Unveiled 30 Global Compilation: Heartache to Healing Divorce Revelations
Divorces can be messy affairs and are never easy or an ideal situation to be in. Sometimes an ex is left with a short end stick while the other comes out shining out of it. Leaving the relationship with a house? Boat? or a Successful Business? Or simply takeaway the emotional baggage.
Following stories are from around the globe, so learn from these tales that will enable you to be cautious because getting blindsided by an ex walking away with everything is a fate no one wants to endure! Read on to know about such 30 tales:
1.True Justice
For the past 8 years, I have been working as a legal assistant for two family law attorneys. One of the cases I worked on made me the angriest I have ever been when a man cheated on his wife when she was diagnosed with cancer. Apart from that, he attempted to hide all the assets while she was undergoing chemotherapy.
Lucky for the woman, my boss is the best and she teamed up with a forensic accountant and they took him to the cleaners. The man had to pay for the forensic accountant's bill as well as the attorney's fees.
2.Clean Escape
My ex ditched me and went for another man. We were together for 7 years, without marriage and no kids. She claimed half the value of the house I purchased, which was approximately 250k.
She and her lawyer played games all the time and ended up with $1500 there whereas my lawyers cost was $20k. All in all, it was pretty good savings for me.
3.Not The Pointed Tool
After being married for 20 years, my friends' parents had a very nasty divorce. In this particular case, the man was completely blinded by the situation. He thought to himself that everything was fine. When he got home from work, he would sit on a recliner and eat the dinner that was made, take his son for paintball and completely ignore wife and daughter.
For over 5 years, the husband refused when the wife asked to go for counseling, but according to him nothing was wrong. Lastly, the wife filed for divorce, and moved out when the husband was out for a 4 day paintball trip.
Once he was back he wanted to have a family meeting, so she got the kids over and was trapped by his redneck dumpster fire. From there it got dangerous and aggressive. After an awful 3 years of divorce, it was over.
The husband has to pay cell phone and health insurance until each child has graduated from college, apart from that he did not have alimony but child support for both kids.
The main 'screw up' part is here, the husband is a MORON. He was so disgusting that my friend (his daughter) stopped talking to him. He said, 'if she's not gonna talk to me, I'm not paying'. He mailed the child support a check and it was half of what it is supposed to be and also had a handwritten, signed, and dated note which said something like, 'Wife, this check is for the child who speaks to me. I'm not gonna pay for the one who does not and if you say anything to me and give me any shit, I shall stop paying for him too."
Overall, he left a great deal of evidence such as hand-written, signed, dated and very essential evidence of contempt of court and extortion. Not to mention that towards the end, it did not work out for him.
4.A Complete Loss
As a lawyer, I agreed to represent a person in divorce, one. They did not end up being happy with me, so I was fired, and that wasn't a big deal. I also returned the unearned portion of the retainer, boxed up their file and sent it to them.
However, before I had been fired, I had placed the case on a jury docket. So I had to tell them, 'You still have a jury trial.' Lastly, on the day of the jury trial, the person did not show up and lost everything.
5.The Man Child
My wife, who is an attorney, had a client who was going through a divorce on a mutual agreement. Despite months of amicable separation, shared living space, and moreover even a bed, maybe because they were working different shifts.
When she stepped out on the day to sign the papers, she questioned herself: Was she giving up too soon? Perhaps the traits of her spouse were things she could overlook. Maybe she could learn to tolerate his lack of ambition and his involvement obsessively into online gaming. She could even forgive the fact that he had no ambition and refused to engage in real life activities instead of playing online games.
Apart from that, he said he would always be irritated about the fact that he would say how he wished real life could be more like his online life. Then she suddenly heard a bag on the glass window and thought it was him wanting to stop, and convinced her but with her unjustified sense of expectations and relief, she turns to see he soon to be ex giving what I can only describe as "finger birds" to her through the front door.
He would behave like a spoiled teenager who did not get his way. She eventually turned her way, signed those papers with a huge sense of relief that she was making the right decision.
6.Poor Birdy
I am a divorcee, and had bought a home with my ex, approximately 9 months before he ditched me by cheating on me with the girl and left me. He got to keep the house which I made with all my life savings, apart from the deposit and repairs I paid for.
He did not pay a single penny as he was 'broke' after buying me a "Diamond Ring" that I didn't want. He also threw a fit about it and disappeared for 3 days when I asked if we could exchange it for something modest.
