It’s well known that about half of all marriages end in divorce. As dim as this may seem, it’s true, and it can get very messy. After the honeymoon period, the marriage bells stop ringing and alarms start to blare. And when the love runs out, everything becomes a problem. From tone-deaf requests to straight-up unbelievable spiteful acts, these are the true stories that show the horrors of divorce.
1. Home Sweet Home
This man wanted a divorce from his wife, and he had many good reasons—but what he cited as his “last straw” was absolutely ridiculous. It was all because his wife ate those pumpkin-shaped candy corn candies. All day while he was at work, he had been looking forward to them. But when he came home, he found out that she had eaten all of them. He just snapped. It was over.
2. Spread It Out
I represented one guy who was on his second marriage. He had lost his first wife to cancer. He and his kids were devastated. My client was a sensitive guy with a big heart. His second wife was charming, which was why he fell for her, but it was all a facade. Then my client met a very affectionate woman during his case.
They really hit it off and were basically engaged even though his divorce was far from over. The fiancée started having health issues and was diagnosed with a form of terminal cancer. Then the ex-wife tried to use the diagnosis against my client in court—and what she said was seriously ridiculous. Her crazy theory was that he had caused his first wife’s cancer.
She accused him of doing the same thing to his new girlfriend. The second wife's attorney refused to be a part of her theory. The attorney never addressed her argument in court and didn't even mention it during testimony. Rather, he informed the judge that his client wished to address the court directly about an issue.
The judge allowed it, and the second wife shared her wild theory adding that she was certain my client had tried to give her cancer as well. I wish I had an artist's rendering of the scene capturing the second wife's crazy eyes, her attorney’s shame and embarrassment, the judge's confusion, and my awe-inspired disgust.
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3. Proceed With Prayer
My philosophy professor’s wife divorced him—and the reason why was deeply disturbing. He attempted to perform an exorcism on her. The Christian school didn’t take too well to that and terminated him. Except the exorcism wasn’t the last straw. The wife was actually having a year-long affair with a professor at a rival school across the street. But the exorcism probably didn’t help.
h2>4. At A Crossroads
My dad had a client who was a trucker and wanted to divorce his wife. The guy was in his late 40s and weighed 300 pounds. The man said that he and his wife were in an open marriage, but she refused to have another partner even though this man has multiple partners. He also casually mentioned to my dad that he was bi too.
But he’d wanted to make it very clear that he preferred women but slept with men regularly. He didn't give a reason though. And when my straight-edge, old-fashioned dad asked, he told him a disturbing story about his last trucking run. He was alone at a truck stop on his birthday. So, his wife arranged for a man to meet with him.
In graphic detail, the guy further explained how the man bit him and it had hurt so much that he punched him. Then he kicked him out of the truck and immediately called his wife to tell her that he wanted a divorce for hiring him someone who would do such a thing. My dad said he had to try so hard to stay professional.
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5. Clip, Clop, Drop
I work with court audio, and there was a case between parents fighting over custody for their young daughter. The mother currently had primary custody while daddy had supervised visits through a third-party service. He had to prove that she could be comfortable around him, so he had an idea. He brought a pony to visit.
So, every few weeks, he forked out $600 to bring a pony for his daughter to ride and ran around filming her joy. He used the videos to prove that he should become primary custody carer. Except it totally backfired on him. He was a jerk and wasn't very good at talking to her without calling her names, which he caught on camera.
6. Too Close To Disclose
A guy came to me because he and his girlfriend were breaking up and he wanted to sue over property that they couldn't divide including the ownership of the house where they lived. He was 50. He’d lived with his girlfriend for nearly 30 years. His “girlfriend” was 77. During our initial interview, he told me their whole story.
He’d been friends and classmates with his girlfriend's son in high school and moved in with her when she went through a difficult time after losing her husband. He was useful to her and good company. He played guitar and told funny stories. They went on vacations. He fixed things in her old house that needed attention.
As the years went by, her kids had their own kids, so at age 32, he became “grandpappy.” They had an agreement that her will would convey half of her estate to him. He’s rooting through her files one day and found that she had re-written her will and excluded him. A week later, he called me. I filed suit on his behalf. But that’s when I got a huge surprise.
The woman's lawyer sent interrogatories addressed to my client. Among other things, the interrogatories asked him to identify other intimate partners he’d had during the 30-year relationship. He didn't want to answer. I said that he had to. He exploded in a ball of hot anger and fired me. Apparently, he had a secret daughter.
