Divorce

“Grounds” are legally acceptable reasons for divorce. A judge can grant you a divorce based on:

1. irreconcilable differences; or
2. if your spouse:

• was impotent and incapable of reproducing at the time of the marriage;
• married you while still married to someone else;
• committed adultery (cheated on you);
• deserted you or was absent for one year without a reasonable explanation;
• was convicted of an “infamous crime;”
• was convicted of a felony and sentenced to a prison/jail;
• attempted to poison or kill you;
• refused to move to Tennessee with you without a reasonable explanation and didn’t live with you for two years while you were living in Tennessee;
• was pregnant with another person’s child at the time of marriage and you didn’t know;
• began to habitually use drugs or alcohol starting after the date of your marriage;
• engages in inappropriate marital conduct, cruel and inhuman treatment, or behavior that makes living together unsafe;
• treats you so horribly that being with him/her is impossible and you have to leave;
• abandons you or tells you to leave without any reason and does not support you financially; or
• has lived separate from you in a different home, has not lived with you as a spouse, and does not have any minor children in common with you.¹

¹ TN ST § 36-4-101(a)