Is January Divorce Month… or just “New Year, New Me (and New Solicitor)” Month?

Is January Divorce Month… or just “New Year, New Me (and New Solicitor)” Month?

Every January, the same headline pops up like a leftover mince pie you swore you’d finished:

“It's Divorce Month”

“Divorce Day is here”

“Couples are splitting faster than a Quality Street tin”

And look, I understand why it sticks. January is when the decorations come down, the bank account enters its Victorian orphan era, and you suddenly have the emotional bandwidth to notice that you and your spouse have been communicating exclusively through sighs and passive aggressive dishwasher stacking.

So, is January actually divorce month?

First, what is “Divorce Day” in the UK?

“Divorce Day” is usually used to mean the first working Monday in January, and in 2026 that landed on Monday 5 January.But it is not an official legal thing. As UK solicitors Sewell Mullings put it: “No, it is not an official legal date.”

So why does it feel so real?

Because January has peak fresh start energy. Christmas can be a pressure cooker. Money, family, routine disruption, unrealistic expectations, too much togetherness, and not in a sexy way, in a “you are breathing wrong” way. UK firms routinely report a rise in enquiries after the festive break.

The boring but important bit, what do the UK stats say?

Here is the part where I gently take the glitter off the headline.

The UK government’s court stats do not show a dramatic January only cliff edge. In the Ministry of Justice Family Court Statistics Quarterly for England and Wales: “Between January to March 2024 there were 27,908 divorce applications made.”

In other words, January may be when lots of people make enquiries and start saying it out loud, but the actual applications are steady across the year.

Even the legal press has started side eyeing the “Divorce Day” hype. The Times quoted Christopher Finch of HCR Law saying: “there is no sudden surge on one particular day that justifies the label ‘divorce day’.”

So the fairest take is this. January can be a peak moment for searching, reflecting, and reaching out. It is not necessarily the month where everyone suddenly divorces at once.

And then there is my July divorce, a midsummer plot twist

Personally, I did not get a neat January storyline.

My divorce arrived in July, height of summer, thrown at me like an unwanted surprise. No new year new beginnings vibe. No symbolic fresh start Monday. Just sunshine outside and your life quietly doing a cartwheel into a hedge.

And honestly, that is more common than people admit.

Because heartbreak does not check the calendar first. It does not wait until your inbox is cleared and you have bought a new notebook. Sometimes it lands when everyone else is posting Aperol Spritzes and you are thinking, is it normal to feel like my insides have been replaced with wet cement?

If you are reading this in January, or any month, and it is hitting close to home

If you are mid separation, considering it, or silently realising you cannot do another year of this, I am really sorry. It is a lot. Emotionally, practically, financially, and then someone asks what you want for dinner like you have not just had your entire identity rearranged.

A small, very human survival kit, not legal advice, just kindness:

1. Eat something with actual nutrients. Divorce has a way of turning people into crisps with a side of adrenaline.

2. Tell one safe person. Not the one who will immediately say “I always hated them.” The calm one.

3. Write down what is true today. Not what you fear might happen. Just what is real, right now.

4. Do one practical thing. One call, one note, one admin task, then stop. You do not have to fix the whole future in a single afternoon.

5. Let humour in where you can. Not to minimise it, to breathe.

Because laughter does not cancel grief. It just stops it from swallowing all the oxygen.

So, should you write a January divorce month blog post?

Yes, because it is relevant, searchable, and it gives you a useful angle to talk about the myth versus reality, how messy it feels, and the gentler truth that there is no perfect time for your life to fall apart.

It also lets you say this. If yours did not happen in January, you are not behind. You are just human.

If you need a laugh that is sympathetic, not smug

If you are in that “what on earth is my life?” chapter and you want something that is funny, warm, and painfully honest about love going sideways, my book Swipe Right, Keep Left: Misadventures in Modern Dating is written for exactly that season.

It will not magically solve anything, I tried, but apparently Amazon do not stock “instant emotional clarity.” But it might make you laugh in that way where you snort, then immediately think, hang on, is that a tear?

Be gentle with yourself today. January or July, it is still a lot.

Lots of love, Nella x