Grief Induced Split / Live-Action TV

"The music was playing... Couples were dancing... Holding each other tight. But not everybody. And suddenly I began to understand. I wanted to tell Winnie I understood what was happening to her family. [...] That summer, kids everywhere swam, water-skied, and sailed, while Winnie Cooper struggled to keep her head above water, in a family torn apart by anger and grief."

— Kevin Arnold, The Wonder Years, "How I'm Spending My Summer Vacation"

Grief-Induced Splits in Live-Action TV.

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• 13 Reasons Why: In Season 2, Olivia and Andrew begin arguing a lot following their daughter Hannah's suicide and the discovery of why she did it; they eventually separate, and Andrew soon moves in with his new girlfriend. It's revealed that their marriage had already been on the rocks; Andrew had been cheating on Olivia, with Hannah catching him with his lover. It's worsened by Andrew not getting involved much in the court case against Liberty High, which Olivia perceives as him giving up on their daughter. They later reconcile at Hannah's grave, but don't get back together, given Andrew's absence in subsequent seasons.
• 413 Hope St.: Mr. Thomas's son was murdered for his sneakers years prior to the series taking place, a tragedy that leads to the decline and eventual end of Mr. Thomas and his wife's marriage.
• The Adventures of Superman: "Around the World with Superman" features a young blind girl named Ann. Her mother drove her father away, blaming him for the car accident that took away her sight.
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Mack's daughter Hope died four days after her birth, a tragedy that ended in divorce. Though he's been able to move forward and grieve properly, he still keenly feels the loss.
• Alert: Missing Persons Unit: Jason and Nikki divorced after the disappearance of their son Keith while Jason was on deployment overseas. Years later, they work alongside each other on missing persons cases.
• American Gods (2017): "Conscience of the King" reveals that Wednesday left Demeter after a Tragic Stillbirth, not strong enough to cope with the loss of their daughter.
• American Horror Stories: Jay and Addy of "The Feral" divorced after their son disappeared during a family camping trip. Nevertheless, they unite to follow a tip on his whereabouts.
• American Horror Story:
  • American Horror Story: Murder House: Chloe, one of Tate's school massacre victims, reveals that her parents split up and moved out of the area after her murder, meaning that she could never go home again.
  • American Horror Story: Hotel: After their son is kidnapped, Alex hands John divorce papers. They still love each other, but Alex feels that moving on separately is in their daughter's best interests.
• Arrow:
  • Dinah and Quentin Lance divorced after the apparent death of their daughter Sara. He became Married to the Job and she moved away. She returns three years later to proclaim that Sara may still be alive.
  • Flashbacks in the third season reveal that Maseo and Tatsu Yamashiro lost their son, Akio, to the plague attack on Hong Kong and divorced soon after.
• Because This Is My First Life: Jung-min left See-hee because he wasn't emotionally there for her after she miscarried. Over a decade later, See-hee still believes himself undeserving of love and regrets how their relationship ended.
• Better Call Saul: A combination of grief and guilt leads to the end of Jimmy and Kim's relationship after they witness their colleague get murdered by a psychopath due to a juvenile prank they were playing.
• Beyond: Tom and Diane's marriage became angry after their son Holden fell comatose. Eleven years later, they finally separated. It's in the twelfth year that Holden wakes up and has to adjust to his parents no longer being together and his now-religious mother dating a pastor.
• Bonding: Portia breaks up with Frank after she miscarries their child.
• Bosch: Irving tells his wife Connie that their son George is working a safe police desk job, whereas he was really doing dangerous undercover work for Internal Affairs. The truth comes out when George is murdered, and Connie files for divorce not long after.
• Broadchurch:
  • Initially defied by Mark and Beth, who try their best to keep their marriage together after the murder of their son Danny. However, by Series 3, their relationship has deteriorated and Mark often spends long hours away from home, doing little to help Beth with their new baby. She eventually tells him she wants a divorce and he decides to move out and get himself sorted so he can become a decent father. In their case, their marriage already had serious underlying problems prior to Danny's death; the murder merely brought these issues to the surface.
