A gay couple who only tied the knot in January look set to become the first same-sex partners to divorce in South Africa after one of them moved in with another man.
Theatre director Richard Thornton (52) told the Sunday Times that he had filed for divorce from 20-year-old Andries Jacobs on the grounds of desertion and irreconcilable differences despite attempts at getting back together.
The couple married on January 5 but Jacobs packed his bags in the dead of night a matter of weeks into the marriage and, according to Thornton, moved in with another man in the same neighbourhood in the town of Krugersdorp.
“It hurts, it really hurts,” Thornton told the paper.
South Africa became the first country on the continent to authorise same-sex marriages when the Civil Unions Act came into force last November 30. — AFP