The 7 Grounds for Divorce in Texas (And When Fault Matters)

• Seven grounds, one no-fault, six fault-based. Chapter 6 lists insupportability (§ 6.001) plus six fault grounds: cruelty (§ 6.002), adultery (§ 6.003), felony conviction (§ 6.004), abandonment (§ 6.005), living apart three years (§ 6.006), and mental-hospital confinement (§ 6.007).
• Fault can change the property division under Tex. Fam. Code § 7.001 ("just and right") and, in Murff v. Murff, 615 S.W.2d 696 (Tex. 1981), was expressly identified among the factors a trial court may weigh.
• Adultery is proven by direct or circumstantial evidence — texts, financial records, hotel receipts, and travel patterns count. Suspicion alone does not.
• The 60-day waiting period under § 6.702 applies regardless of the ground, with narrow family-violence exceptions in § 6.702(c).
• Pleading both is standard practice. A Texas petition normally alleges insupportability plus one or more fault grounds in the alternative so the case can proceed even if the fault ground doesn't stick.
• Texas does not have covenant marriage. Only three states do (LA, AZ, AR), so covenant-marriage divorce grounds do not exist in Texas.

Under Tex. Fam. Code § 6.001, a court may grant a divorce "without regard to fault" if the marriage has become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities that destroys the legitimate ends of the marital relationship and prevents any reasonable expectation of reconciliation. This is Texas's no-fault ground. It cannot be blocked by the other spouse. No specific misconduct needs to be alleged or proven, and the court is not authorized to require reconciliation counseling as a prerequisite.

Insupportability is the ground the overwhelming majority of Texas petitions rely on because it is the only ground the other spouse has no defense to. Even in cases involving cruelty or adultery, most petitioners plead insupportability primarily and add fault grounds in the alternative — that way the case moves forward on the no-fault ground if the fault evidence falls short at trial.

Under Tex. Fam. Code § 6.002, a court may grant a divorce in favor of one spouse if the other is guilty of cruel treatment of a nature that renders further living together insupportable. Texas courts have interpreted "cruel treatment" as willful, persistent, unnecessary infliction of suffering — physical or mental — beyond ordinary marital discord. A single incident of serious violence generally qualifies; a pattern of emotional cruelty can also qualify with sufficient evidence.

Evidence that wins: medical records, police reports, family-violence protective orders, photographs of injuries, contemporaneous texts, witness testimony from people who observed the treatment or its aftermath, and CPS records if the cruelty extended to the children. A family-violence finding under Tex. Fam. Code § 71.004 supercharges a cruelty claim and independently affects conservatorship under § 153.004.

Under Tex. Fam. Code § 6.003, a court may grant a divorce on the ground that the other spouse committed adultery. Texas courts define adultery as voluntary sexual intercourse of a married person with someone other than the spouse. Emotional affairs or non-sexual romantic relationships do not qualify — the statute requires sexual conduct.

Adultery is proven by direct or circumstantial evidence. Direct evidence is rare (an admission, or being caught in the act). Circumstantial evidence is common and sufficient — texts, DMs, dating-app profiles, credit-card statements showing hotel stays or gifts, mileage logs, and testimony from private investigators. Texas courts hold that adultery can also occur after physical separation but before the divorce is granted; it is still adultery for § 6.003 purposes.

Under Tex. Fam. Code § 6.004, divorce is available where the other spouse (1) has been convicted of a felony during the marriage, (2) has been imprisoned for at least one year in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a federal penitentiary, or a similar prison in another state, and (3) has not been pardoned. The petitioning spouse may not use this ground if the conviction was based on the testimony of that spouse.

Under Tex. Fam. Code § 6.005, divorce is available where the other spouse (1) left the complaining spouse with the intention of abandonment, and (2) remained away for at least one year. Both elements must be satisfied — intent to abandon and the one-year absence. Leaving temporarily for work or family reasons does not qualify.

Under Tex. Fam. Code § 6.006, a court may grant a divorce if the spouses have lived apart without cohabitation for at least three years. No fault or misconduct is required. This ground is rarely used because § 6.001 insupportability is faster and does not require a specific separation duration.

Under Tex. Fam. Code § 6.007, divorce is available where the other spouse (1) has been confined in a state or private mental hospital in Texas or elsewhere for at least three years, and (2) the mental disorder is of such a degree that adjustment is unlikely, or if adjustment occurs a relapse is probable. This is the most narrowly applied ground and requires medical testimony.

Yes — sometimes materially. Texas divides community property in a "just and right" manner under Tex. Fam. Code § 7.001. That does not mean 50/50 by default. In Murff v. Murff, 615 S.W.2d 696, 699 (Tex. 1981), the Texas Supreme Court held a trial court may consider "such factors as the spouses' capacities and abilities, benefits which the party not at fault would have derived from continuation of the marriage, business opportunities, education, relative physical conditions, relative financial condition and obligations, disparity of ages, size of separate estates, and the nature of the property," and — importantly — "fault in the breakup of the marriage."

In practice, proven fault (particularly adultery paired with community-money spending, or documented family violence) is one of the strongest factors moving a Texas judge from 50/50 toward a 55/45 or 60/40 division in favor of the non-offending spouse. Adultery financed with community funds also supports a fraud-on-the-community/reimbursement claim under § 7.009 — that's the "reconstituted estate" doctrine, and it can add years of the affair's spending back into the marital pot to be divided.

Adultery, standing alone, generally does not affect custody. Texas courts decide conservatorship and possession based on the best interest of the child under Tex. Fam. Code § 153.002, applying the Holley v. Adams (544 S.W.2d 367, Tex. 1976) factors. An affair typically does not touch those factors unless the conduct exposed the children (paramour introduced too quickly, inappropriate exposure, misuse of parenting time, or misuse of resources otherwise available to the children).

Family violence is different. Under § 153.004(b), a history or pattern of family violence within the two years preceding the filing of the suit — or during the pendency of the suit — creates a rebuttable presumption against joint managing conservatorship and against giving the offending parent the exclusive right to determine the child's primary residence. Cruelty pled and proven under § 6.002 is often the same conduct that triggers § 153.004(b) in the same case.