It’s not unusual when one party disagrees with a divorce settlement. It’s not even strange when both sides are unhappy. But sometimes the outcome is so unexpected that it takes your breath away.
So, if you’re about to undergo a few rounds of serious discussions about your upcoming divorce settlement, take a moment to look at the lighter side of some of the world’s weirdest divorce outcomes.
Organ Donor’s Remorse in the UK
You can’t always get back something in a divorce settlement that you gave during the marriage. Take for example a UK woman in Ivybridge, Devon, who dropped over 40 pounds to lower her body mass and become eligible as a kidney donor for her husband. The now divorced mother says she regrets giving her kidney.
At the time, Samantha Lamb described her husband Andy as her soulmate despite their frequent arguments. The couple even appeared in a BBC television documentary entitled “Diet or My Husband Dies.” To put it bluntly, she did the former but now would prefer the latter.
The transplant took place in 2009. But Mr. Lamb moved out of the house in 2012 while his wife was at work. When he left, he took, of course, his wife’s kidney.
Samantha and Andy began dating in 2004 when they worked for the same employer. They married in 2007.
Samantha says Andy became even more challenging to live with after the surgery. She says he told her never to mention the transplant. She interpreted this as anger coming from guilt over his conduct.
Maybe things would have worked out if Andy had been satisfied with just Samantha’s kidney. Instead, according to Samantha, he also wanted her friend, Clare. Samantha says Claire admitted to the affair and even allowed Samantha to overhear a revealing phone conversation with Andy.
Samantha said she retaliated by cutting up his clothes and placing them outside the house in a bag. But later, she took him back. However, she says she then discovered he was having online sex chats.
When Andy moved out, leaving the keys behind, that was the end for Samantha. She had had enough of the marriage and wanted a divorce. She wanted no further ties with her ex-husband.
She says she supports organ donation but wishes she hadn’t given her kidney to Andy.
What’s the Cost of a Kidney in the US?
Kidneys made more than one appearance in divorce courts in 2009. Our next story happened in the US.
In 2009, four years after his wife filed for divorce, Doctor Richard Batista of Long Island, New York, knew he couldn’t get his heart back, so he asked for his kidney. He had donated his kidney to his wife eight years prior. And if she was going to walk out of the door, he wanted the kidney returned.
The couple married in 1990 and had three children. The doctor said he first donated his kidney to save his wife’s life. And second, to try to hold onto the marriage that he said was at the breaking point because of her illness. She had tried kidney transplants before, but in both instances, the transplants failed.
But four years following the successful transplant and after 19 years of marriage, the union was over. Unfortunately for the doctor, he wound up with both a broken heart and only one kidney.
US divorce laws don’t cover organ donations. Human organs cannot be sold or bartered in the States. So, ownership can’t be part of divorce settlements.
Donors sign a legally binding document stating that they understand the organ is a gift without any financial requirements or other obligations attached.
Being Dead is No Excuse for Avoiding Eviction in Australia
Many divorced people are happy that they no longer have to deal with their in-laws. But one Australian woman took it a step further. She had her divorce attorney legally make sure that she wouldn’t have to interact with her in-laws after death, specifically theirs.
When she and her husband settled their divorce case in 2012, the court gave her ownership of the family farm. The farm belonged to her husband’s parents. And when they died, the urns containing their ashes were placed in burial plots on the property.
But the divorce meant the property was under new ownership. And the new owner said everything had to go. That included mom and pop.
The husband said it was like a kick in the guts to dig up his parents’ ashes and headstones from their former property. But how did he lose the land?
The judge questioned whether the husband, who earned $160,000 annually as a corporate manager, could make a success of the family farm. Meanwhile, the judge said the wife did not have the financial means to obtain similar property, as provided by divorce law.
So, he ruled in favor of granting the property to the wife, who planned on turning it into a hospitality business. Let’s hope she’s been more hospitable to customers than she was to her in-laws.
German Man Puts the “Split” in Splitsville
A man in Sonneberg, Germany, didn’t contest his divorce ruling. No, he energetically divided his belongings, including the house. He chain-sawed the house in two, hoisted his half onto a forklift truck, and drove off.
Greedy Man Gets Less Than Nothing in South Africa
At least the husband in Germany got something. In Pretoria, South Africa, a hubby got nothing. The court ruled that his ex-wife did not have to share her pension because when he received his pension years prior, he didn’t share it with her.
But it gets better, for her, that is. Because the husband reportedly did little to nothing to contribute to the home, the court ruled that all the assets were hers.
Avoid Having the Weirdest Divorce
As the above stories show, divorce settlements can take some strange and wacky turns. But with good legal advice, you can keep your situation, no matter how complex, from becoming the weirdest divorce on record.