  • In Series 1, Beth meets up with Cate, whose daughter Pippa and niece Lisa went missing; Pippa was found dead while Lisa remains missing but presumably deceased. Cate says she and her husband Ricky divorced over their daughter's murder and the fact the botched investigation let the likely killer get away with it. Cate states that she's heard it's a common fate for couples who lose a child like this. Series 2 reveals that Ricky murdered Lisa in a jealous rage after catching her having sex with Lee Ashworth, who then murdered Pippa to Leave No Witnesses and claimed to Ricky it was an accident. Ricky's guilt over being forced to help cover up his daughter's murder to avoid going down for murdering his niece likely played a role in the divorce.
• Bull: "Too Perfect" reveals that Bull and Isabella divorced after he didn't emotionally support her in the traumatic aftermath of a miscarriage.
• Castle: The victim of "When the Bough Breaks" lost her son at a young age to an incurable disease. She left her husband out of grief, and he is still heartbroken over the loss of his family.
• Code Black: Christa Lorenson became a doctor out of a sincere desire to help others in the wake of her young son's death from cancer. The stress of his illness destroyed her marriage.
• Cold Case: The man behind the serial bombings in "Sabotage" lost his young daughter to cancer, with his marriage falling apart soon after.
• El corazón nunca se equivoca: Their son's death causes Olegario to leave Elsa and their daughter, unable to properly deal with his grief.
• Criminal Minds:
  • Heavily implied for Rossi and his ex-wife Carolyn. She ends her life after a diagnosis of ALS and asks Rossi if "he'll be there." The "he" she talks about is the son that they lost on the day of his birth.
  • Discussed in "A Shade of Gray." After a young boy is killed, the BAU team is clued in to the killer's identity when the parents present a strong, united front. They point out that child loss usually drives couples apart, which makes them realize that the killer was the boy's budding sociopath of an older brother.
  • "Mosley Lane" features a grief-stricken mother who shows up at the BAU every time a child disappears like her son did eight years prior. Her husband left after she insisted she saw their son crossing the street, as he took that as her not moving on from the loss as she'd promised they'd do together.
  • In "Hanley Waters," the UnSub is traumatized by grief after her son died in an accident she caused. Her inability to cope with an injured police officer having been prioritized over her son, both in injury treatment at the scene and news coverage following both's deaths, causes her relationship with her husband to deteriorate to the point of divorce.
  • In "Gatekeeper," the UnSub's son is accidentally strangled by his friend during the few minutes his father was out of the room. The man's wife kicked him out two months before his killing spree started, it being fueled by the grief of not having been able to protect his son.
  • "The Night Watch" revolves around a couple who lost their young son when he wandered away from his mother and drowned in a lake. They went their separate ways after that, splitting his baby blanket in half to take with them as a memory of their son.
  • In "Bad Moon on the Rise," the UnSub's psychotic breakdown stemmed from his wife blaming him for their son's death and divorcing him. Their son died in a mugging gone wrong where the UnSub was too paralyzed by fear to intervene.
• CSI: NY: "Child's Play" features an indirect case with the culprit behind one of the episode's two victims. Having watched his friend drown as a child due to a prank gone horribly wrong, the man's lingering trauma and grief manifested in adulthood as being so overprotective of his own son that he would keep the boy indoors 24/7. His wife, understandably and rightly, left him and took their child away for the boy's own good.
• Dead Like Me: George's home life with her parents and sister is already rocky, but her accidental death in the pilot episode deteriorates it further, and her parents formally divorce in Season 2. Unknown to them, she comes back as a Psychopomp, but can't communicate with them due to the Masquerade.
• Desperate Housewives: After Susan kills Lila Dash and her daughter Paige in a car accident, she and Mike split up during the five-year Time Skip. This also overlaps with Relationship-Salvaging Disaster, as the revenge plan that Lila's husband Dave puts into action against the pair ends up bringing them back together.
• Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman:
  • Jake's father Lucius was a drunk who forgot to send for help when Jake's younger siblings fell deathly ill. Feeling guilty for their deaths, Lucius left his wife.
  • In "Seven Kinds of Lonely," Grace moves out because seeing Robert E. keeps triggering her grief over their adopted son Anthony's death. Subverted later, as their split is temporary.
• ER:
  • Carter and Kem's son Joshua is stillborn. While the couple goes on to get married after the tragedy, their relationship is fragile and its fate remains ambiguous.
  • Catherine Banfield and her husband became estranged following the death of their four-year-old son to leukemia, though they reconcile by the final season.
• The Forgotten: Alex and his wife separated after their daughter was kidnapped.
• General Hospital's Tony catches his wife Bobbie kissing another man just minutes before they learn that their daughter has been fatally injured in a car accident. Despite them eventually reconciling after a year of counseling, he's still so emotionally drained that their marriage falls apart anyway.
• Ghosts (US): Trevor's parents got divorced right after his death, so he assumes this was the case. He later learns that they were already going to get divorced long before his death because of his father's infidelity.
• Good Trouble: Dennis and his wife Jennifer were Happily Married until the death of their young son Jacob to cancer. The ensuing grief and guilt caused their marriage to fall apart, with the final nail in the coffin being Dennis's admission of having had an affair.
• Grey's Anatomy: Jackson and April lose their son Samuel hours after his birth due to a fatal birth defect. In her grief, April leaves to be a warzone medic for what grows from an initial three months to an entire year away, then leaves again to become a field surgeon in Jordan. Their marriage doesn't recover from her departures, as Jackson feels like she abandoned him when he needed her most.
• Y Gwyll: DCI Tom Mathias separated from his wife Meg and moved from London to Aberystwyth due to the death of their daughter; she drowned while swimming and Mathias blames himself because he looked away for only a moment and couldn't reach her in time. His trauma and depression cause him to withdraw from everyone. Meg feels that he's abandoned her and their remaining daughter, returning his letters unopened and refusing to take his calls. In Season 2, Meg tells Mathias she wants to get divorced and move with their daughter to Canada for a fresh start, saying they can't wait for him forever; though upset, he eventually accepts that this is the best way for Meg and their daughter to heal, especially as he's been too consumed by guilt and grief to be there for them.
• Haven: Beatrice, the Troubled woman in "Ball and Chain," split from her husband in the aftermath of a miscarriage. Running into him again and learning he'd started a family triggered her Trouble, wherein every Friday she transforms into a woman named Helena who sleeps with a man and rapidly ages him, giving birth soon after and resulting in the man's death.
• I Know This Much Is True: As in the original novel, Dominick and Dessa divorced after their daughter died of SIDS. They reunite at the end, with a hint they might someday become parents again. In the novel, they become adoptive parents to ex-girlfriend Joy's daughter after the woman dies of HIV.
• Inspector Lynley: A car accident in "If Wishes Were Horses" causes Lynley's wife Helen to miscarry. Following her stay in the hospital, they separate.
• Jamie Johnson: Eric Atlee's mum left after his twin brother died, leaving behind Eric and his dad.
• The Kennedys After Camelot: Alexandros Onassis dies in a plane crash and his father doesn't take it well, accusing Jackie of bringing misfortune to his family and effectively ending their marriage.
• Kidding: Jeff and his beloved wife Jill become estranged after their son Phil dies in a freak car accident. She raises Phil's twin Will on her own and moves on with a new boyfriend, while Jeff still dearly wants to reconcile.
• The Killing: By the beginning of the second season, Mitch has left her husband and sons in the aftermath of her daughter's Plot-Triggering Death. She goes on a long road trip looking for answers and ignores pleas to come home, only to rematerialize at home unannounced near the end of the season. Reactions to her sudden reappearance are understandably mixed.
• The Leftovers:
  • In general, the Sudden Departure is mentioned to have caused a ton of divorces and separations, with people randomly abandoning their kids and lives.
