Why is an annulment considered a divorce?
I’ve always wondered why, if you gotten an annulment, your husband is your ex, like when you get divorced. If the marriage wasn’t consummated and was a farce, a la Kenny Chesney and Renee Zellweger, why are you considered exes? Anyone in law like family/divorce law can clarify it for me, please?
One Response
coragryph
04 Nov 2009
An annulment is different than a divorce. In a divorce, the marriage is consider to have happened, and now it’s terminated. In an annulment, the marriage is never considered to have happened.
The trick comes in two situations. First, when you’re talking about legal and religious marriage. One might consider the termination to be a divorce, and the other annulment. So, for example, you might get a religious annulment and a legal divorce. As far as the church is concerned, you were never married. As far as the law is concerned, you were and it was terminated.
But even under a purely legal context, the difference matters because some legal effects are triggered upon marriage and divorce (implied changes in wills, community property issues, etc.).
The problem is, what do you call someone who you were never married to (after an annulment), especially to people who thought you had gotten married. You call then your "ex". It’s just a lack of alternative terminology to express the different legal status. But the distinction as far as the different status goes remains important, despite the terminology used to refer to your former/non-spouse.