What's going on here? Is divorce this easy now?

Warrigal

Warrigal

SF VIP
Location
Sydney, Australia
A man lives with four women as his wives. He is legally married to only one of them because polygamy is illegal in all 50 states of the Union.

He divorces his legal wife and marries another one of the four.

Don't people have to prove that their marriage has broken down before being granted a divorce?

'Sister Wives' husband divorces one woman in his household, marries another

February 4, 2015 12:53 PM

(Reuters) - The husband in a household featured on reality show "Sister Wives" has legally divorced one of the four women he lives with and married another, a spokesman for the show said on Wednesday.

Kody Brown and the four women he calls his spouses live in Nevada and have 17 children. Their life has been broadcast on the TLC cable channel since 2010. Legally, Brown is married to only one woman, even though he says all four are his wives.

While previously living in Utah, the family legally challenged the state's ban on consenting adults cohabiting in a marriage-like relationship when they are already legally wedded to someone else.
Last year, a U.S. District Court judge finalized his earlier ruling that struck down that provision, in a case that the Utah attorney general's office is appealing.

Brown and the women he calls spouses, Meri, Christine, Janelle and Robyn, are part of the Apostolic United Brethren, a Utah-based church that follows a plural marriage doctrine. Last season, the program followed their move from Utah to Las Vegas.

"We have chosen to legally restructure our family," the Brown family said in a statement. "We made this decision together as a family."

http://news.yahoo.com/sister-wives-husband-divorces-one-woman-household-marries-175325187.html[
Click to expand...
 

OH I watch this show every week. Kody brown and his 4 wives. meri is his first and only legal wife, the rest are his wives in name only. His one and only child from meri has now gone onto college , and his newest concubine Robyn, brought with her 2 children from a previous marriage and has since had a baby with Kody. from what he says, Robyn's children cannot be covered by his insurance unless he is married legally to her ( don't ask me I know nothing about American law)...so he divorced his first wife meri ( I presume using the adultery clause)...and married the newest concubine instead ..


God alone knows what the other wives real thoughts on it are... who have about 14 children between them all fathered by Kody..
 
Hmnn..

We don't have adultery as a reason for dissolving a marriage any more.
Couples must prove marriage breakdown by living separately for a period not less than 12 months.
 

Divorce in the States seems to be very simple. All the couple has to do is cite "Irreconciable Differences"-no need to "prove" anything. Then,in 6 months,you are divorced. This is the case in California anyway.
 
I just don't get it! 17 children? The guy must be walking sperm. How much is the taxpayer paying to allow this clown to live like this. I think he is a selfish SOB and the wives are sick!
 
Here, divorce (uncontested divorce, that is, with no children involved) is almost drive thru. You just get all your papers together, sign 'em, get 'em notarized and get 'em down to a judge to sign and you're done. No specified waiting period or anything. You don't even have to show up.

Contested divorce, with property and asset disputes and disputes over custody, can take forever, just like anywhere else. Fortunately for me, most of the firms I worked for didn't handle contested divorces. It's an ugly area of the law, IMHO, and you encounter people who are on their absolute worst behavior and their last nerve and do all kinds of crazy things. At one firm I worked for, which did handle ugly divorces, the aggrieved husband got into the elevator at our building with his wife's lawyer (who worked at our firm) and stabbed him.
 
I was married to my second wife for 22 years. We started an amicable un contested divorce in California in August 2014 which became final Feb 2, 2015. That's just 6 months.
 
Divorce is easy in the US. I divorced twice and only had to claim irreconcilable differences.

My husband had a much more difficult and longer time to get divorced in the UK.
 
Perhaps it is better to live in sin to avoid the problems of divorce, especially the legal fees...
 
Marriage is a legal contract... It SHOULD be simple to disolve a legal contract if both parties are in agreement. Why not? It's religion that has placed all the "Holy" context on marriage and made it a sacrament.. and added the "God joining together" stuff.. Folks.. if two grown-ups want out of a legal contract... they should be able to get out of it, without anyone else making judgments or criticising them.
 
Marriage is a legal contract, to be sure.
A contract that can only be dissolved after certain conditions are met - the fair sharing/distribution of assets, the provision for the needs of children etc. The other condition that is important is to recognise that the marriage has broken down. Making a declaration that it has but then continuing to live together as husband and wife does not cut it IMO.

Going back to the original example of the sister wives, it is plain that the marriage relationship with the first wife was not broken and the divorce and second marriage are simply fraudulent.

Perhaps the answer is to recognise marriage that is not monogamous to provide some legal protection to the women and children in these kind of situations?
 
That really is muddying the waters, DW.
IMO; no; he is not living in a lawful manner I MO; bigamy springs to mind.
i saw a 'who do you think you are' last week; on.....I can't remember her name, but she was in Sex in the City.
her grandfather was a bigamist......and her mother could not understand how he had totally abandoned his first wife and children; and had another wife and family perfectly happily; not a shred of remorse....ever.
2nd family never knew; 1st family really struggled, for years...with no answers.
it just isn't right.
 
I agree DW... the children should be protected first and foremost.. but we have child support laws for that.. Unfortunately, even with those laws, many time they are not followed.. and even when they are, the standard of living for the kids decreases substantially after a divorce.

Back to Sister wives.. he really isn't living unlawfully. He is only legally married to one of the women. The others are his mistresses.. that are condoned by his legal wife. So.. no laws broken there... apparently he supports all the kids. I just cannot understand how these women put up with him.
 
LOL...I have to say I have no idea how anyone whether a man or woman could tolerate a house full of women with PMT every month...seriously..not only has he got 4 wives with very different personalities and of child bearing age..but also 4 teenage daughters with all the hormones raging as well and throwing tantrums every 5 minutes

How on earth does he cope with all this emotional baggage, he's either Mad or a saint...I'm going for the former..
 
My niece had two "husbands" for many years. She lives in a little "hippie" town about 45 miles north of me. She pretty much never comes down off her mountain. Anyway,she married at 18 and then was in a play and fell in love with her "costar". Her husband was fine with it (apparently) and they all lived happily for about 20years on their mountain. Then she and "husband" #2 broke up and she divorced husband #1. Got a new boyfriend,that lasted about a year,now has a new boyfriend. She will be moving to his town on the coast. Her family says he seems "normal"-something her other guys definitely were not....on the other hand,she`s pretty "offbeat" herself.
 
The legal situation for polygamy in Utah is, at least to my mind, a bit muddied. The last I heard the anti-polygamy statutes had been struck down by a Federal judge, but I also understand that the law remains on the books but you cannot arrest someone for practicing polygamy?
 
'Mr. Clark, I have reviewed this case very carefully,' the divorce Court
Judge said, 'And I've decided to give your wife $775 a week,'

'That's very fair, your honor,' the husband said. 'And every now and
then I'll try to send her a few bucks myself.'
 

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