Today we heard two very different stories connected with divorces.

First off from Saudi Arabia came news of one of the potential hazards of  a “blind date” and I suppose a risk which might be encountered at a fully Islamic wedding.

The official wedding photographer wanted the couple to pose for pictures and therefore asked the bride to lift her veil, but immediately she did so, the groom was so shocked after seeing his bride for the first time, that he demanded an instant divorce.

“You are not the girl, I imagined, and you are not the girl, I want to marry. I’m sorry but I hereby divorce you,” he said.

As you can imagine the bride was devastated, collapsing in a fit of tears as family members from both sides tried to find a resolution. 

But even though the couple from the western town of Medinah, had agreed to the marriage in spite of never having actually met face-to-face, not an unusual occurrence in some Middle Eastern countries, the groom would have none of it!

I bet that the wedding breakfast and reception turned out to be a bit of a “bummer” as well!

Meanwhile news has just been reported of another divorce in the USA but in this case the former wife of an oil magnate was far from happy at the divorce settlement in spite of being awarded US$1bn  – £640m.

It seems that at times during the marriage Mrs Hamm was actually employed by the company, at one point becoming the executive in charge of the company’s crude marketing Division, whilst at the same time she was also working hard to raise the couple’s two children.

The now divorced Sue Ann Hamm felt she had been short changed and that the decision was “not equitable” given that her ex husband was allowed to keep – around 94% of the estimated $18bn rise in his Continental shares during the 26-year long marriage, along with a log cabin and 154 acres in Major County, Oklahoma.

You may be interested to know that Mrs Hamm’s appeal was turned down so I guess she’ll need to tighten her belt some!

Hope to see you again tomorrow,
Scott