established in London granted only 24 divorces in the first year of the new law. However, the Church of England continued to show disapproval of the reforms, and because of the severe social stigma attached to divorce, few couples took advantage of the new law.

In 1923, due to social changes after the First World War, women were finally allowed to move for divorce on the same grounds as men. But adultery still had to be proved, and this led to many a scandal when private investigators ran about taking photographs of erring spouses caught in the act.

But by 1970, due to dramatic changes in the law, thousands of couples obtained the “no-fault” divorce by mutual consent. There was no longer any need for evidence. Since then, the law has been changed here and there, but the fundamentals of the 1969 Act have not changed.

Reasons for the Rising Rate of Divorce in the UK There were over 150,000 divorces in the U.K. in 2004 and the figure is still rising. Reforms in the divorce law have made it even easier for couples to divorce on the grounds of “unreasonable behaviour” which could be anything from a spouse snoring to physical or emotional abuse.

Thirty years ago, people felt like outcasts after a divorce, especially if they were single parents. Today divorced single parents are still not entirely accepted by society, but certainly the social stigma has reduced. Because divorce has become so common, it is no longer perceived as cataclysmic. According to sociologists, the decline in the influence of religion is a major factor that plays an important role in the reduction of the stigma attached to divorce.

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