Unhappy Wife must Remain Married – Supreme Court
A woman has been left “devastated” after failing in her latest legal battle to divorce her husband of 40 years.
Tini Owens lost her Supreme Court fight to divorce husband Hugh Owens, with five justices ruling she must stay married to him.
Mrs. Owens, who is in her late 60s, wants a divorce and says her marriage to Mr. Owens is loveless and has broken down.
She says he has behaved unreasonably and she should not be expected to stay married.
But Mr. Owens, in his 80s, refuses to agree to a divorce and denies Mrs. Owens’ allegations about his behaviour, saying if their marriage has broken down it is because she had an affair, or because she is “bored”.
Following the ruling, Mrs. Owens’ solicitor Simon Beccle said: “Mrs. Owens is devastated by this decision, which means that she cannot move forward with her life and obtain her independence from Mr. Owens.”
He said Mrs. Owens had hoped the Supreme Court justices would make a decision which would be “forward-thinking and fit with the current social mores”, adding that many people would find their decision “hard to understand”.
Mr. and Mrs. Owens, from Broadway, Worcestershire, married in 1978 but Mrs. Owens petitioned for divorce in 2015 after moving out.
But in 2016 the Family Court ruled she could not divorce, and last year she lost an appeal at the Court of Appeal.
