Baroness Hale is the country’s top female judge (Picture: Getty Images)

One of the UK’s most senior judges has said that adultery should no longer be grounds for divorce and taking the blame out of marriage would prevent bitter break-ups.

The present law requires divorcing couples to cite one of five reasons for ending their marriage, including adultery, unreasonable behaviour, desertion of two or more years, two years’ separation with consent of five years’ separation without consent.

But Supreme Court deputy president Baroness Hale, who is the top female judge in the country, believes infidelity should not be a marriage-breaker and a new ‘no-fault’ law – which blames neither party for the break-down of a marriage – would take the acrimony out of break-ups.



She also suggests that couples have a year-long ‘cooling off’ period before being granted a divorce, and says that this time is perfect for dealing with issues relating to money and children.


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Divorce should take longer, Lady Hale argues (Picture: Getty Images)

‘We should make it take longer to get a divorce and encourage people to sort out what happens to the home, children, money before, rather than after, they get a divorce,’ she told the Times.

Lawyers backed Lady Hale’s plan.

‘Lady Hale, a complete expert with decades of experience across this whole field, is entirely right,’ Sir Paul Coleridge, a former family High Court judge and chairman of the Marriage Foundation, told the Times.

Lady Hale, 70, first proposed a ‘no-fault’ amendment to divorce law 20 years ago, but her proposal was seen off by Conservative MPs, who arguing that that diminished responsibility undermines the institution of marriage.

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