The Ultimate Guide to Divorce (For You & The People You Love)

Mel Robbins (0:00)

Hey, it's your friend, Mel, and welcome to The Mel Robbins Podcast.

I am so glad that you are here with me right now, because this conversation is a conversation that I've been wanting to have ever since I started this podcast four years ago.

This episode is The Ultimate Guide to Divorce for you and the people that you love, and we are creating it with the world's number one divorce attorney, James Sexton. I am so excited that he is here in our Boston studios because he is going to break down what he calls the six stages of divorce. He's going to walk you through every stage, what to do, what not to do, and he's also going to make this point. Divorce impacts every single person you know. Maybe you're going through it. Maybe you're thinking about it. Maybe you're struggling to move on after one, maybe someone you love is going through a divorce right now. No matter where you are, the more informed you are, the better equipped you are going to be, the better you will navigate it yourself or be able to support the people that you love who are going through it. I am so excited for you to have this life-changing resource as a free guide for the rest of your life, and I cannot wait for you to experience this conversation.

Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to The Mel Robbins Podcast. I am absolutely thrilled that you're here today. It's such an honor to be together, to spend this time with you if you're a new listener, you're here because somebody shared this episode with you. I just want to take a moment and personally welcome you to The Mel Robbins Podcast family. Today, you are getting the Ultimate Guide to Divorce for you and the people that you love, with one of my favorite guests that we have ever had on The Mel Robbins Podcast, the one and only James Sexton. For over 20 years, he has been one of the top divorce attorneys in the world. He's helped couples deal with the reality of a marriage ending, practically, emotionally, and legally. He's a graduate of Fordham Law School, holds a master's degree from NYU in persuasive speech and rhetoric, and you're about to experience that today. Today, he is going to give you a comprehensive guide. He's going to share all the advice that you and your loved ones need to know before you get a divorce, what to do during a divorce, and how to build your life afterwards. Please help me welcome back James Sexton to The Mel Robbins Podcast.

James Sexton (2:36)

Thank you. It's so good to be here again.

Mel Robbins (2:38)

I am so thrilled that you said yes to this because when I first had you on the show and you and I had one of the single best conversations about relationships, you taught me four words.

And those four words are, you're my favorite person. And those four words are the secret to having lasting love. And I'm celebrating my 30th wedding anniversary this year with Chris and we say, you're my favorite person every single day to one another. And it has really improved what was already a really great marriage. And so I cannot thank you enough for not only making a difference in my life, but after that conversation, I said to you, you are the number one divorce attorney in the United States. If Chris and I were getting a divorce and I found out he hired you, I would need a diaper.

Not because you're mean, but because you're exceptional. And I said to you after our first conversation, would you come back and do a comprehensive guide on divorce and cover everything? Because most of us, if we go through that or if our loved ones do, would never be able to hire you. And you said yes. And I would love to have you speak to the person who's listening and share with them, what are we going to cover today? And how do you want them to think about this conversation in terms of it being a life changing resource for them or people that they love who may be going through divorce or may be considering divorce or may have gone through one and still can't get their power and their life back?

James Sexton (4:27)

I mean, I think our first conversation was more the physics of things. And this one's more the emergency room. Divorce is so common, increasingly more common in terms of the, you know, we'll talk about later as being sort of the passive divorce where people stay married. They don't do the paperwork, but they just have checked out of the marriage. So really what I hope, you know, everyone will walk out of here with today in a very tangible way is the realization that A, if a marriage can be saved, that there are some points where that can happen early on in the process.