TikToker Speaks Out About Just How Difficult It Is To Get A Divorce In Mississippi—And Wow

While we're well into the 21st century, it's becoming increasingly difficult in the United States for women to execute what should be basic social rights, like getting a divorce. But states like Mississippi and most of the "Bible Belt" are making it practically impossible for people like Nurse Hadley Vlahos to fully separate from a former partner.

Though Vlahos is known on TikTok and YouTube for being a hospice nurse and wrote about end-of-life care in her New York Times bestselling book, The In-Between with How to Let Go to follow, she's now dedicating much more of her platform to documenting her three-year process of just filing for divorce, not including all that happened in the years before and in the year and a half since.

In a video that's currently going viral, Vlahos discovered years ago that her husband was not only cheating on her, but was actively in a relationship with a declared second girlfriend.

However, when Vlahos approached her lawyer about getting a divorce, the lawyer produced a list of twelve scenarios in which they could proceed with a divorce without Vlahos's then-husband's consent. Because her lawyer decided that even her binder full of evidence wasn't enough to "prove" that she was in a harmful marriage, he said they could not file until her husband agreed.

Her husband refused to agree to file and even threatened his own life if Vlahos presented him with divorce papers.

When Vlahos called her lawyer and shared that follow-up conversation with him, hoping that they could use the "altered mental health state" that was on the list of twelve possible scenarios, her lawyer told her that still wasn't enough information to work with.

His next suggestion? To hire a private investigator (PI) to trail her husband and get photographs and any other possibile evidence to prove his relationship with his girlfriend.

You can see the video here:

TikTokers and X users alike are using this video to warn women to at least check their state's marital law requirements and how divorce proceedings are handled before ever agreeing to marry someone.

After all, no matter how much you love someone, the relationship could sour, and depending on the state, it could be next to impossible to get a divorce or acquire your assets.

Viewers were shocked by how much Vlahos's situation escalated, despite her husband already having a girlfriend.

@nursehadley/TikTok

@nursehadley/TikTok

@nursehadley/TikTok

@nursehadley/TikTok

@nursehadley/TikTok

@nursehadley/TikTok

@nursehadley/TikTok

@nursehadley/TikTok

@nursehadley/TikTok

@nursehadley/TikTok

Vlahos has continued to document her journey, including following through, hiring a private investigator, and presenting all of the evidence the PI collected to her lawyer.

Her lawyer gave her a reality check around this time, saying that it would easily take at least three years to complete the divorce process, and she'd likely have to spend something like $100,000 to get it done, and that was exactly what she did. It took three years to complete the divorcing process, not including all of the back-and-forth and PI work done beforehand, and the trial itself took 11 days to complete, with fees north of the lawyer's estimated amount.

In present day, it's been a year and a half since Vlahos was officially divorced from her husband, and enough time has passed that she legally and personally feels safe enough to start documenting her journey and warning other women about what could happen.

It's always important to be honest with yourself about what you want in life, but you should also research the area in which you live to make sure that the local laws align with your wishes.