• Virginia Family Law Editorial Team
• September 3, 2026

Grounds for divorce in Virginia

General information about Virginia divorce law. This is not legal advice. For broader context, see our Virginia divorce overview and spousal support overview.

On television, a divorce tends to happen in a single dramatic scene. In Virginia, it happens on paper — and the paperwork must name a recognized ground: a legally accepted reason a court may end a marriage, drawn from the short list set out primarily in Va. Code § 20-91. Every Virginia divorce must rest on one of them. The grounds fall into two families: fault-based grounds, where one spouse’s conduct is the basis, and the no-fault ground of living separate and apart for a required period. This article walks through both, along with the residency and proof requirements that commonly catch people off guard.

The legal grounds at a glance

Fault-based grounds

The fault-based grounds share a common structure: one spouse’s serious misconduct gives the other a statutory basis to sue. Unlike the separation grounds discussed below, which mostly ask the court to confirm a fact, these grounds must be proven with evidence — and, as covered later in this article, they can be met with defenses.

Adultery

Adultery — along with sodomy or buggery committed outside the marriage — is Virginia’s most discussed fault ground. It must generally be proven by clear and convincing evidence, a higher standard than most civil claims, and courts commonly require corroborating circumstances rather than a spouse’s word alone.

Felony conviction

Felony conviction is a ground where a spouse is convicted of a felony after the marriage and sentenced to imprisonment for more than one year, and the other spouse has not resumed cohabitation after learning of the sentence. Not all felonies qualify: a conviction with a shorter sentence, or one that predates the marriage, generally does not open this ground — and resuming life together after learning of the incarceration generally closes it.

Cruelty and willful desertion

Cruelty and willful desertion or abandonment are grounds tied to a one-year clock: where a spouse is guilty of cruelty, causes reasonable apprehension of bodily hurt, or willfully deserts the other, a divorce on that ground is generally available one year after the act. Conduct rising to family abuse may also support a protective order — a separate proceeding covered in our guide to Virginia protective orders.

No-fault grounds: the separation periods

People commonly speak of no-fault grounds in the plural, but Virginia has only one true no-fault ground — and it is the one most divorces today proceed on: living separate and apart without cohabitation, and without interruption, for at least one year. The period is generally reduced to six months where two conditions are both met: the spouses have entered a signed separation agreement (a written property and support settlement) and there are no minor children of the marriage. “Separate and apart” generally means just what it says: at least one spouse must intend the separation to be permanent, and the couple must actually live separately — a question that becomes surprisingly fact-specific when spouses remain under one roof.

If the whole process feels overwhelming, it may help to know that most divorces begin far more quietly than the movies suggest — with a separation date and a plan, not a courtroom showdown. Our article Divorce Can Be Brutal discusses the emotional side of that process.

Divorce from bed and board vs from the bond of matrimony

Virginia recognizes two forms of divorce, both still wearing their centuries-old Latin names. A divorce from bed and board (a mensa et thoro) is a partial or qualified divorce: the spouses are legally separated and their property rights can be addressed, but neither may remarry. It is generally available for cruelty and desertion without waiting a full year. A divorce from the bond of matrimony (a vinculo matrimonii) is the complete divorce that ends the marriage entirely. A bed-and-board decree may generally be merged into a full divorce once the applicable time period has run. When people talk about “getting divorced,” the complete form — sometimes called an absolute divorce — is almost always what they mean.

Why fault-based grounds still matter in Virginia

Because the no-fault route is simpler, people sometimes assume fault grounds are obsolete. In practice, fault can still shape a case’s outcome — most notably spousal support: under Va. Code § 20-107.1, a court generally may not award support to a spouse who committed adultery, unless denying support would constitute a manifest injustice based on the parties’ degrees of fault and relative economic circumstances. How long any support award lasts is a separate question, covered in how long spousal support lasts.

Fault can echo through the property side of a case as well. In equitable distribution, the circumstances that contributed to the dissolution of the marriage are among the factors a court may weigh under Va. Code § 20-107.3, and misconduct that drained the marital estate — money spent on an affair, for instance — may generally be accounted for in the division. Spousal support (called maintenance in some states) remains the area where fault bites hardest, but findings of cruelty or desertion may also inform a court’s support analysis.

Defenses: condonation and recrimination

Fault-based grounds can be defended against, and the defenses carry names nearly as old as the grounds themselves. Condonation is the classic one: where a spouse learns of the misconduct and voluntarily resumes the marriage — most commonly by continuing to live together as a couple — the law generally treats the misconduct as forgiven for divorce purposes. Va. Code § 20-94, for example, generally bars a divorce for adultery where the parties voluntarily cohabited after knowledge of the adultery, or where the conduct occurred more than five years before the suit was brought. Recrimination is the mirror-image defense — roughly, “you did it too” — and justification may answer a desertion claim where the leaving spouse had a legally sufficient reason to go.

None of this means a judge will referee every accusation. In practice, many cases that begin with fault allegations still end on the no-fault ground once the separation period has run, with the fault evidence shaping negotiations rather than the final decree. Whether to plead a fault ground, hold it in reserve, or leave it out entirely is a strategy question people generally take to a licensed Virginia attorney.

Residency and corroboration requirements

Two procedural requirements apply regardless of the ground chosen. First, residency: at least one spouse must generally have been domiciled in, and an actual resident of, Virginia for at least six months before the suit is filed (Va. Code § 20-97). Second, corroboration: Virginia law generally requires that the grounds for divorce be corroborated by evidence independent of the parties’ own testimony — commonly an affidavit or deposition of a third-party witness. This applies even in uncontested no-fault cases where both spouses agree on everything: the court generally still wants to hear it from someone else. Divorce suits are filed in the circuit court; our court locator lists circuit courts by city and county.

In practice, corroboration is usually less mysterious than it sounds. In an uncontested no-fault case, it commonly takes the form of a short affidavit from a friend or relative confirming the date the spouses separated, that they have lived apart continuously, and that at least one of them intended the separation to be permanent. For the fault grounds the bar is higher: adultery, with its clear-and-convincing standard, is commonly corroborated with circumstantial evidence — travel records, messages, or the testimony of a private investigator — since direct proof is rare.