27+ of the Wildest Divorce Stories Ever Shared Online

Villain: The wife 
Est. cost paid: Untold lawyer fees 

On Reddit, u/marierosa used to work as a file clerk for a divorce attorney, so you know she saw some seriously insane stuff. For example, a client once attempted to steal custody from her husband, labeling him “dangerously neglectful.”

Spaghetti Vs. Turkey ©gkrphoto/stock.adobe.com | @cracked/Pinterest

Why was he so neglectful? Well, because he fed the kid spaghetti instead of turkey on Thanksgiving. While a bowl of spaghetti isn’t the usual fare, compared to a twenty-pound hunk of meat from Walmart, that’s far from neglectful.

Villain: Husband and wife (but more so the wife)
Est. cost paid: $500, a bunch of lightbulbs, and a ruined business* 

You have to really love someone to end up hating them this much. That old adage appears to be true with a lot of these cases. Both the husband and wife ended up as the villains here. First, the husband brought the wife $500 in 2 buckets of change.

Petty Couple ©Joe Fallico/stock.adobe.com | @cracked/Pinterest

Then, the wife took things to the maximum by removing the lightbulbs, messing with custody of the dog, and then destroying the husband’s business. To add insult to injury, she then expected the husband to pay out her share of the company that she torpedoed.

Villain: The husband 
Est. cost paid: Everything, literally*

This guy would rather be broke than have his ex-wife see a dime, and we can’t fault him for that. “Morally unconscionable” depends on which side of the fence you’re standing on. This husband basically sold off everything he owned.

Just Wanted To Help The Children ©Svitlana/stock.adobe.com | @cracked/Pinterest

So, when his wife came asking for 50% of the business and half of his property, he had absolutely nothing to give her. “I just wanted to help the children,” he said. Yeah, and mess over your ex-wife, royally.

Villain: The wife 
Est. cost paid: House, retirement, Harley, jewelry (but then…)*

The ex-wife in this case was hoisted by her own petard, as the saying goes. She got quite a lot out of the divorce, but, apparently, that wasn’t enough for this Disney movie-esque villain. She wanted more.

A "Robbery" ©John Martin/stock.adobe.com | @cracked/Pinterest

So, she staged a robbery (allegedly) and was foiled by not knowing how to file an insurance claim. In the end, she was stuck with her “stolen jewelry,” unable to do anything with it or make any cash off of it.

Villain: Both parties 
Est. cost paid: A TON in legal fees* 

Fighting the good fight in court is a way to get back at your spouse without ending up in the headlines. This divorce was so petty, the couple literally had to meet over everything, from the biggest to the smallest asset.

The Rabbit ©Rita Kochmarjova/stock.adobe.com | @cracked/Pinterest

How small? Well, a ceramic rabbit from Home Depot ended up being such a fierce point of contention, it took 3 meetings to solve. The winning spouse didn’t even want it in the end; they spent all those legal fees just to “gift” the bunny to their probably-annoyed lawyer.

Villain: The husband 
Est. cost paid: All of his money (but not really)*

Well, this guy played the long game. You have to give him that. He pretended to be a gambling addict (a pretty common addiction, with 2 to 4 million adults struggling with it in America), taking his cash to the casino daily.

Playing A Long Game ©Nejron Photo/stock.adobe.com | @cracked/Pinterest

At the casino, he pretended to lose all his money because of his addiction. But, in reality, he was squirreling away the cash so that his ex-wife couldn’t take it in the divorce. He is the villain, but we have to admire his tenacity.

Villain: The husband 
Est. cost paid: Half his paycheck forever* 

This guy was a multimillionaire until he got divorced. In the divorce, he agreed to give his ex-wife half of his paycheck for the rest of his life. While that might sound horrifying, he had a plan all along.

Sneak Move @buzzfeed/Pinterest

The husband immediately socked away what he had (which may have been enough to keep him comfortable) and began working at a sporting goods store like Dick’s Sporting Goods or something similar. That meant he was making just $10 to $20 an hour … and so was the ex-wife.

Villain: The wife 
Est. cost paid: An entire house (and maybe a lawsuit)*

A divorce lawyer on Reddit talked about one of his wildest cases, this one involving a wife who was determined to mess with her ex-husband. So, naturally, she destroyed his entire house with a vengeance.

Sounds Like A Lawsuit ©standret/stock.adobe.com | @cracked/Pinterest

She turned the faucets on, plugged the drains, turned the heat off, and left. When he returned, the house was below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, so demolished that the foundation was cracked. Hopefully, she was sued for this.

Villain: Both parties 
Est. cost paid: $14 million down the drain* 

We love our furry friends just as much as the next person, but these bickering ex-spouses took that to the maximum with their divorce. They were supposed to engage in a $14 million settlement, but that went down the drain over a cat.

The Great Cat Debate ©Cine25/Shutterstock.com | @cracked/Pinterest

The fight was over who got the cat, and there was a weeklong trial to decide. It’s not clear what the verdict was, but we’re sure the people who got dragged in for jury duty didn’t exactly love either party by the end.

Villain: The husband 
Est. cost paid: An entire pension* 

Getting married right out of high school is always a risk, because you’re still super-young and don’t know what you want. This guy in this post was married at eighteen or nineteen, and he joined the military.

Half Vs. Nothing ©Bumble Dee/stock.adobe.com | @cracked/Pinterest

He left the military before being able to secure his pension, all because he got divorced shortly after marriage. He’d rather get nothing than have his ex take half of his pension. This is just bad decision-making all around.  

Villain: The husband 
Est. cost paid: Lawyer fees*

Talk about a later-life crisis. This guy’s 46-year-long marriage ended because his high school girlfriend, someone he hadn’t dated in literal decades, was single again. It’s clear who the villain is in this case.

That's All, Folks @buzzfeed/Pinterest

Throwing away almost 5 decades of marriage for a high school girlfriend is insane, and it makes you wonder if something else was going on here. Was he sick? Was she? What could prompt such an irrational upheaval?  

Villain: The cheating spouse 
Est. cost paid: Maintenance, possibly* 

Sometimes, all you can do is shake your head. In this post about insane divorce cases, one spouse was caught having an affair with their yoga instructor. Sounds like something out of a cheesy WBD show, right?

Can't Abandon Yoga ©AboutLife/stock.adobe.com | @cracked/Pinterest

That’s not all. After getting caught and being served divorce papers, the spouse sought maintenance (monthly pay from their ex, basically) so that they could afford their yoga classes with their affair partner. Wow.

Villain: The wife 
Est. cost paid: Lawyer fees* 

There are a lot of reasons one might head to CVS or Rite-Aid and pick up some laxatives, but this is not one. The person posting here is the child of two parents who got divorced, and her experience was wild.

Just Do This One Small Thing ©Jarva Jar/Shutterstock.com | @cracked/Pinterest

Her mother and father ended up in court over asset splitting. Before the court hearing, the poster’s mother called her and asked for a quick favor: if she could sneak laxatives in his food to make him sick and keep him from attending. Gee, is that all?

Villain: The husband
Est. cost paid: Chickens* 

No money, only chickens. At least, that is this guy’s motto. A legal secretary posted on Reddit about a wild divorce case she was handling, where a man wanted to receive his alimony in chickens only.

Alimony In Chickens ©Moonborne/stock.adobe.com | @cracked/Pinterest

No cash, no credit – just chickens, thanks. The court asked if he couldn’t just take money and buy more chickens, and he said that wasn’t possible. It seems he just wants to get under his ex’s skin with this request.