Marital status – divorced or single? If you are asked your marital status after a divorce, do you say single or divorced? Is there really any difference?
What should you say in reply to a marital status question if you are divorced?
If you used to be married but have been through a divorce, your marital status has definitely changed, that much is certain. But do you need to call yourself divorced or can you say single instead?
Technically most organisations will not care if you describe yourself as divorced or single. The choice is up to you. It is an option, and as long as you don’t select married, you can say whatever you want.
Describing yourself as divorced lets people know that you were previously married. This can be relevant in some cases where knowing your marital status history is particularly important. For example, on a dating website some people might think it was slightly disingenuous or misleading to describe yourself as single if you have in fact been married previously. That being said, it is not wrong to say single.
In some cases, people may wish to describe themselves as divorced to make their marital status totally clear.
On the other hand, many people might want to describe themselves as single because they do not want to be defined by their past.
Just because someone has been married and then becomes divorced, why should everyone define you based on something that happened in your past, potentially 10, 20, 30 years ago. We don’t apply the same logic to someone that used to live in a certain city but doesn’t anymore. Or someone that used to be rich or poor, but isn’t now. To many, it doesn’t seem to make sense that the divorced person should be labelled in this way for the rest of their life.
Ultimately this is your decision on how you describe yourself in terms of marital status, divorced or single. Things like your insurance will not typically be any cheaper or more expensive for people describing themselves as single or divorced. Companies tend to treat these two marital status options in the same pricing bracket.
What do you think? What marital status would you use in different scenarios? Please leave a comment and discuss.