A WOMAN who wants to divorce her husband of 40 years because she says their marriage is unhappy has lost her case.

Does this mean that British is supporting a form of ‘forced marriage’?

Supreme court judges “reluctantly” told Tini Owens she must remain Hugh Owens’ wife, because a joyless marriage is not adequate grounds for a divorce if one spouse refuses to agree.

Tini’s case has thrust the country’s lack of provision for so called no fault divorce into the spotlight.

Even spouses mutually seeking to end a marriage must, unless they have been living apart, assign blame and make often damaging allegations that lawyers say inflame potentially amicable proceedings.

But couples who have grown apart or wish to separate on more amicable terms should be able to seek another option. No fault divorce would be a more of an administrative process, rather than a Court procedure. The most common reason to end the marriage under this process would be "irreconcilable differences" or an "irreparable breakdown of the marriage".

Crucially, it would mean that a spouse would be unable to reject their counterpart's petition for a no fault divorce.