She was from another relationship he had with a woman his own age. I bid him goodbye and wished him good luck.
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7. Nefarious Nanny
My very first client after graduating from law school seemed like a normal woman from our first meeting, but she ended up being quite the nightmare. My client and her husband had two kids in their preteens. My client decided one day, totally out of the blue, that she was done with her marriage and so kicked the husband out of the house.
She did everything in her power to keep him away from their kids out of spite. At some point, she took in a teenaged homeless girl to be a full-time nanny despite the fact that she was at most two years older than one of the kids who was a freshman in high school. A year later, the wife paid for the nanny’s transition.
This was when she came to me for representation. At our second meeting, she was with the nanny who she only referred to as "Mark." I honestly believed at first that he was her son. Then the wife told me she’d tried multiple times to have the husband taken into custody thinking it would get her full custody of the kids.
She had gotten a restraining order and then kept trying to trick him into breaking it—and her plan was utterly chilling. She had the nanny call him in tears saying their younger child had been in an accident and she couldn't tell if he was breathing. So, the husband rushed over in a panic, only to be immediately taken by officers waiting for him.
The wife’s story was that the husband threatened that he was on his way to attack her and abduct the kids. But she didn’t stop there. On another occasion, the wife bought illicit substances then paid her father to plant them in the husband's car. The father got cold feet at the last minute and confessed to the husband what his daughter wanted him to do.
Less than a week after the nanny turned 18, the wife came into my office with them and proudly declared that they were dating and madly in love. Despite all of this, the wife got primary custody of the kids who referred to the nanny as Daddy. She also got a hefty monthly spousal support payment.
8. Ready, Set, Action!
A client was accused of harming his children. The little kids gave graphic, detailed testimonies against their daddy. It looked bad. But then my brother, a failed actor, noticed something incredibly disturbing. In the transcript, one kid asked if they’d hit their mark. He wondered how they knew acting jargon and subpoenaed the wife’s checking account.
Sure enough, he found that she was paying for acting lessons. So, he put the sketchy “acting coach” on the stand who, in a panic, shared videos of “practice interrogations” with the kids coaching them on what to say about their father. The father ended up with sole custody of their kids.
9. Love Don’t Cost A Thing
I represented a husband divorcing his wife of over 35 years. At mediation, they divided up a half million in assets within half-hour. But then, for two hours, they fought over two hurricane glasses from Pat O'Brien's and a pitchfork. The mediator said that the wife wanted it badly because it was a gift from her father.
The husband swore and said that they’d bought it at the store together a couple of years before. They settled after spending over $1,000 in attorney fees combined for the glasses and pitchfork. They remarried three months later.
10. Still Not Over It
My aunt has been divorced for quite some time. She drives her attorney crazy with her demands. She took her husband to court over switching the beneficiary of his life insurance policy from her to their children. But it gets worse. After finding out from her friend about his many prescriptions, she wanted court-ordered blood tests weekly.
This, of course, could not be entered into evidence as the friend worked for the pharmacy and could be fired. The wife also wanted to know when and where he worked so that her private investigator could follow him and make sure that his new girlfriend was not staying with him at his hotel room charged on his work card.
11. In The Fine Print
I got a court order on my desk that explicitly banned a father from playing Minecraft with his son on the internet. The ex-wife alleged that the in-game chat was a form of improper contact that wasn't outlined in the custody or visitation plan. If this was after divorce, it’s hard to imagine what caused that to happen.
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12. Micro Waves Of Emotion
I was sitting in the lobby of the courthouse when my parents were in the courtroom getting divorced. The couple before my parents had come out of the courtroom and were consulting with their lawyers on opposite sides of the lobby. The woman and her lawyer stopped and talked right in front of me—and I couldn’t believe what I heard. She was wild with rage.
Her lawyer finally got her to shut up for a minute and explained that her husband was offering her a settlement in which she’d get the house, the car, full custody of the kids, all the money including their retirement savings, child support and alimony, and all their possessions, just about everything she had demanded.
He just wanted his clothes, a few dishes, and the microwave. The lawyer told her that she'd better take the offer because she certainly was not going to get anything better. The husband had made clear that if there was any argument, he was going to fight for all of it because he was offering this so he could walk away.
