‘I had one 'hard-and-fast' rule and my husband broke it, so I’m divorcing him’

“If you set a hard line with your partner, and they deliberately violate it in front of a crowd of people, that is a red flag.”

Til death do us part…

Or, in the case of one bride, 24 hours!

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“One rule”

A bride has called off her marriage and demanded a divorce just 24 hours after her wedding after the husband broke the ‘one rule’ she made for their big day.

Already declaring her relationship as ‘over’, her friends urged the new bride to reconsider the big decision, but she wasn't convinced.

Instead, she wrote to a magazine’s advice column; the bride recounted the situation and asked for some advice.

She said, “I never cared about getting married, but I wasn’t opposed to it.

“So when my boyfriend proposed in 2020, we decided to go for it.

“We each took on about half the responsibility for organising the wedding, but I think I was pretty reasonable about compromise when he really wanted something.”

She then went on to describe the one 'hard-and-fast' rule that she expected her husband to stick to: that he wouldn’t rub wedding cake in her face.

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Rule breaker

The bride continued: “My only hard-and-fast rule was that he would not rub cake in my face at the reception.

“Being a reasonable man who knows me well, he didn’t...

“Instead, he grabbed me by the back of the head and shoved my head down into it.”

To make matters worse, it appears the act was premeditated, as he'd had a “bunch of cupcakes as backup.”

She wondered if she was overreacting but backed up her reaction and shared that she suffered from claustrophobia following a car accident she’d been in prior.

“Cya later!”

The magazine’s opinion writer advised the bride to “continue with your divorce” and to ignore her friends’ advice because they weren’t going to be the ones “who have to wake up every day with a man whose behaviour massively turns them off”.

They ended their advice with: "Make a mental note about which of your loved ones don’t seem to value your happiness, and continue with your divorce."

Before it turned ugly. Source: iStock

“We’re on your side!”

The consensus in the comments was unanimous: her husband had clearly crossed significant boundaries and should have respected her simple requests.

“Brides put a great deal of effort into their hair & makeup.

“This was cruel, ruined reception & photos- what a thing to have planned,” said one.

Another added, “I feel like if you set a hard line with your partner, especially about something physical, and they flagrantly and deliberately violate it in front of a crowd of people, that is what is known as a red flag.”

“It seems to me like him stating from the start that he doesn't care about how she feels or what she asks for, so I'm team divorce for sure!” another wrote.

“And brides have to ask for it not to happen? And then this guy did it anyway,” another questioned.

Can she legally get divorced?

In Australia, the process and time frames for obtaining a divorce or annulment after marriage vary, and each involves different legal procedures.

To obtain a divorce in Australia, the couple must have been separated for at least 12 months. 

After this separation period, either spouse can apply for a divorce. Once the application is submitted, there is typically a one-month waiting period before the divorce is granted. 

This means from the date of separation, it can take at least 13 months to finalise a divorce.

On the other hand, an annulment is a legal declaration that a marriage was never valid from the beginning. 

There are several grounds for annulment, including if one or both parties were already married, if one or both parties were not of legal age to marry, if the marriage was not valid under Australian law (for example, if it's between close relatives), or if one or both parties were forced into the marriage. 

Unlike divorce, annulment does not have a specific time frame, and it should be pursued as soon as the issue of making the marriage invalid is discovered.

So this bride only has 9,466 hours to go until she can legally be divorced from her unthoughtful soon-to-be ex hubby.

Originally published as ‘I had one 'hard-and-fast' rule and my husband broke it, so I’m divorcing him’