On top of that, I had to hire my own lawyer and sue to get my name removed from the house while he used it for free. It was hurtful as I did not get any financial compensation at all, despite all the money I had to pay considering the fact that it was all his fault.
Above all, he got to keep my bird as well.
7.What’s Your Idea of Romance?
My aunt filed for divorce from my uncle as his dad lay on his deathbed. She left him for a guy she worked with because my uncle was not romantic enough. However, my grandpa handed over my uncle a piece of land that was attached to his home to build a house on, that he built by himself with his own hands.
My uncle also worked with my grandpa as an amateur mechanic and also helped him rebuild a '68 model old Ford Bronco from different parts of the body as the LAST project because my grandpa's health was failing from ALS. He also built his own '72 Ford Truck from different parts of the truck in his garage too.
The divorce proceedings went on for almost 2 years where my aunt got to keep the house, Bronco as well as the truck. She immediately sold them off. Apart from that, she also received half of their investments and money along with a $16k in credit card debt in exchange for joint custody of his two young sons with no child support. She made sure to turn the children against the father in this situation.
One might think there must be abuse or infidelity involved from the uncles' side because of the rage, but there wasn't. He agreed to all her demands to get her out of his life after my aunt made the divorce miserable.
8.1% ONLY
In my country that I reside in, a lawyer, advocate and attorney are different professions, however I am a lawyer too. There was a couple, both of them were in business together, wife and husband. Unknown to us, the husband gave an extra share to his wife.
A year later, he was caught having an affair and she wanted a divorce where the attorneys decide on 51% shareholding so that she can take the decisions. Surprisingly, she sells it all within a week including their home, vacation home in Mauritius, and their farm too, literally EVERYTHING!
The husband ended up with a 49% share of the profits from the sales. But in this case, she sold it for less than 10% of its value to an unknown trust. It turned out that she sold it to a trust that was the attorney's creation. So, she basically sold it to herself for nothing, gave me zero and brought it all back and has everything to herself.
9.The Lawyer's Point Of View
Earlier I used to work as a divorce lawyer, not something I am proud of on top of that I worked with a partner who was no less than a nightmare. In a decade's duration, I was the 11th associate to be working with her. We went through 2-3 secretaries a year, and a couple of screwed up cases as far as I can recollect.
For our first case, our client and his wife were Mormon. During the divorce proceedings she told him that he had to give her what she wanted in the divorce because they were sealed at the Church and would spend an eternity together. We stood by him and fought for him to not give her more than what she deserved.
In our second case, I represented the Wife of a Celebrity, not a huge star though would often file for divorce when she started 'acting up.' Once he figured, she was behaving as he liked, he would cancel the divorce. Stupid Jerk!!
10.A Lot Of Trust
My partner and I went through the divorce proceedings as we were both Jehovah's witnesses. I did not want lawyers but her father got her one who was also a Jehovah's witness. I thought to myself that as we all belonged to the same religion that he would do justice and not be biased and fair to us. As I was ignorant and emotional so I went ahead with whatever was put ahead.
I screwed up big time and it pinches me that I pulled out a wrong document and showcased that. I am still working on the financial recovery of the mistake I made, 10 years later as well.
11.I Accept The Challenge
As my friend is a divorce lawyer, I hear a lot of stories. One of his favorite tales is where the husband had a distasteful divorce got a lame lawyer and said he would out lawyer her and break the bank before he gave anything she desired during the proceedings.
All this happened in front of my friend, the wife's lawyer. He just gave him a stare and said, 'I'm working for you pro-bono (free) from this day onwards.' He looked back at them and said, 'I got all day.'
12.How To Avoid Getting Screwed
Me and my partner had a civil divorce and luckily everything is still smooth now but our lawyers said we should go after one another for an extra $50,000.
When we asked our respective lawyers, 'why?' because it will drag and weigh down our already broken relationship. We know that they were trying to get the best for their client. However, my lawyer pushed me to the core that I had to get angry and told her to drop it.
Not every divorce lawyer may be the same but the process makes it even worse. Thank god, I do not have to do that again!
13.The Discrepancy
In the early 90s, I worked for 6 months costing the Legal Aid Cases for Solicitors where many included divorces as well. The one I remember evidently was when a woman was divorcing her husband because he discovered he could talk to the dead on their honeymoon. Later that night during their honeymoon, he spent his money on a spiritualist group.
