Disclaimer: All facts gleaned from the filings stated hereafter are only as truthful as the petitioner. The tone of this article expresses a style of writing historically employed by America’s greatest writers and, as such, is for opinion purposes only. No intentional harm is due. Do not read if the topic of divorce (even your own) causes you emotional distress. Continue at your own risk.

The long marriage of David and Joan Malliband, begun in Chicago on December 22, 2001, has come to rest in the files of Cook County’s Domestic Relations Division. On September 23, 2025, David, through his attorneys at Davis Friedman, LLP, petitioned the court to dissolve a union that once carried them through the raising of three children, all now grown and setting out into their own lives.

The petition describes a marriage that has run its course. Irreconcilable differences, the phrase used by statute but weighted here with unspoken history, have made reconciliation impossible. Past attempts failed, and the petitioner contends that future ones would not serve the family. The separation between them is not sudden but the culmination of distance that the law now measures in filings, hearings, and judgments.

David’s requests are measured: each party should keep an equitable share of both property and debt, each should retain non-marital assets, and both should contribute to the college expenses of their adult children. Joan, presently unemployed, is described as having enough marital property to support herself once division is complete. David, self-supporting, seeks no maintenance and offers none. In a quieter but pointed note, the petition asks that each bear their own attorney’s fees, drawing a line of independence even as they disentangle.

The language of the filing turns the intimate terrain of a shared life—homes, accounts, furnishings—into assets and liabilities. What began as a vow in winter two decades ago now resolves into careful divisions, set against the solemn backdrop of the law.

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