Social media star Jen Hamilton wants to help change North Carolina’s divorce laws

Nearly all couples in North Carolina who want to get a divorce must wait a full year, living in separate homes, before getting divorced.

It’s something labor and delivery nurse, author and content creator Jen Hamilton learned and shared after her announcing her separation with her husband.

Hamilton, who lives in North Carolina, has nearly 10 million followers across social media platforms and was named one of Rolling Stone’s 25 most influential creators of 2026 in late August.

“I found out my husband was living a secret double life, and I am very fortunate and very blessed to be able to have the resources to leave that relationship,” Hamilton shared in a late August video to followers. “And I’m doing great. Your girl is thriving. It was touch and go there for a minute. But going through this has made me appreciate that there are so many people who do not have the resources that I do to be able to get out.”

Along with her fans, Hamilton raised $200,000 for organizations to help people get out of bad relationships, and has begun asking what she can do to help change North Carolina’s divorce laws.

“Did you know that in North Carolina, if you decide you want to divorce someone you have to stay married to the person for a full year,” she said in a different video. “These asinine, outdated, paternalistic laws keep women in bad and sometimes dangerous situations.”

She referenced a bill filled in the North Carolina General Assembly that would shorten the year to six months. That bill would also allow a couple to waive the six months if both parties agree and does not involve minor children or if a person in the marriage is a victim of domestic violence.

“So my question is to Jeff Jackson, Josh Stein, anybody else in NC who is involved in politics, what can I do?” Hamilton said. “What can I do to help the women who come behind me? And men too, I know men can also be abused, mistreated, betrayed, like a woman can.”

Hamilton is appearing at a fundraiser with Sen. Woodson Bradley, who sponsored the bill, on Sept. 24 in Cary to help rewrite North Carolina’s divorce laws. Hamilton did not respond to a request for comment.

Here is what you need to know about North Carolina divorce laws.

There are two reasons or grounds for getting a divorce in North Carolina, according to Womens Law, a project of the National Network to End Domestic Violence to provide clear legal information to people who need it.

The first, and most common, is to be separated for one year.

“In North Carolina we do require a one-year period of separation prior to the absolute divorce being granted,” said Shaunis Mercer, attorney and co-founder of Peaceful Law. “But the thing I think that people misunderstand with that is that it doesn’t mean nothing can happen during that one-year separation, and that misconception can lead to a lot of inaction when there can be action.”

A divorce can also be granted for “incurable insanity” under state law.

The couple must be living apart for at least three years because of the spouse’s mental health condition, and has been institutionalized during that time or found “insane” by a judge, according to the North Carolina Judicial Branch’s website.

A separation agreement isn’t required to separate, but it can resolve many of the legal issues that come up during a divorce, including how property will be divided, who will pay for what bills and whether there is alimony.

“When we sign a separation agreement in North Carolina, that’s a full and final settlement of the issues within the marriage,” Mercer said. “So the financial issues within the marriage, it is full and final, meaning the property distribution and the support. If you waive those things because you just want to get out of the house, then you’ve waived them forever most of the time. So that’s really dangerous, which is why I think it’s really important that folks talk to an attorney at the very beginning of the process.”

A December 2025 study titled “How ‘Cooling Off’ Periods Endanger The Vulnerable: A 50-state study of mandatory separation periods in no-fault divorce” found mandatory separation periods do not incentivize couples to stay together and “actively harm vulnerable spouses seeking to leave unsafe marriages.”

Here are the mandatory separation periods for each state, as the December 2025 study. If the state isn’t listed, it means it doesn’t have a mandatory separation period:

“I usually tell people that it sucks, but you have to wait the year and day because that’s just unfortunately the law,” said Jennifer Smith, an attorney at The Doyle Law Group, P.A. “There’s no way around it, and a lot of times it’ll pass actually faster than people think. But a year just sounds harsh, and it is because most states are (even less).”

North Carolina’s divorce rate is 2.7 divorces per 1,000 people living in the state making the state the 17th highest rate of divorce, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A 2006 academic article found there was an 8-16% drop in female suicide after states allowed unilateral divorce. There was also an approximate 30% decline in domestic violence for both men and women, according to that same article.

To file a divorce in North Carolina, one spouse must have lived in the state for at least six months prior to filing, according to state law. It doesn’t matter if the couple was married in North Carolina or in another state.

This story was originally published September 3, 2026 at 12:22 PM with the headline “Social media star Jen Hamilton wants to help change North Carolina’s divorce laws.”