{"id":67708,"date":"2026-07-10T22:23:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=67708"},"modified":"2026-07-10T22:23:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:23:00","slug":"nearly-1-in-5-civil-divorces-in-spore-granted-by-mutual-agreement-without-assigning-blame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=67708","title":{"rendered":"Nearly 1 in 5 civil divorces in S\u2019pore granted by mutual agreement, without assigning blame"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SINGAPORE \u2013 <!-- -->Almost one in five civil divorces in 2025 was granted on a new ground of divorce by mutual agreement that came into effect on July 1, 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Introduced to reduce acrimony, this allows couples to end their marriage without pinning blame on each other for the breakdown. <!-- -->This lets couples split without citing reasons like adultery or unreasonable behaviour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Divorce by mutual agreement is the third most common reason cited for civil, or non-Muslim divorces, after unreasonable behaviour and living apart or separated for three years or more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Figures on marriages and divorces in 2025 published by the Department of Statistics on July 10 showed that some 18.8 per cent of civil divorces cited divorce by mutual agreement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The figures for divorce by mutual agreement were published for the first time in the 2025 report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Unreasonable behaviour remained the most commonly cited fact for civil divorce, accounting for 48.7 per cent of cases, followed by living apart or being separated for at least three years at 30.5 per cent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Overall, divorces and annulments fell by 1.9 per cent in 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">A total of 7,242 marriages ended in a divorce or annulment in 2025, down from 7,382 in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Among Muslim divorces, personality differences and infidelity were the top two main issues<!-- --> in 2025, with 21.5 per cent of couples citing personality differences and 18.4 per cent citing infidelity<!-- -->.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Across non-Muslim and Muslim divorces, the majority of divorces were filed by women. Almost two in three civil divorces in 2025 were filed by wives.<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"responsive-iframe-base none\" title=\"dynamic_iframe_wrapper\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/oBXKB\/1\/\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"accelerometer;undefinedclipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share;\" loading=\"lazy\" data-testid=\"responsiveIframe\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">On July 1, 2024, divorce by mutual agreement became the sixth fact that couples can cite for their marital breakdown. A fact <!-- -->is a legally recognised circumstance that<!-- --> must be proven to show that a marriage has broken down irretrievably.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">This new fact is an alternative to the three fault-based facts: adultery, desertion and unreasonable behaviour.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">There are also two non-fault based facts, where a couple must have been separated for at least three years with consent to divorce or separated for at least four years if there is no consent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">During a parliamentary debate, some had raised concerns that allowing couples to divorce without citing fault may lead to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/politics\/divorce-by-mutual-agreement-will-not-lead-to-quick-and-easy-divorces-sun-xueling?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"inline font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"typography-test-id\">quick and easy divorces and<\/span><\/a> more marital splits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Safeguards are in place to prevent couples from seeking an easy way out of their marriages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">A Family Justice Courts spokeswoman had previously said the courts may direct couples <!-- -->hoping to end their marriage amicably<!-- --> to work on saving it instead if they believe the couples have a \u201creasonable possibility of reconciliation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">For example, couples who cite divorce by mutual agreement have to state\u00a0their attempts to salvage their marriage. The courts will then decide if further efforts at reconciliation will have a reasonable chance of success.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Lawyer Dorothy Tan, managing director of DOT Chambers, said some couples who had previously decided to separate had to rely on allegations of unreasonable behaviour to satisfy the legal requirements for divorce.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">She added: \u201cThe new option allows couples to end a marriage without having to rewrite the history of their relationship into a list of grievances. That is particularly valuable where children are involved<!-- --> because it reduces unnecessary conflict at the very start of the divorce process<!-- -->.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Even so, unreasonable behaviour remains the most commonly cited fact<!-- --> as\u00a0it is the only route that allows one party to file for divorce without the other spouse\u2019s consent and without a period of separation, she said<!-- -->.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Unreasonable behaviour can include family violence, affairs, repeated financial irresponsibility or a persistent failure to fulfil spousal or parental responsibilities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">She added: \u201cUltimately, it is the cumulative impact of the conduct, rather than any single incident, that the court assesses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Lawyer Ivan Cheong, head of the Singapore Family Team at Withers KhattarWong, said even when a spouse believes an affair caused the marriage to break down, he or she may still cite unreasonable behaviour because adultery is difficult to prove under the law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">One typically needs strong circumstantial evidence, such as a private investigator\u2019s report or graphic photographs or videos, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In 2025, only 0.9 per cent of civil divorces cited adultery as the reason for the marital breakdown.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/community\/almost-1-in-5-couples-cite-new-reason-for-divorce-that-does-not-pin-blame-on-other-party\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SINGAPORE \u2013 Almost one in five civil divorces in 2025 was granted on a new ground of divorce by mutual agreement that came into effect&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}