It wasn't it what made it memorable, it was that during the divorce, she left the house and the husband claimed that he was letting the house fall into ruin, it would be better for both of them if he sold the house and split the proceeds with her. The woman agreed for the same without consulting the solicitor.
Few weeks later, the husband gave her £5. When she asked what it was far, he said it was her share of the house as he sold it to his sister for £10 and kept living there. When this happened, she went to her solicitors, she found that they had done the conveyancing for him. He'd deliberately used his wife's divorce solicitors and nobody at the firm had realized.
14.Nothing Left
My cousin got employed, later he and his wife got married. Couple of years later, he removes his 401k to buy a house (taking her advice). The home they got looked like it had been through a tornado and he spent a lot fixing it. Apart from that, they also fixed the attached home where her brother could move in with his girlfriend. They didn't pay any rent.
My cousins' was a control freak and my cousin brother did a lot of things including their daughters' lunch. After being married for 8 years, they got a divorce and she ended up with the house, kid and rented out the additional home in order to make more money after her brother moved out. Apart from that, he meets his daughter once a week and lives in a small apartment and pays for child support. If I'm not wrong, she makes more money and is set for life while my cousin is the one who is screwed.
15.Yay!! PAYDAY!!
Earlier I worked as an associate supporting my expert witness partner for a client married to a guy who was famous among Wall Street.
However, it turned out that the wife received an offer of $180 million, she turned it down and accepted a mere $120 million.
16.Greed Destroys The Duo
My friend was given a divorce out of the blue where the partner was asking him for 100% of everything. When he asked her to be reasonable she said no, she wants 100%. Eventually, he discusses among lawyers that her asking a total was basically a negotiating tactic. Here when they would ask for 100%, he would offer 0% and they would settle for something in between.
However, when both of their lawyers sat down, she demanded 100% of everything and it was non-negotiable. It turned out that the man's Mother-In-Law told her daughter that she would get his everything. The issue in the case was that the child they had was a special needs child and the money would be spent on the child which is now being spent on the lawyers and she would not end up with 100% of anything.
His entire retirement fund, their equity of their houses was all up in smokes as it was impossible to strike a reasonable deal with the evil-mother-in-law whispering into the woman's ear that she can get all of his wealth and then a better husband too.
The kicker here is that my friend is 5 years from his retirement and has nothing to show for 40 years of work. And he has to pay alimony on anything he earns in those five years.
17.Cool Mind
When I got divorced with my partner we chose to go ahead with a mediator and it would be better to do so than pay for separate lawyers taking us in and out of the court. She also agreed on the same and received not so good advice on this from her family and friends, and a divorce lawyer. They all advised her to ask for spousal support, for me to accept all of our debts, she wanted a big part of my pension, and full custody of our son. I walked out from our first meeting and let her be anxious about it.
She wanted to move to the East Coast from the West Coast, where she was as her family was there but couldn't do so unless I consented for our son. I mailed her a letter that if she left with him, I would be charged with kidnapping. I contacted the local police, the federal police, airlines, ferry, & sent them photos.
Back to square root, we came to the mediation and she suddenly had a change of tone and I couldn't fight her taking a portion of my pension, but she didn't get spousal support, we split the debts equally and she did not end up with full custody.
Later, the mediator said that I played it well and my ex was quite irrational. Even after 10 years today, my ex is bitter about it.
18."I'll Take Care Of It"
When me and my partner parted ways, we held a credit card in our own name with each other as an authorized user. The balance on these credit cards were not really equal. It was around 60-40 (Because Amex realized that he was on the way to use up $10k in the coming 6 months and would go lower than his limit above the balance.)
On our first copy of divorce decree, he demanded that I sign him a check for half of the bills and he would ensure that they were taken care of. I don't recollect if it was me or my attorney who laughed out harder. Adding to that, up until I left, he hadn't handled any of the finances and wouldn't have known how to pay the company holding my card. I'm pretty sure that he would use that money to pay his card off and left me with the bill.
19.Wanting It All
During the divorce, I ended up on the bad end with a long story but let me tell you briefly: My ex told me that we were getting divorced and was told that I would be 'allowed' to keep my entire paycheck that came next. I worked as a teacher so I got to keep my own $1,100, it was my birthday on that day. It was all over.
Four years later, she had my job, basically she LITERALLY replaced me at my teaching position. Although I do have 50-50 custody of the kids, otherwise one can say I lost everything.