He told her that if she made her husband go through a court battle over those few meager things, he was going to make her pay. She started screaming in anger about, “her microwave!” The lawyer told her she could buy another microwave for less than the cost of the time that he will bill her just to have this discussion.
But no, she returned to screaming about how he couldn’t have her microwave and demanded that they go back into court and battle it out for that microwave, no matter the cost. People are stupid.
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13. Pays To Listen
My client was living with his wife during their proceedings. He'd call me to complain about how his wife finished a bag of chips then didn't go to the store to buy another, invited one of her friends over who he hated, watched TV shows instead of fixing dinner, and numerous complaints of her "lack of a moral compass."
And he paid me $250 per hour for listening to all of that. When a client refuses to settle and notes that "it's the principle of the thing," lawyers get rich, and the client needlessly bankrupts themselves.
14. Play Fair
The Xbox and Wii games were in the family living room. The father took the games from the living room and put them in his bedroom. So, the children spent all of their time there. The mother went to court just to obtain an official order that the Xbox and Wii be returned to the living room. They spent thousands on this.
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15. Priceless Principle
I worked as a tech guy at a family law practice for five years. In a small town, they also had me work homicides and intimidate the PI who had to serve people as I look a bit rough. One couple spent $40 grand and two mediation meetings fighting over a set of Christmas red chili peppers lights. They had a lot in assets.
There were two oil and gas companies, multiple houses, and tons of cash between them. But according to the transcript, "No DICE! She'll never get those Chili Lights on my watch. It's about the principle!"
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16. Expiration Date
Their discussion about the division of assets included fighting over opened boxes of grocery items. After the couple refused to compromise over a half-eaten box of cereal, the judge went ballistic. He just lost it. He told them that he was going to make a summary judgment and exclude the couple because they were wasting the court's time.
17. Shuttered Down
The couple was just about to settle with only one matter to contend—their lovely Victorian home’s windows. The husband had lost his job at one point and restored all the old windows. It was time-consuming and labor-intensive. While discussing their division of assets, they agreed to split the sale of the house equally.
But he demanded more for the windows. She said that she should get the money because she was supporting them then. He said she could keep the entire house, but he wanted the windows. They went back and forth endlessly while the mediator tried in vain to get them back into a neutral area. The whole agreement fell apart.
Even though mediation cost less than going to court and saved a lot of time, they decided to go to court because neither party could give up on those windows.
18. Pet Paperwork
A divorce decree was 30-pages long detailing who had custody of their two dogs, which vet to see, what food, etc. It was ridiculous. It described the plan for the next several years for who had custody on what holiday and how the dogs had to be transported. If you could think of a ridiculous requirement, it was in there.
19. Not Worth It
The wife came to court with an itemized list of how much everything he owned was worth when they were dividing their assets. It was millions. But on her list were items like a shovel for $100, 50 flowerpots for $75 each, packs of pens for $50 each, and other small-ticket items that she listed at four times their worth.
There were maybe a handful of legitimate items on the list, but that was it. On the next court date, the husband brought in the shovel as it particularly annoyed him and gave it to her lawyer saying, "She can take her shovel. It sucks anyway."
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20. Following Up
The wife and her husband were separated, and the wife decided that it was in her best interest to be the one to get the ball rolling on divorce papers. So, she went in to see a lawyer and told him there were irreconcilable differences and that she was sure he was stalking her now that they were separated and had proof.
She went out to her car and brought in a box of notebooks. Inside the notebooks were written accounts of everything and everywhere her husband had been or was going with things written in like, "My husband’s car is in front of me again. I swear he knows where I'm going to be every day. He's always there when I arrive."
Basically, the "proof" that she showed was actually her stalking her husband, but she had it in her head that it was the other way around.
21. Tortoise And The Hare
Both clients were so resentful of each other that everyone had to meet to argue over every scrap of anything. The final object that neither would settle on was a ceramic rabbit statue. It was a really generic one with zero sentimental value. But since it was the final item, neither side wanted to "lose" the last thing.
They dragged it out over three separate meetings for this one statue. Once they settled and signed everything, the "winning" party stuck it on their lawyer's desk as a gift and walked out.
22. Loop-de-loop Hole
In my state, if a married couple sleeps together after one has an affair and the other has acknowledged it, then the cheating is forgiven and null to the divorce. One rich guy found out that his wife was cheating on him so was divorcing her. This way he’d get a significantly better deal on payments and dividing assets.