  • The Sudden Departure provided the impetus for Kevin and Laurie's divorce, which begins with a long separation after she leaves him for the Guilty Remnant. Neither vocalize their grief in obvious ways, leaving it ambiguous if it was the grief of the event that caused their separation, as neither was happy before, or if their specific experiences during the Departure caused it. For Laurie, this was the disappearance of her and Kevin's fetus from literally inside her womb mid-scan, and for Kevin, it was the Departure of the stranger he was cheating on Laurie with.
• Leverage: Nate's career change from honest insurance investigator to robin-hooding Chessmaster was caused by his insurance company denying his son's health coverage, a move that led to the boy's death. Nate and his wife Maggie divorced in the aftermath, though they remain Amicable Exes.
• Little House on the Prairie: John Jr.'s death causes his adoptive father to fall Off the Wagon again, eventually leading to divorce over his grief-fueled alcoholism.
• Lodge 49: Ernie and his ex-wife Trish lost their one-year-old daughter Amaya to complications resulting from her premature birth. While their relationship couldn't recover, and Ernie still hasn't made peace with the loss, he's happy that Trish moved on and started a new family.
• Louie: Gretchen fears she'll miscarry her pregnancy, as her previous miscarriage led to the father-to-be walking out. As such, she's gotten pregnant via sperm donor.
• Mad Men: Don's waitress squeeze Diana reveals that she abandoned her family following her daughter's death. Her remaining daughter lives with her dad in Racine.
• Marcella: Part of the reason why Jason moves to divorce Marcella is that he's looking to move on from the tragic death of their baby daughter.
• The Missing (2014):
  • In Series 1, Tony and Emily divorce due to their grief over the disappearance of their young son, Oliver, while they're on holiday in France. While they still care about each other and even share a kiss, it's indicated that one of the main reasons they divorced was because Tony could never give up looking for Oliver (to the point where it consumed his life), while Emily had to accept her son was probably dead for the sake of her sanity. This makes things difficult when Tony finds new evidence that could explain what happened to Oliver.
  • In Series 2, Sam and Gemma stayed together after their daughter Alice was abducted. After she returned home but committed suicide from trauma (for which Sam blames himself), they still remained married, but by the present, their relationship is non-existent and they barely even talk to each other despite living under the same roof. Sam has also begun having an affair with a co-worker. Their relationship improves after they discover Alice may still be alive after all, but Gemma still tells Sam she wants a divorce. They don't hate each other, but by this point, their marriage has run its course.
• NCIS: Season 9 Big Bad Harper Dearing used to be a company CEO with a happy family. He turned to crime following his Navy sailor son's death in a shipyard explosion, a change that led his wife to divorce him. This, in turn, caused his transformation into the ship-firebombing vengeful terrorist that the NCIS team encounters.
• The Office (US): In "Dunder Mifflin Infinity," Angela breaks up with Dwight after her sickly cat Sprinkles dies while entrusted to his care.
  Angela: I can't do this. I can't be with you. Every time I look in your eyes, I see Sprinkles' stiff, lifeless body.
• Orange Is the New Black: In "The Hidey Hole," Lorna Morello and Vince Muccio's baby died of pneumonia in the NICU. Lorna pretended it didn't happen by setting up a fake Instagram account and putting up pictures of other people's babies, pretending they are of hers. The account gets taken down by Vince and he suggests that they get a divorce. This causes Lorna to have a mental breakdown and try to escape from prison.
• The Philanthropist: Teddy and Julia divorced after the death of their son, but remain Amicable Exes.
• Preacher (2016): Tulip and Jesse were expecting a child together when a bank robbery job went wrong. Carlos, the third member of the job, was upset about the couple's fooling around. By releasing a security guard and escaping without the other two, he threw a stressful wrench into their plans that resulted in Tulip miscarrying. Jesse and Tulip ended up going their separate ways after that. In the present, Tulip wants Jesse to help her find and kill Carlos for the betrayal that cost them their child.
• Proof: Len and Cat's relationship was already rocky due to his infidelity. The death of their son Will in a car accident while Cat was at the wheel was the final nail in the coffin for their separation.
