Just over a week ago, one of the world’s wealthiest couples Bill and Melinda Gates announced their divorce after 27 years together. Avoiding the nitty gritty details of the divorce, they only said “We no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in the next phase of our lives”, and that was it. While we know there are other underlying reasons to their break-up, there are other people who’ve pulled the plug on their unions for all manners of reasons, as compiled by Mwangi Alberto

Late at wedding

Krystal Robinson, a Facebook user, told BuzzFeed he knew his marriage was over on their wedding day. How, you might ask?

The bride was still getting ready and didn’t even have her dress on when the guests arrived.

“My mum helped me get ready, but my ex-wife was another 45 minutes behind.

The wedding started almost two hours late because of her. I knew right then and there that it wasn’t going to work,” he said.

Cards to hot singles

After being together for five years, Colleen Ann walked out on her husband when she discovered that he was sending gift cards to “hot singles” in their area in exchange for nudes and videos.

“That money was supposed to be going toward our bills, which I was paying for on my own.

He had done plenty of things over the years that made me feel like I didn’t matter, but I always forgave him.

This was the push I needed to get out once and for all. I’m currently single and have never been happier.

Leaving was the best thing I ever did. Don’t put up with s**t you don’t deserve! Know your worth,” she said.

The kitchen garden 

Another interviewee said she knew it was time to get a divorce when the hubby couldn’t go outside to look at her tomatoes in the kitchen garden.

She said: “I had busted my a** to create an amazing yard with a side garden, and when my tomatoes finally appeared, he wouldn’t come look.

It was like all of a sudden I could see that he never did anything to make me happy. He never shared in my happiness or rooted for me or celebrated me, ever.

It was like I was just there, always doing my own thing. But when it was time for ‘us,’ it was only about his things. My things just didn’t matter to him.”

No Christmas gift

Kristina Skipwith knew their relationship was over when the husband failed to get her a birthday or Christmas gift in the last six years of their 10-year marriage.

“However, he always had his list ready for me every time! He’d claim he was out of money after buying himself a gift, so he couldn’t get me anything,” she said.

A job offer

Erica Marie got a job offer after spending 10 years at home taking care of their children.

“My new boss wanted to know my salary requirements, so I asked my then-husband if I should request $50,000 (Sh5 million) a year.

His response was, ‘You really think you’re worth that much?’ I’m now happily engaged to a man who treats me well and respects me as an equal,” said Marie.

Pooping dog response

About 10 years into the marriage, Gina Marie and her husband were temporarily living an hour away from each other because they were in the process of moving.

One day she was having a horrible day and was in a very depressed mood. So, she told him that all she wanted was to see him.

He responded with a Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) of a dog pooping, and that was the moment she knew their marriage was done and dusted.

Business proposal

Louise Han Hoffmann had a solid business idea that she took to her husband, who was an entrepreneur, but he decided against it.

A close friend of his from high school later went to him with the same idea as his wife’s and asked him for funding.

He gave her $30,000 (Sh3 million) to implement it. She told BuzzFeed, “He asked me to go to the bank to sign something, but he wouldn’t tell me what it was.

When I demanded to know what I was signing, he finally told me about the business investment. I was crushed.

Absolutely broken. That was the last and final straw in a disrespectful relationship where I had little to no value.

However, their business has now closed, so I’d like to thank karma for that because it felt great to hear that news.”

Embarrassingly funny

A man decided it was time to divorce his first wife when she instructed him not to talk at a small party they were attending with her friends. Apparently, she had told him that even though she thought he was funny, he was actually embarrassing her.

“When we got to the party, her friend asked me why I was so quiet. I told her what my wife said to me, and all of her friends said that I was not an embarrassment and that I was very funny.

I decided that if my wife was embarrassed by me being me, it was time to move on,” he said.

Talk with girlfriend

It was Kimmie Coco’s first day home from the hospital after a “pretty brutal” delivery of their daughter.

She said: “My husband thought I was asleep, but I heard him on the phone talking to his girlfriend. Divorce papers were filed the next week. Best thing I ever did.”

Dad’s fast food

At the time of their son’s birth, Quizzy Moon and her husband had been married for six years.

The newborn was pre-term and in severe distress, so the mother had an emergency Caesarean-section.

She says, “I almost died from hemolysis (the rupturing of red blood cells and the release of their contents into surrounding fluid such as the blood plasma) during the pregnancy.

And when I woke up in recovery, my husband’s first words to me were, ‘I’m going to find my dad.

He has Taco Bell’.” She broke up with him without giving it much a thought. Source: BuzzFeed