So, the wife went and slept with the husband again. Later, she sent a text asking if he’d enjoyed the night before. His response was to send her a naughty photo in agreement. One phone call later to his counsel, and there was a substantially better agreement.
23. Less Is More
One divorced couple came in because the ex-husband wanted to lower his spousal support payments due to his lowered income, great financial responsibilities, and the fact that his ex-wife was declining to seek paid employment, all of which sounded reasonable at first. His income did decline due to “cuts” at his company.
But his new wife who technically worked as his assistant was now making quadruple her salary, more than he ever had. He tried every trick in the book. He claimed that his ex-wife had "unpaid renters" living with her and could charge them rent. These renters were their twins living at home who had just graduated high school and were staying for college.
This was even though the ex-husband was actually allowing his step-daughter and her two children to live with him and his wife. They didn’t expect her to pay rent, and he was paying for her to go to college too. His ex-wife produced evidence that he had told his own children to figure out paying for college themselves.
He claimed that his ex-wife worked as a nanny for free by choice and should be getting paid for work elsewhere. The kids who she watched for free were their three shared grandchildren from their eldest child, two of whom were severely disabled. He claimed that when he married his new wife, he gained over 15 new dependants.
This was technically true, but those dependants were all in Mexico and included his new wife's grown siblings and their families, none of whom he had ever met.
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24. Do What I Can
We represented the wife in her divorce from her husband who was a very prominent businessman. As a show of force by the husband, he purchased our office building and proceeded to make small but annoying changes. He had our parking spaces moved to the furthest spaces or had the elevator be down randomly for maintenance.
And he knew that our offices were located on the top floor. The firm’s lease also happened to end during their divorce proceedings, and we were given notice to vacate in the middle of the winter holidays. After we moved out, the husband put up signs for his company on the outside of the building where our offices were.
25. Paying For Spite
My dad went through some financial troubles because my mom was a shopaholic and took the word “no” about as well as a toddler. So, one day, he figured that he would save more if he stopped his mortgage, property taxes, and car payments. He was later caught for tax evasion. When my mom found out, she immediately filed for divorce.
She insisted my dad didn't make enough money and kept maxing out her AMEX weekly. Thus, my dad's solution. During the divorce, she said she wanted the nice cars. Great, take them. Then she told my dad she wanted the house. My dad pleaded with her to reconsider and told her point-blank that it was days from foreclosure.
He told her that she couldn't afford to take that hit on her credit, but she really wanted to stick it to him and thought he was bluffing. After a week of mediation, he finally gave in and told her to take the house. The house and mortgage were transferred to her name. It foreclosed, and a lien was placed on the house.
Through some shady deal, she short-sold the house without informing the new owner of the lien, failed to claim it on her taxes, and spent the money. When the new owner finds out, she is screwed if the IRS ever comes to collect capital gains. All because she wanted to screw over my dad.
26. Two For One Deal
A client and his wife came to me for a routine real estate transaction. Everything seemed totally normal. But then, at the end of the consultation, the client casually stated that he would like to divorce his wife—who was sitting right there. I was stunned, the wife started crying, and the client began rubbing his wife's shoulder and told her that everything was going to be okay. That was awkward.
27. Inconsistency Is Key
My co-worker’s wife saw a picture of him at a pool when he was in high school looking really athletic. He was toned, muscular, and tan, but over the ten years after high school, he stopped lifting. So, he lost his muscle tone and got skinny. She wanted him to get back to working out because she liked the way he looked.
He said that it was something that he missed doing and agreed to get a gym membership. But he was going to the gym for four days a week and only worked out for two of them. On the days when he didn't work out, he sat in the sauna to get sweaty, watched some videos online, then went home. She asked how the gym was once.
And he accidentally let it slip that he was fudging workouts twice a week. She apparently found that to be a deal breaker and filed for divorce.
28. For All My Lives
I had a client who was into a computer game with his wife where they could create an avatar and interact with other people’s avatars online. He suspected his wife of hijinks and made his own avatar to follow her in the game. Sure enough, her avatar was doing the dirty with some dude's avatar. That was it for my client.
29. Fighting Tooth And Paste
The wife wanted a divorce just two months into their marriage because her husband squeezed the toothpaste from the top and not the bottom. She claimed to have told him a million times over to stop to make using it easier for the both of them. I thought it would’ve been easier if they just had separate toothpaste tubes.
