Notorious anti-gay Australian couple opt out of divorce

  • 08/12/2017

A Canberra couple who promised to divorce if same-sex marriage was legalised in Australia have pulled out of their plan, citing difficulties with legislation.

Sarah and Nick Jensen inadvertently became a hot topic across Australia in October, after a plebiscite showed the nation overwhelmingly favoured allowing gay and lesbians couples to wed.

Mr Jensen had written a controversial piece for Canberra City News back in 2015, in which stated he would throw away his own marriage to "the mother of our children, my perfect match" if gay people were ever allowed the same rights.

But now he's reneged on that promise, blaming how difficult the law has made it for them.

"Obviously the problem is that a judge would not grant us a State divorce because we would have to show our marriage is irreconcilably broken and be separated for a year," he told The Bible Society.

Later, he told The Daily Mail he had never actually "envisaged me separating from my wife" when he made his original comments.

"My previous public comments regarding civil divorce never envisaged me separating from my wife, but rather our marriage from the state," Mr Jensen said.

"The legislation currently makes it untenable for us to do this under the law. The point we were highlighting and that still stands however is the fact that a redefinition of marriage changes the agreement under which we were originally married."

Mr Jensen previously said his decade-long marriage would no longer signify what it originally did when he signed his marriage certificate if same-sex couples were allowed to wed.

"When we signed that official-looking marriage certificate 10 years ago at Tuggeranong Baptist Church, we understood that the state was endorsing marriage, as currently defined, as the fundamental social institution - with all that this implied," he wrote in his 2015 piece.

"But if this is no longer the case, then we no longer wish to be associated with this new definition. Marriage is sacred and what is truly 'marriage' will only ever be what it has always been."

The couple says they won't comment any further on the matter.

Newshub.