Papa John's founder John Schnatter might be scarfing down even MORE pizzas -- he's officially heading for the bachelor life after his wife of 32 years filed for divorce.

Annette Cox filed the paperwork Thursday in Kentucky, saying her marriage to John is "irretrievably broken." According to the docs ... she says they separated back in April. They've been married since April 1987.

In her divorce petition, Cox points out she's self-employed but adds John is not employed. It plays like a shot, but those are just the facts. As we've reported, he was ousted from his pizza company last year following the n-word scandal.

According to docs, Annette and John already have a property settlement agreement, and she just wants the judge to sign off on it. They own several homes, including million-dollar pads in Utah, Florida and Kentucky. They also have 2 kids, but they're adults ... so no child support issues.

Schnatter's worth an estimated $500 mil, even after the fallout at Papa John's. We don't say we saw the divorce coming, but the man did say -- during a recent, bizarre interview -- he'd eaten 40 Papa John's pizzas in 30 days. Just sayin' ...

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Divorce is just the start of his legal troubles ... Schnatter's also suing the creative advertising firm, Laundry Service, and its parent company because he claims it leaked the audio that led to him losing his PJ's gig.

John claims a "secretly-taped meeting led by Laundry Service in May 2018" resulted in the news story alleging he used a racial slur ... which he calls false reporting.