Can you divorce your parents in England and Wales?

There are frequent media reports of celebrity children cutting ties with their parents. But is it possible to divorce your parents in England and Wales? The answer is no.

The severing of a legal familial relationship is not part of the framework of English law but the question can sometimes arise in cases where a child has been a victim of abuse – a child might wish to go further than not spending time with their parent and sever a legal relationship.

English law does not however recognise emancipation. Severing the legal relationship with a parent is only possible in circumstances where a child is adopted. Parents otherwise retain legal responsibility for their children, and this is most commonly exercised through what is known as ‘parental responsibility’. It is however possible to be a legal parent and not have parental responsibility (for example an unmarried father who is not named on a child’s birth certificate). 

In English law, parental responsibility is all encompassing and includes all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and his property. Parental responsibility can only ever be terminated or restricted in very extreme circumstances. And it can only ever be terminated entirely, save in instances of adoption, for an unmarried father, otherwise it will need to be restricted if the circumstances require. 

A peculiar feature of parental responsibility is that you do not necessarily have to be a parent of the child to acquire it – for example, if an order is made that the child lives with a certain person (for example, a grandparent) they will acquire parental responsibility and if a special guardianship order is made the special guardian will also acquire what is considered ‘super’ parental responsibility as it can be exercise to the exclusion of others with parental responsibility. 

Parental responsibility is different and totally distinct from parental contact (the spending of time with a child) and you can retain parental responsibility even if you have no contact with your child. Any parental contact will always be considered from a standpoint of whether it is in the child’s best interests and will meet their welfare - it is not an automatic ‘right’ of a parent.

The other parent, other holders with parental responsibility, Local Authority and even the child themselves (depending on their age) may apply for protective orders for the benefit of the child, or for limits on one person’s exercise of parental responsibility if they do not exercise it in a way that is in the child’s best interests and/or if the child is a victim of abuse.

This is a very technical area of the law and what the appropriate outcome is in each case is very fact specific. There is a statutory presumption that each child should have parental involvement. This is set out at section 1(2A) of the Children Act 1989 which provides that: “unless the contrary is shown, … involvement of that parent in the life of the child concerned will further the child's welfare”.

This was recently considered by the Ministry of Justice who published a report in October 2025 reviewing how the courts of England and Wales were applying the statutory presumption and the impact on a child’s welfare to the court’s application of that presumption. The report concluded that the evidence: “suggested that system practice and the resulting court decisions could leave children at ongoing risk of harm”. Following this review, the UK Government announced that it will repeal the presumption of parental involvement when Parliamentary time allows. It is not always therefore in a child’s best interests for them to have a relationship with their parents.