Grounds for Divorce in Mississippi

 

            In Mississippi if both parties do not agree to a divorce, the party seeking a divorce must sue the other on fault-based grounds. The person seeking divorce has the job of proving that he or she is entitled to a divorce based on the applicable grounds. The current fault-based grounds recognized in Mississippi are: (1) natural impotency; (2) adultery; (3) sentenced to any penitentiary; (4) desertion for one year; (5) habitual drunkenness; (6) habitual and excessive use of opium, morphine, or other like drug; (7) habitual cruel and inhuman treatment; (8) mental illness at the time of marriage; (9) bigamy; (10) pregnancy of the wife by another person at the time of marriage, if the husband did not know of the pregnancy; (11) kinship within the prohibited degree; and (12) incurable mental illness.

            For more information about each of these grounds, see Mississippi Code §93-5-1 (2004).