France may be famous for love stories — think Cyrano de Bergerac, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, or even the romantic allure of Paris itself — but its divorce laws? Not exactly a fairy tale.
In 2019, a woman known only by the initials H.W. faced a setback in her pursuit to divorce her husband. She claimed her husband’s work got in the way of their marriage, but the French courts ruled that she was the one to blame because she refused to have sex with him. Under France’s marital laws, her refusal was a violation of her marital duties.
Fast-forward to 2025, and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) isn’t too thrilled that a French court had appointed itself landlord of H.W.'s bodily temple. Instead, the ECHR ruled in favor of her. Yes, H.W. had to take her divorce to an international court to win her sexual freedom. If that doesn’t show how outdated, expensive, and emotionally brutal fault-based divorce can be, what does?
No-fault divorce — the faster, kinder, and cheaper route
Luckily for those of us in Washington State, no-fault divorce is the standard, and has been since the 1970s.
No-fault divorce lets people say, “This isn’t working,” without having to air dirty laundry in front of a judge. There’s no need to accuse your spouse of cruelty, infidelity, or abandonment; citing “irreconcilable differences” will do.
It’s quicker, less costly, and, maybe most importantly, way less emotionally exhausting. It lets adults handle their business like adults, rather than turning the court into a platform for who can prove the other person is worse.
The ugly side of fault-based divorce (and the celebs who prove it)
In contrast, fault-based divorce requires you to prove your spouse did something “bad enough” to warrant ending the marriage, as H.W. discovered. This leads to long, public, messy battles that make divorce even more painful.
And while most of us aren’t famous, celebrities who’ve been caught in fault-based divorce drama show the pitfalls:
- Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard – This was not your average divorce but a global spectacle. Depp and Heard accused one another of abuse, with the world watching, resulting in months of litigation, reputational damage, and severe emotional beating.
- Paul McCartney vs. Heather Mills – McCartney’s split from Mills was incredibly stressful for the two, with the exes not coming to an agreement on the settlement amount. This led to Mills publicly blaming the ex-Beatle’s bad conduct for the breakdown of their marriage, with allegations of cruelty and private details splashed across tabloids.
- Alec Baldwin vs. Kim Basinger – Their divorce and subsequent custody battle over their daughter Ireland turned nasty, with both sides airing grievances publicly and spending years battling it out in court. Interestingly, Baldwin and Basinger are on good terms these days. It must be the mellowing of age.
In each case, the fault-based, adversarial approach turned the divorce into a war zone, with both sides having to prove who was more wrong.
Why no-fault divorce is the saner, smarter choice
Here’s the thing: no-fault divorce doesn’t mean pretending everything’s fine. It means recognizing that sometimes marriages have to end, and people deserve the freedom to move on without having to re-traumatize themselves in the process.
H.W.’s case is a cautionary tale. It took an international court to restore her freedom — something that could have been handled much more humanely under a no-fault system.
Need help untangling your marriage without the courtroom drama?
Here in Western Washington, LaGrandeur & Williams helps clients navigate divorce the modern, no-fault way because life’s hard enough without adding legal battles to the heartbreak. So contact us today if you want a divorce devoid of drama.