What is an annulment and how is it different from a divorce?
Like divorce, annulment also dissolves a marriage; but unlike divorce, it indicates that the marriage never happened. An annulment is often required in the Roman Catholic Church in order for someone to remarry. Grounds for an annulment vary by jurisdiction but usually include: • fraud or misrepresentation (for example, one spouse may already be married to someone else or may have withheld the fact that he or she can’t have children) • concealment (for example, the spouse may have concealed a drug addiction, prior criminal record or having a sexually transmitted disease) • inability or refusal to have sexual intercourse with his or her spouse • misunderstanding (for example, differing ideas of lifestyle or desire to have children) Annulments are most common when couples have not been married for very long. One annulment that made the news in 2004 dissolved the marriage of Britney Spears to her childhood sweetheart Jason Alle
