Alex Buscemi
Divorces are often serious and emotionally charged, but sometimes the reasons behind them can be downright ridiculous.
Lawyers on Reddit recently shared some of the pettiest—and surprisingly entertaining—reasons their clients decided to call it quits.
From arguments over toothpaste to disagreements about fridge etiquette, these stories highlight the small, often unexpected moments that can unravel a marriage.
What’s fascinating about these tales is how they turn seemingly mundane issues into dealbreakers, offering a glimpse into the quirks and frustrations that simmer beneath the surface of relationships.
While some of the stories are lighthearted and amusing, others might make you pause and think about the delicate balance of shared life.
1.
Not divorced, but annulled on their wedding day. I’ve told the story a few times on Reddit, so long-story-short-time: She told him several hundred times that if he smashed the cake in her face at the reception, it was over. He did it, she walked out and had it annulled the next day. This was over 30 years ago, btw.
2.
So I got married at 18 (same story as most, s****y home life, needed desperately to get out of the house so I married the first guy that came around) and stayed with him until I was 22. I was working one day and he didn’t answer any of my texts or calls. Eventually I got an answer and before I could even say Hey, his response was “what do you want, I’m playing Call of Duty”. I left him a week later. Most of the time, the petty reasons are just the straw that breaks the back.
3.
Not a lawyer but this happened to my wife’s cousin. Her husband came home one day asking her to give a higher financial contribution on 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. He got mad and asked for divorce. Worth mentioning that his salary was 3 times higher than hers.
4.
Not a lawyer, but my dad divorced my mom because she didn’t throw enough parties. Now he lives alone. He neither throws nor goes to parties.
5.
I decided to divorce my first husband when he complained about me buying lunch at McDonald’s. He had called me at my office, asked what my lunch plans were, and I said I was meeting my friend Keli at McDonald’s. He started complaining about spending money for restaurant food and that I should have packed a lunch from home. We had just that past weekend bought him a new pair of ski boots that cost over $100. It was the final straw. I was unhappy about a few things, that I could have overlooked, but to be LECTURED about spending $6.00 on a burger and fries was just too much. I let him b***h for a few minutes, gently hung up the phone, walked into my manager’s office to quit, went home and started packing.
6.
I left my husband because he “nah babe, I got it” -ed me constantly but would never do it. Last straw was him letting our power go out in July when we had a heat wave and our (my) sick dog was stuck in the heat.
7.
Wife wanted divorce like 2 months into marriage because the husband would squeeze the toothpaste from the top and not bottom. She claims to have told him a million times over to stop. Would have been easier to get 2 toothpastes, I thought.
8.
Definitely the fridge story! A woman filed for divorce because her husband would eat everything he could find in their fridge whenever the wife was out for work. So she came back to a basically empty fridge each night. He also cheated on her, but she was less angry about that. The fridge was what pushed her to the point she wanted a divorce.
9.
I’m a lawyer but not that kind. However, my brother’s 4th wife divorced him because she found out the ring he’d used was originally his 3rd wife’s. They deserved each other.
10.
Not a lawyer, but I’d like to put forward my own mother’s top reason for divorcing my father. “Farts loudly in public”.
11.
I know a guy who was divorced because he said the wrong name at the altar.
12.
Not a lawyer but my uncle once divorced a woman because she got a surgery and he felt she was being too wimpy about it.
13.
I once had clients who got a divorce because she wanted to buy a condo in Naples, FL. The petty part of the story is that combined their lawyer fees would have bought a very nice condo on the water in Naples.
14.
My aunt used to work as a divorce lawyer. The worst one was a couple fighting over a hamster (of which took so long the thing died before they were settled). She said it was a bargaining chip to win favor from their children. At that rate just buy another hamster!
15.
A woman came in wanting to divorce her husband. He had just gotten a new job and a pretty big raise. It turned out that this new job of his also required that he work from home, but he was working in an office before. She was having an affair with their next-door neighbor, and him being home more meant that she couldn’t cheat on her husband easily.
16.
The husband kept putting wet/used towels on their bed.
17.
Not a lawyer but a child of divorced parents. My parents divorced because my mum refused to fuel his smoking addiction that he didn’t pay for.
18.
The weirdest I’ve ever seen is a coworker of mine. His wife saw a picture of him at a pool when he was in high school and really athletic. Toned, muscular, tan, and so on. Over the 10 years after high school, he stopped lifting and lost his muscle tone and just became skinny. She told him she wanted him to get back to working out because she really liked the way he once looked and he said it was something he missed doing and agreed to get a gym membership. He was going to the gym four days a week but was only really working out for two of them. On the days he didn’t work out he would sit in the sauna to get sweaty, watch Netflix, and then go home. When she asked about him going to the gym and 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.
19.
NAL but I know someone who claims she divorced her husband because he wouldn’t quit smoking (he smoked before they were married). Turned out she was cheating.
20.
A client and his wife came in regarding a real estate transaction. At the end of the consultation, the client casually stated that he would like to divorce his wife. I was stunned, the wife started crying, the client started rubbing his wife’s shoulder and told her that everything would be okay. That was an awkward few minutes.
21.
Not me, but a family member (who is an attorney) had someone call her Day 4 of the lockdowns saying “I have been stuck with my wife for 4 days, and I need a divorce”.
22.
Not a lawyer, but I’d have to say my divorce was kinda petty. She decided a year and a half after she kicked me out she should divorce me because I didn’t come crawling back to her. Funny as she realized too late that when she kicked me out, she didn’t have any income.
23.
Not a lawyer, but my mom’s coworker divorced over dishes in the dishwasher. The wife would get so frustrated over the husband (coworker) not rinsing dishes before he loads them in the dishwasher. To compromise, they bought a super nice, top-of-the-line dishwasher. Solves the problem, right? She yelled about the dishes that night. He filed for divorce the next day.
24.
My dad was a lawyer, not me. He once told me that a divorce came in because the wife would just scream at the top of her lungs randomly.
25.
Not a lawyer, but I figure my divorce attorney thought my ex-wife’s reason was pretty petty: “he refuses to get rid of his cat and the dog we adopted together”.
26.
My client’s wife asked for a divorce after he refused to pay $52,000 per semester for their daughter to go to the private high school the wife had gone to as a child.
27.
Grocery costs, literally thought it was a joke or code for something. Turned out she came from a tight budget family and thought he was so wasteful with his paycheck when he bought ribs once a month.
28.
My dad listed that my mom alluded to him being a homosexual as one of his reasons for divorce and considering he’s a far-right wing homophobic church fanatic….And it was the year 2019…I just loved that being a reason on legal paperwork just soooo much.
29.
A man wanted a divorce from his wife because — and he gave this example as the “last straw” — his wife ate those nasty pumpkin Halloween candies, like candy corn but pumpkin-shaped. He had been looking forward to them all day, and when he got home, she had eaten them all. He snapped.
30.
Not a lawyer, paralegal. Someone came in for a divorce because their soon to be ex changed the password on their phone. Plaintiff had always had the code to get in, but now they didn’t. Divorce time.
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