30. In Such Dish-dain
The husband wouldn’t rinse the dishes before he loaded them into the dishwasher. It frustrated his wife who asked him constantly to rinse them before loading. Their compromise was to buy a fancy, top-of-the-line dishwasher to solve their problem. That night, she yelled about the dishes. He filed for divorce the next day.
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31. Let The Credits Roll
The husband came home and told his wife she had to contribute more financially to the groceries because she, as a lady, was using more toilet paper than him. She took it as a joke and had a good laugh. That’s when the switch flipped. He got mad and then asked for a divorce. It’s worth mentioning that his salary was three times higher than her salary.
32. Sticks And Stones
A couple came to marriage counseling trying to work things out before resorting to divorce. The husband was not short of reasons of why he wanted the divorce and went on non-stop. He claimed that he was doing yard work and asked his wife to carry, “a couple of sticks” that he trimmed from the bushes to a pile he made.
He grabbed a big stack and brought it to the pile that he was going to mulch. His wife grabbed a couple of sticks, and he asked her to carry more. So, she grabbed a few more. He kept emphasizing that he said, “a couple!” Because she obviously didn’t realize that he didn’t actually mean “a couple” but closer to a bunch.
Another qualm was that his wife told him that they had enough money to buy a new car. Excited, the husband sat with her to price cars and choose one. She rejected every one that he showed her. They were out of budget. When he got frustrated, he asked what the budget was. She told him that it was $2,000. That ended the marriage.
33. Wheels Of Justice
One couple during their divorce proceedings was stuck on one thing: a hamster. The fight lasted for so long that it died before they had settled. They’d fought for it as a bargaining chip to win favor from their children. With how much it had cost to settle, it would have been cheaper to get another hamster.
34. Taking Too Much
A woman filed for divorce because her husband ate everything he found in their fridge whenever she was at work. So, every night she came back to an empty fridge. He did also cheat on her, but she didn’t care about that as much as the empty fridge. By that point in the marriage, the fridge had pushed her to divorce him.
35. Friend Or Foe
Before they were married, the fiancée almost called off the wedding because the groom forgot to uninvite his friend who was an attractive single woman. Apparently, he was the designated driver for one night when his fiancée was out of town. He dropped everyone off at home and that was the friend who was the last to go.
It made sense because she lived the closest to him less than ten minutes away. There was no history between them, and they’d only interacted in group situations. His fiancée was convinced that they were guilty. This was even after he called her before leaving the bar and again half an hour later when he came back home.
She’d known this for sure because they had a doorbell camera…that she was watching. She asked him all these questions about what they’d talked about at the bar, when they were in the car, and when they were alone in the car. After her interrogation, she casually told him that she didn’t want her to come to the wedding.
He agreed to uninvite her—but that’s where he made a fatal mistake. He forgot to do it. So, he hoped that it all would blow over by the wedding day. But on the day of, the bride saw the friend arrive from her suite and threw a tantrum. The wedding planner locked the bride, groom, best man, and maid of honor in the room and told them to work it out.
It did not go well. The bride wanted the groom to tell her to leave. He pointed out that doing so would disrupt the day and it’d be easier to just pretend she didn’t exist. Wrong answer. The best man got the groom’s phone and called the friend to explain what was happening. She left and never talked to the groom again.
The ceremony began late after the bride’s makeup was fixed. The marriage didn’t last. He realized that the accusations would never end. He couldn’t talk to any woman, friends, coworkers, or even her friends, without her suspicion. We suggested she’d cheated, but he got upset and tried fighting us. No one will know now.
36. Curse In A Blessing
A woman came to us because she wanted to divorce her husband. He had just gotten a new job and a pretty big raise. With this job, he was able to work from home instead of at the office. This meant that the wife wouldn’t be able to continue having an affair with the next-door neighbor as easily anymore with him at home.
37. Clearing The Air
My ex thinks I divorced him because my friends told me to. What really happened was that I was complaining about him to my friend, and she said something that completely opened my eyes. She told me: "You know, he really is a passive-aggressive piece of garbage. He does this all the time." And that was when I started thinking about how he really did always pull that stuff.
Then I realized how I wasn't actually depressed. I just hated living with him. She opened my eyes, but I divorced him because he didn’t treat me well, not because my friend told me to.
