publicduende wrote:
I have quite a few friends who are divorced, both by Italian and UK law, and only one, maybe two, over a sample of say, 25, said their divorce was completely unfair, biased against them and they were left with nothing (or less than they desired). Perhaps this extreme unfairness is in the US only...who knows...
There is no question about that a huge amount of money is moving from the ex-husband to the ex-wife over decades after divorce in all Western countries.
Many divorced men are somewhat ashamed and are not telling the truth about what happened to them.
I met in another forum a man from Western Europe, married to a Thai, and one child with her - no problems at all with his marriage.
Many years later, he told me he is divorced in Western Europe, 1 ex-wife and 4 children, and all of them want money from him and in Thailand he is safe and has a good marriage/good family since about 10 years now. As he has a good working contract with an European company and is paid as a local in Thailand/China, no way to confiscate his income.
He sends regularly child support for his 4 children in EU, but his ex-wife receives that all and almost nothing is used for the children, so his children are calling him frequently and are asking for his financial support while his ex-wife is asking with the help of lawyers even for additional alimony, further all his former property and savings in Europe were all gone to the ex-wife.
He is lucky, as he is not financially broken, but his income is in no relation with his life-style but he is not really so happy in Thailand, he did not expect his life will be like that ...
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Another man I know well is from Canada, ex-wife gone with a Saudi playboy over night, still he has to pay for their child, lost his house in Vancouver and now retired in Thailand, but has still to pay alimony and child support to the ex-wife, as the Saudi playboy relationship did not work out. About 60 percent of his retirement allowance is gone including his home in Canada. What else can he do but live in Thailand with the remaining 40 percent?
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I also know a German man in Cebu, he was working in a factory in Frankfurt, got a serious heart problem and was in hospital for over 6 months. Finally out of hospital, his house was gone, taken by his ex-wife and her new boyfriend. He was divorced, jobless and was sent by a social service to a room in an old house in the basement, 59, he gets some social support (needs medication for lifetime) and early retirement allowance - he asked me 'what did I do wrong? I was working all my life' and he also told me sadly for his son his computer is now more important than his father... he is also missing Germany, and he had a small house near Frankfurt and another small land plot outside the city with a summer-house and beautiful garden - all gone to the ex-wife.
At least in Cebu City he finds some nice people who have time talking to him, even taking care of him a little.
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One of my friend in Austria made the wrong decision to marry a divorced wife with a child. She left him soon, abandoned her child, was moving back to her ex-husband (who was not the biological father of her child and disliked her child), remarried him after divorcing my friend and was demanding from him to move out of HIS house. This did not work out, as she made the mistake to abandon her child, he is now financially OK, but do not ask me for the lawyer fees to regulate that. He got custody of HER child, but of course never saw a single Euro child support.
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If you need horror stories about divorce from USA, I can also serve you - a guy who had his hardest time to divorce finally from his cheating psychotic wife. Finally single again - lawyer's fee USD 400.000,- +.
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For your info, I do not know even about a single divorce (marriage/divorce) and not co-habitation/separation, where the ex-husband who had honest intentions, was willing to work, had some savings etc. got away easily.
I know however about a woman who was living with 2 thugs from Greece and Turkey in Austria rejecting any honest local man, finally 3 children and after she was beaten up several times by both of them, they left. I heard she is living a poverty life as she is now 45+.
Shall I feel sorry for her?