Many people have gone through the pain of divorce. There are often feelings of rejection and bereavement especially if the divorce ended acrimoniously. The stresses of divorce are more complicated in the pandemic era. Periods of lockdown and stay-at-home orders exacerbated existing marital problems (or created new ones) especially when both spouses are constantly in close proximity to each other, either because they work remotely or lost their job due to the pandemic.
In the United Kingdom, “divorce enquiries [rose] by 122% from July to October 2020 compared to the same period in 2019” (Hatley). Celebrities are not immune from the effects of divorce. On March 4, 2022 the celebrity website TMZ reported that Kanye West penned a poem about the end of his marriage to Kim Kardashian, in which he wrote: “Divorce feels like full blown Covid … like your doctor don’t know s**t … like your walking on glass … like you’re running through a glass wall … like you’re being bullied in a class hall.”
Most courts were closed to in-person hearings so legal proceedings had to take place virtually. The author of this blog went through a divorce in 2021. It was surreal to be sitting at home using Zoom to talk to two mediators (both lovely women in their 60s) and my soon-to-be ex spouse (who had logged in from work) about how to end our marriage and divide our assets. Meetings with my lawyer were conducted over Zoom. My divorce hearing was conducted over Zoom which was weird. On my laptop screen was the judge, my lawyer, and my spouse (who had logged in from work). Her WiFi connection kept cutting out so the judge had to keep repeating his questions. Finally, it was all over and I was newly divorced. Because of the pandemic, the whole “going to court” thing was completely bypassed. The situation where everything was done virtually was bizarre and felt like a Black Mirror episode. One minute you’re married, and the next you’re not.
In the pandemic era, there are complicated issues involving divorce and child custody. Some of them involve disputes about whether to get the kids vaccinated where one parent wants this and the other disagrees. Child swap, especially across state lines where there are travel restrictions, can create contention. Custody issues are more complex if one parent has Covid-19 and the other doesn’t, or a child has Covid-19 but their siblings test negative for Covid. Who gets the kids during quarantine? One legal blog post commented that “parents who were otherwise exercising regular parenting time with their children may now be forced to exercise virtual parenting time only during a period of self-quarantine or even longer if it is deemed that the children are at risk” (Danaher). Finally, many people who lost their jobs during the pandemic fell behind with alimony and child support payments leaving the other parent struggling to provide for their child’s basic needs.
For anyone experiencing a Covid divorce or separation visit DivorceMag.com and check out their resources page. They offer good advice for individuals and families going through this crisis such as child custody, co-parenting and finances.
Social Media Trends as of May 2, 2022
Facebook #coviddivorce: people are posting about this
Instagram #coviddivorce: 607 posts
TikTok #coviddivorce: 1.2 million views
YouTube #coviddivorce: less than 100 videos and channels
Google Trends: covid divorce reached its peak during the week of March 29, 2020 which just so happened to coincide with lockdown and stay-at-home orders.
Sources:
“COVID-19 and Divorce Resource Page.” DivorceMag.com. URL: https://www.divorcemag.com/covid-19-and-divorce-resource-page.
Danaher, Scott. “The Impact of COVID-19 on Family Law in New Jersey.” Snydersarno.com. May 29, 2020. URL: https://www.snydersarno.com/blog/2020/05/29/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-205449.
“Divorce Sucks … Here’s a Poem to Prove it!!!” TMZ. March 4, 2022. URL: https://www.tmz.com/2022/03/04/kanye-west-divorce-poem-kim-kardashian-pete-davidson/.
Hatley, Emma. “Emma Hatley appears on Sky News to explain why divorce rates have increased during the pandemic.” StewartsLaw.com. 30 November 2020. URL: https://www.stewartslaw.com/news/emma-hatley-appears-on-sky-news-to-explain-why-divorce-rates-have-increased-during-pandemic/.
Santos, Thiago. “Covid Divorce” image. Adobe. File 371877325.
6 replies on “Covid divorce”
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