20.My Phone Number Too?
I knew of a man who lost his own cell phone number. He had the same number since high school, but she convinced the judge that she used his phone enough to get his number.
In this case, all he got to keep were his clothes and car and he still had to pay alimony.
21.Not Such A Great Deal After All
This woman married a super rich dude I knew. He owned a lot of properties and his parents set him up. One of the properties by the beach makes $24,000, monthly. After 8 years, she wanted a divorce, they also have two children. She also said that she would take the beach house.
At this point, he mentioned that he owned all the properties before they met. So basically she received $5,000, monthly for 2 years. Whereas the man and his new girlfriend party 24/7 and travel when they are not hanging out with the children. The new girlfriend is a great fit.
22.Check The Names Thoroughly
My work involves being in Family Law and one of my favorite tales is when the man accidentally texted the family group a message which he meant to send to his mistress.
We all know that must have not ended up well.
23.Extra Zesty
My friend tried salting the earth before he divorced his partner. The rental house and cabin was in deed to the relatives, their cars were sold to other relatives for a little money and handed over to the trust 'for the children.' He also took a bunch of cash from the company he co-owned with his wife using phony invoices and discontinued paying salaries to himself.
When the judges found out that he hid things or intentionally diminished assets, they referred them to prosecutors for fraud.
Although he did not do any jail time, the ex-wife ended up with everything, including the happiness or satisfaction of firing him from his own company.
24.Look After The Basics
My client's husband was an elected official or he still might me and signed a separation agreement. He also failed to do something that he agreed to and the partner sued him. There too, he said she forced him to sign. Luckily, she displayed mail where he negotiated regarding the agreement of the final draft, and other mails where she worked with him on the payments he owed her.
He lost after he let his staff member come to court to testify and had a meltdown in court. Couple of months later, he showed up to contest the divorce quoting the same stuff and said she threatened to shoot him, here the judges agreed with my client. Although, he has to now pay her 6k or get thrown in jail. Everything would be avoided if he replied to the emails she sent him.
25.Have To Learn Better Eating Habits
My neighbor filed for a divorce because her husband slapped his lips when he ate and had slurped his coffee and soup. She thought if she did not do so she would end up in jail for battery.
26.VR (VIrtual Reality)
My story that I remember is where a husband and wife played a sort of online role playing game just like the Sims, maybe a little bit more complicated.
The wife was heavily obsessed with gaming for 10 hours a day and would not decrease her play time no matter what he said. What got to the edge was that he created a fake profile/avatar and went online to stalk her wife in the game and found out that she was in a relationship with another person.
Although nothing happened in reality, it was enough for the man to initiate a fairly bitter divorce.
27.Blocking Good Reps Out!
I remember that one of my friends' mothers got a divorce from her second marriage. Maybe there was an unsaid rule that if an attorney who has spoken with a client in a suit, they cannot offer services to the opposing party.
So my friends' mom rang up each and every divorce lawyer within a 100 mile radius and initially sort of blocked her ex from a lot of good representation within a good drivable range.
28.A Smart Judge
When I was in the USA, during my year abroad I chose a domestic relations class that was conducted by an ex-judge who told us a few good stories.
One of the tales was where he gathered all of the toy collection and split them in court, each of them getting turns to pick them. He also said that they were not even collectables but junk that was cheap.
One of my favorite stories is where the parties were being uncooperative and not considering the children's aspect of who would live there and the parents' custody as it who would take rounds to live in the house. The argument was that the kids' lives are the priority.
Neither of the duo could afford to buy another home of their own so the couple rented a flat together and shared it. A great and indeed a smart judge, I would say so!
29.Trying To Be Fair
When I was 2 years old, my mother divorced my father. They purchased a house together when they were together. Although, my fathers' family offered a decent value to purchase the house from her. She rejected the offer and publicly put up the home for sale.
My fathers' family bought it for 40% less than what they offered to my mother in a public bidding auction. A good deal it was.
30.Kid Paying Through Misery Too
I was screwed up by a divorce. In this case, my mother stole money that she and my father kept aside to pay for my sisters' education. Apart from that she also took the real estate properties and most of the family wealth. In the divorce proceedings, she won everything and is not obligated to pay for the study of anybody as 'she did not choose where they were going.'
Basically, my mother was a MONSTER with 1.5 Million Euros in her bank account but she would feel like she is in need of the money so she doesn't lend or give it to anybody.