• Providence: Following a miscarriage, Janie develops a drinking problem and pushes her fiancé away. By the time she gets her act together, he's moved on.
• Psych: In "Shawn Gets the Yips," Mr. Salamatchia and his wife divorced after their teen son (and only child) died of a drug overdose.
• Rescue Me: Tommy and Janet are about to renew their vows, only for their son Connor to be killed by a drunk driver. Their already-tenuous relationship crumbles.
• Reservation Dogs: Danny, Daniel's father, reveals to Bear that he and his wife divorced following Daniel's suicide. In addition, Danny quit drinking, as his alcohol-fueled behavior contributed to the familial strife that impacted Daniel's mental health.
• The Sandman (2022): One of the main reasons Calliope and Morpheus' marriage fell apart was the tragic death of their son. Calliope says she blamed Morpheus and that he hated her for that; she vowed he would never see her again and kept it that way for centuries. However, by the present day, their anger towards each other has abated, enough that Morpheus swiftly comes to her rescue when she asks. They both make it clear that neither of them resents or blames the other for their son's death anymore, becoming Amicable Exes.
• Scorpion: Losing his daughter at a very young age led to the dissolution of Cabe's marriage. He's still on good terms with his ex-wife, though, enlisting the team to rescue her when she's kidnapped.
• The Secret Life of the American Teenager: Ben marries Adrian after a one-time fling results in her pregnancy. Their daughter's Tragic Stillbirth devastates them both, though the child was the only reason they'd gotten together in the first place. They divorce in short time.
• Sex/Life: Billie's miscarriage leads to the end of her relationship with Brad, as the tragedy stirs up his unresolved daddy issues and causes him to mistreat her.
• Shakespeare & Hathaway - Private Investigators: The Russian oligarch's treasure in "This Cursed Hand" is revealed to be drawings made by his son who died at age five. He and his ex-wife couldn't face their grief together and went their separate ways.
• Skins: Chris's father walked out on his family after Chris's older brother Peter died of an aneurysm. He's since started a new family and thinks contemptuously of Chris and his mum, though his new wife holds no such ill will towards them.
• In Stargate SG-1, Col. Jack O'Neill and his wife Sara split up after the death of their son Charlie. It was only made worse by the fact that Charlie had accidentally shot himself with Jack's handgun; Sara was never able to forgive Jack, nor did Jack ever really forgive himself.
• Storm of the Century: The demonic Linoge demands that Little Tall Island give him a child for him to train as a successor, after which he'll stop terrorizing their town. Unfortunately for Mike, the only moral resident of the island, his son Ralphie is chosen to go with Linoge. He divorces his wife, who was fine with sacrificing a child up until it was her own son, and leaves the entire island behind.
• Stranger Things:
  • Hopper is introduced to the series as single. However, he later reveals that he had a wife and a daughter. After their daughter tragically passed away from cancer, the couple divorced.
  • While delayed about a year, Nancy and Steve's breakup in the second season is due to Nancy's re-triggered guilt and trauma over Barb's death.
  • It's implied that one of the reasons Neil and Susan split up between seasons 3 and 4 is the death of Neil's son and Susan's stepson, Billy; Susan's daughter Max states Neil didn't cope well and the couple's relationship deteriorated until Neil left. The marriage already had issues, with Susan being uncomfortable with Neil's authoritarian behaviour towards Billy; he was also abusive towards his first wife and is shown to have been controlling of Susan. Susan hasn't been dealing well with the split, frequently drinking heavily and having to work two jobs as she and her daughter are forced to move into a trailer park.
  • Following the events of the season 3 finale, Max broke up with Lucas, physically and emotionally withdrawing from him (and to a lesser extent their mutual friends), due to her grief and trauma over the death of her stepbrother Billy. Lucas isn't completely oblivious that there's something wrong with Max, but did a poor job of supporting and understanding her. Max later apologises for shoving him away, while Lucas apologises for not trying harder to reach out to her.
• S.W.A.T. (2017): The Cold Sniper in "Trigger Creep" suddenly lost his three-year-old daughter to meningitis, with his marriage falling apart not long after.
