Our Blogs

In this blog’s infancy, I proposed an article to my peers. My suggestion, though – much to my chagrin – did little more than turn me into the proverbial ‘office idiot’. The crux of my article – that any individual whose spouse is refusing to consent to a divorce should be patient and wait for them to come around – was met with derision and laughter. “That’s ridiculous” they said. “People are stubborn” they added. Well, who’s laughing now? This morning, you see I discovered that perhaps the most pig-headed fellow ever to grace the news has finally consented to his wife’s request for a divorce several months after she made her initial request. This man was the now infamous ‘Canoe Man’, John Darwin. Darwin – for those of you that have forgotten – faked his own death in 2002. Following him having been declared legally dead by the authorities, his wife then claimed hundreds of thousands of pounds through their life insurance policy, all whilst Mr Darwin was alive and well and shifting between his family home and a bedsit located next door. Several years passed and, to all extents and purposes, the couple’s cunning scheme seemed to have worked. The money from the aforementioned insurance pay-out was used to clear debts and, following Mrs Darwin having sold the family home, Mr Darwin obtained a fake passport and the couple fled to Panama with the intention of starting, somewhat ironically, a company offering canoeing holidays. It was only after Mr Darwin began to miss his now adult children – who, all parties claim, were unaware of the ruse – and decided to return to the UK that things began to unravel. In accordance with his plans, Mr Darwin returned to the UK, walked into a police station in London’s West End and, in what must have been the least convincing performance since Bill Clinton denied his infidelities, proclaimed that he had no memory of the past 5 years. The police – who had already reopened investigations into Darwin’s disappearance three months beforehand – were not convinced. Soon, evidence of the couple’s subterfuge came to light. On the 5th December 2007, the Daily Mirror printed a story that featured a picture of the couple that had been taken in Panama in 2006. Mrs Darwin’s resolve crumbled and she confessed to the ploy. Both were later sentenced to six years imprisonment. But how, exactly, does this prove my point? Consider the sheer resolve and, indeed, stubbornness that must be required to go through with such an elaborate plan. Mr Darwin’s displayed a distinct lack of conscience when planning and executing this strategy, even more when choosing to deceive his friends and family. Such a man would not think twice about denying his wife a divorce through selfishness, yet, after several months, concede he has. What does this prove then? Precisely what I intended to argue in the first instance: that whilst an individual may initially deny their spouse a divorce, whether it be in hope or spite, they will always come to the realisation that they are clutching at straws, conclude that they have no desire to remain in a toxic marriage and, in time, will yield to their partner’s request. If you are patient, a divorce will almost certainly follow.