It took Kate*, 34, two years to realise she had fallen out of love with her husband. “It was a very sad moment, but one that had been a long time coming,” she recalls. Given that they had three children together, Kate and her ex wanted to make their separation as smooth as possible. But that was going to be tough, because after contacting a lawyer, they discovered that in order to split, they legally had to blame one partner for the dissolution of their marriage. “We wanted to remain friends at the end of the process and keep things amicable,” she adds. “But that just wasn’t going to happen like this.”
Soon, people like Kate will be able to do things differently. On 6 April 2022, the no-fault divorce law will come into place, marking one of the biggest shakeups to family law in over half a century. It’s a landmark change given that a fault-based system has been part of English law since 1660, one that will mean married couples can legally split without having to place blame on one another, as is the norm in Canada, Australia, the US and China.
