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.
Marriages often reveal their fragility not in storms but in small, almost imperceptible shifts—moments that mark the quiet disintegration of what once seemed whole. Jonathan E. Ellsworth has now formalized that realization, filing a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage in St. Louis County, Missouri, on October 6, 2025, through his attorney Susan H. Mello of 415 Tuxedo, St. Louis.
Jonathan and Jacqueline M. Buss were married on September 30, 2023, in Defiance, Missouri. Barely two years later, by August 23, 2025, they had separated. The petition states plainly that there is “no reasonable likelihood” the marriage can be preserved and that it is “irretrievably broken.” There are no children of the marriage, and Jacqueline is not pregnant.
The couple, according to the filing, has worked out an amicable division of marital property and debts—an act of cooperation even as their partnership ends. Both are in good health, capable of self-support, and prepared to bear their own legal costs. Jacqueline, who maintained her surname during the marriage, is expected to retain it following the dissolution.
In the larger sense, the case of Ellsworth v. Buss captures a modern pattern: two people who entered marriage with intent and sincerity but whose union, despite civility and shared agreements, proved unsustainable in the long run. The petition is not bitter, only final—an acknowledgment that, sometimes, the most rational choice is to let go before the silence turns to strain.
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