38. The Conscious Truth
A couple ended things after the woman had a dream that the guy was cheating on her. Her reasoning was, "If it wasn't true, then I wouldn't dream about it." She took it so seriously that she left him. I've known the guy for quite a long time, and he maintains that he's never been unfaithful to anybody, and I believe him.
39. Rage Quit
I got married at 18 to escape a bad life that lasted four years. Once when I was at work, he wasn't answering any texts or calls. When he did answer and before I could say hi, he said, "What do you want, I'm playing Call of Duty." I left him a week later. The petty reason is just the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
40. Waiting Game
My friend’s ex left him because her male "friends" were less attentive and wouldn't buy her drinks anymore after she had gotten married. It was naturally his fault. Even more hilarious is when he found someone else nine years later, she became upset because he was supposed to wait until she “got her head on straight.”
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41. Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner
The wife was going to make dinner that night. The husband made dinner every single night. She had one job. It was a chicken-based dish. Both had gone into too much detail about their planned meal with drinks. She undercooked the chicken. Their solution? Divorce. The husband said that they had never really argued prior.
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42. Window Of Opportunity
My dad was threatening to divorce over a window—but it goes so much deeper than that. It was not just any window, but my bedroom window. He had asked me to open it. But I said no because I was not comfortable with it open. One huge screaming match later, I was left feeling guilty as my mother cried because Dad was threatening divorce and looking to move out.
We couldn’t afford it. We could barely afford where we were renting then. Thankfully, my dad realized how stupid his reaction was over a window after a few days, but now I’m scared that if I refuse to do something like that again, he will actually leave!
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43. Iced Out
My client was living with their partner while the family home was on the market. Both refused to speak to the other for any reason whatsoever. All communication was done through me and the opposing counsel then billed to our clients. I had to negotiate terms with the other lawyer over the sharing of their fridge space.
44. Anyone Interested?
My client’s husband used her email address and phone number to sign her up for every bank, loan, religious, and inappropriate website he found. People bombarded her contacting her about their products and services. He even put out ads for partners online with her information. She actually went out with a guy who answered!
45. No Time For Laughs
The husband and wife were still living together during their divorce. The husband pulled a, “loser says what?” on her, and she took the bait. He giggled like a little child. Her reaction was so absurd, it’s unforgettable. She called her lawyer, who called his lawyer. He got a call from his lawyer telling him that he wasn’t allowed to make jokes like that anymore.
46. Shady Simplicity
My ex tried to file for an emergency order for “kidnapping” our 2-month-old son because I’d moved back home after our split. He had been to my mother’s house numerous times and knew that I was there. He tried to get a judge to order me to move back to the county where he lived even though I had no job or place to live.
The judge told him to never bring that type of request before his court again or his lawyer would lose his license. He then conspired with his lawyer to draw out the divorce proceedings over five years. We were only married for a year and a half, and his girlfriend who lived with him called to tell me this was their plan.
It took a long time and over $60 thousand in fees for my divorce. This was because he had me served first, and therefore, I was the respondent. He then left the state and refused to show up for court dates. His lawyer removed himself as his representation. So, the judge told me that we had to push back the proceedings.
They needed to give him a chance to show up. So, it took four years just to change my status and plaintiff for things to proceed. My lawyer deals with multi-million-dollar divorces for ridiculously rich people in Beverly Hills. He told me that he’d never had a more complicated case for a couple with no assets involved.
My ex now actively avoids employment, jumps from job to job avoiding the wage garnish, and puts all assets in his parents’ name to avoid paying child support.
47. Worthless Attempt
The divorce ended with the wife getting the house, a generous retirement payment, all the gifted jewelry, and the Harley that she had gotten him for his birthday. A few weeks later, there was an incident at the house. Someone broke in and took her jewelry from her husband and only that. It was meant for their daughter.
She tried to file an insurance claim on the jewelry but forgot to get appraisals. So, the most she could get from insurance was $1,500 for over $20,000 worth of jewelry. There’s reason to believe that she staged the incident and now has jewelry that she can’t sell, wear, or give to their daughter without admitting to it.
48. What’s Mine Is Yours
When I worked at a firm, I observed a divorce that lasted decades. The husband had won a huge settlement after being in an accident that caused brain damage. His wife spent the next several years draining his account and taking over property by forging his signature or getting him to sign papers he couldn’t understand.
