Divorce lies

[Doyoubelievehim]

Hello,
I'm hoping there is someone here who has legal knowledge on the following.
I have recently split from my partner, who was not only emotionally abusive but also told many lies.

I guess for my own sanity I just want to know the extend of his lies and how long they've gone on for.

One thing that he told me, which I'm dubious about but can't find any information about is the fact that when I met him, he was technically still married however separated and no contact with his ex for the 2 years prior.
He also had a non molestation order against him from said ex.
Now, his reason for still being married was that, he claimed, he was not able to start divorce proceedings. Apparently she was the only party who would be able to initiate the divorce. And he claimed she wasn't initiating because she wanted to continue to wield control over his life.
When I pushed back on this, as I've never heard of that rule and can't find anything online about it, he claimed high and low that he was legally unable to initiate it.
Is there ever any circumstance where this would apply or be a thing, or was this 100% a blatant lie? I have no clue why he wouldn't have wanted to divorce.
Eventually they did get divorced another 2 years later, so after 4 years of no contact. She initiated it online and he agreed to it online.
However I'm still doubting the initial story, there's a lot of holes in his entire account and I just feel so gaslighted by him that I guess it would really help me to know if there could be any truth to this story or not.

If anyone knows about this, I would very much appreciate it.

You will never know, kindly, move on.
Everything he told you was probably a lie. Doubt everything he told you as a way to cover up his actions.
Getting a NMO isn't easy, red flag.
You and the ex will now be painted as the psycho ex to the next person he gets with.
Spend your time and energy in therapy getting yourself in a better place.

He is just a liar. Accept that and let this go. Normal humans don’t like telling lies and we don’t expect others to tell us lies. We can do it when we need to. Most functional adults learn it is easier to live a good life if it is free from lies. It’s just not functional to weave lies and to withhold the truth.

His lie was easy to disprove, very easy prove. Just google the question. I expect all you need is “grounds for divorce in x in 20?”.

There was and is one simple truth, he is a liar in all things.

The law changed in April 2022. At that point either party could apply and you do not need a "reason" to apply.

Before April 2022, either party could apply but you needed grounds for divorce. These included unreasonable behaviour (often used for the so called quickie divorce), adultery (the Applicant needs to be the cheated on party not the cheater), or if parties agreed and had been separated for two years then either party could apply. Or if separated for 5 years either party could apply without the consent of the other party.

So depending on the time he was talking about depends on the law on place but generally speaking there was always a way to file for divorce and since April 2022 it has not been remotely difficult.

Hope that helps.