Every weekend in Ghana, marriages are joyfully blessed and celebrated.

However, the legal path to ending a marriage is much more stringent.

According to Section 1 of the Matrimonial Causes Act of Ghana, a court will only grant a divorce if the marriage has broken down beyond reconciliation.

"The sole ground for granting a petition for divorce shall be that the marriage has broken down beyond reconciliation.

"One of the grounds for proving such a breakdown is if a partner has committed adultery."

An explainer by Yudah Brown of the law-gh, as illustrated in the case of Eunice N. Antwi v. John N. Antwi, demonstrates infidelity alone is insufficient for obtaining a divorce.

The court requires evidence that the adultery made it impossible, intolerable, or unbearable for the aggrieved partner to stay in the marriage.

In this case, the petitioner, Eunice N. Antwi, discovered that her husband was sleeping with another woman and had even fathered a child with her.

Despite this, she continued living with her husband for four years and four months before seeking a divorce.

The court ruled that simply citing adultery was not enough to grant a divorce.

The judge emphasized that the petitioner must show that the adultery made it impossible, unbearable, and intolerable to continue living with the partner.

The prolonged cohabitation of Eunice with her husband after discovering the adultery indicated that the situation was not intolerable.

As a result, the court denied the divorce on the grounds of adultery, the explainer said.

It added that instead, the divorce was granted based on other reasons not specified in the case summary.

While adultery can be a ground for divorce, it must be accompanied by clear evidence that it has made the marriage unbearable and impossible to continue.

This ensures that divorce petitions are thoroughly examined and that the integrity of marriage is upheld.

NAY/AE

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