She then forged some letters from a tax authority and convinced him that he was about to go to prison. She then told him to flee the country. He finally came back years later to find out everything that he’d owned was in her name, and one of the documents he’d signed were their divorce papers. He was left with nothing.
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49. Due In Time
The wife worked as a teacher and was paid well, over $100,000 a year. The husband worked as a general laborer and made about half of what she did. During their divorce, he gave her the house free and clear with the understanding that when she retired, he would get 55% of her pension to offset his interest in the house.
She agreed as she had to retire for him to get any money. Years later, the wife retired without telling the husband. When their son realized what she was doing, she told him not to tell his father. He agreed until a few years later when he learned that his father was in trouble with his finances due to economic issues.
So, he’d let slip that his mom has been retired for a few years now. So, the husband contacted his attorney. Then she was in a mess after upsetting the court as she’d previously agreed to the terms. In the end, he got 65% of her pension for the rest of their lives and she had to pay him all the money that she owes him.
50. Can’t Have It All
The husband was an annuities investor and had money and his home before he met his wife. He also had a prenuptial agreement that was ignored during the division of assets. He was also divorcing her for infidelity witnessed by both their children and captured on the house’s security cameras. He lost his case in the end.
The judge determined to split their assets equally. So, they had to sell their house and all of their possessions and divide the profits between them. This was in addition to alimony and child support payments coming from half of his pre-tax wages that he earned. She was also awarded half of his retirement and savings.
The wife received 70% of custody and jurisdiction over visits. She got his three luxury cars leaving him only one. The husband had to foot the bill for all court costs and fees for them both. So, to get revenge, he quit his job, sold his brother the $2.7 million house for $50k, and switched his life insurance recipient to his brother.
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51. Present And Accounted For
My ex stood before the judge during my painful divorce and pointed out a charge on my credit card bill for a strip joint. I got the judge’s attention while she was talking—and I knew exactly how to get back at her. We were representing ourselves, so I told him that she was already aware of what the charge was. She was there and even got a lap dance that night.
There were quite a few chuckles from the peanut gallery, and the judge had this quiet hidden little grin that vanished quickly. It felt awesome to say because I'd been screwed over so much from the divorce. It was bad.
52. Eat This
My first husband called me at my office and asked what my lunch plans were. I told him that I was meeting my friend Keli at McDonald's. His reaction made my blood run cold. He complained about spending money on restaurant food and that I should have packed my lunch from home. But just that past weekend, we had bought him a new pair of ski boots that cost over $100.
That was the final straw. I was unhappy about a few things that I could have overlooked, but to get lectured about spending $6.00 on fast food was too much. I hung up, told my manager that I quit, then went home to start packing.
53. Official Family Property
My ex came out as gay and decided he wanted to be a costume designer. Ok, well bad for me, but more power to him. He decided the historical collection of paper dolls my grandma had left me should go to him because he wanted them as models. My lawyer had to claim the shoebox of paper dolls as nonmarital property as an inheritance.
His lawyer made a claim about how they were "co-mingled" and thus marital property because I had put things in the box that I had bought during the marriage such as a coloring book. So, in an otherwise uncontested divorce, there is a giant paragraph in the decree awarding me my nonmarital, inherited box of paper dolls.
54. Stuck In The Moment With You
This couple was breaking up, and the husband moved out of the house. The wife went to work the next morning as usual. When she came back home in the evening, she found the husband had been to the house and to take his clothing and belongings as she had expected. But he also did something else that she’d never expected—he’d gotten the pettiest revenge ever.
He’d super-glued her belongings together. He glued the TV remote to the table, the phone to its cradle, the pillows to the couch, and even glued the vacuum cleaner to the carpet. She had to report it all as property damage. The officer went with her through the house documenting dozens of items glued to various things.
But for days, she was discovering more things stuck together. So, she then called me to amend or update her report with complaints like, "The oven mitts were glued to the wall!" or "He glued the sheets together in the linen closet!" I've seen people do and say really awful things to each other, but that was diabolical.
55. Big Deal
We once worked really hard on a woman's case because her husband had gotten on a bus to Mexico with her kids. We expedited everything. I went above and beyond for the woman—contacting attorneys in south Mexico and writing out very clear instructions to get back her kids. But later, I found out the disturbing truth behind her story.
Our client had attacked her husband with a knife because he confronted her about sleeping with his brother. That was why the husband packed up and took the kids.
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