• A Touch of Frost:
  • John and Emma Palmer of "Held in Trust" separate following the abduction, rape and murder of their young son Bobby, even though the police caught the killer. A significant contributing factor is that John was briefly considered a suspect, due to him having been previously reported for trying to persuade a young girl to get in his car (with benevolent intentions) and the family having been investigated for abuse allegations (which was a ruse for the real culprit to get close to the family); a distraught Emma had confronted John about whether he was involved and confessed she didn't know what to believe, with John vehemently defending himself. Frost finds the situation tragic yet unsurprising, remarking that it's pretty difficult for a couple to come back from something like that.
  • In "If Dogs Run Free: Part Two", Sally and Gerry Berland have already been shown to have a horrible marriage, including Domestic Abuse on Gerry's part, but the final straw for Sally is when their son Sean kills himself out of guilt for accidentally killing another boy. Sally blames her husband because she had wanted to go to the police, but Gerry insisted they cover it up. Sally tells Gerry there's nothing left between them now that Sean is dead and that she never wants to see or speak to him again.
• Trace: Margarita Vlasova left her partner, Artyom Biryukov, after the abduction of their daughter, Liza.
• True Detective: After Rust accidentally ran down his young daughter, he and his wife split up due to his guilt and her anger at him.
• Vera:
  • In "Old Wounds", Bill and Beryl divorced after their teenage daughter, Carrie, went missing during a miner's strike that turned violent; the police dismissed her as a runaway, especially because she was a miner's daughter and biracial. Bill and Beryl's relationship was already rocky: he had a nasty temper which worsened as his grief became bitterness and rarely saw his wife due to working long hours down the mines, causing her to feel isolated and eventually have an affair. They parted on bad terms and didn't see or speak to each other until Carrie's skeletal remains are uncovered three decades later. They manage to reach something of an understanding after visiting their daughter's burial place together.
  • In "Protected", Larry Crowe and his wife divorced after their son Patrick died falling from the Kenworthy family's roof, allegedly during a botched burglary; Larry doesn't believe Patrick was a thief and insists the Kenworthys covered something up (he's right). Patrick's death and Larry's fixation on the alleged cover-up, in his words, "ruined everything" for him and his ex-wife. Larry finds some peace after learning the truth behind Patrick's death and wishes his ex-wife was still alive so she could've had peace, too.
• The Victim: Anna and her husband divorce after the murder of their young son by a fellow child. Though she remarries, both are shown as being consumed by grief years later.
• Wakefield: Jeshna, formerly Hindu, became a born-again Christian as a means of coping with the loss of her young son Dilshan. This new fervor is implied to have contributed to her eventual divorce.
• The Walking Dead Television Universe:
  • The Walking Dead (2010): Ezekiel and Carol split following the death of their adopted son Henry. Carol feels Dead Sparks, but Ezekiel carries a torch for her.
  • Fear the Walking Dead: Dwight and Sherry's Relationship Revolving Door ends with their son Finch's death, which they take as a sign that they're not meant to be.
• Westworld: Bernard's son, Charlie, died at a young age due to a fatal illness that led to him and his wife, Lauren, divorcing. Or so he's been programmed to recall. It's revealed that Bernard is a host based on Arnold Weber, the co-creator of the Westworld park and Ford's late partner, and that Charlie's death was based on Arnold's past of losing his son. It's unclear if Arnold and Lauren also divorced after their son's death.
• Without a Trace: Chet Collins's son Sean went missing when he was two. Though he locates Sean six years later, his marriage fell apart in the interim.
• The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window: Anna and Douglas split up after their daughter Elizabeth is kidnapped and eaten by a murderous cannibal in a prison where Douglas is working (and where he apparently does a Take Your Daughter to Work Day). They eventually reconcile after Anna needs Douglas back due to her amateur investigation into Charity's death.
• In The Wonder Years, Winnie's parents separate after their son Brian is killed in the Vietnam War.
• The X-Files:
  • Following the alien abduction of their daughter Samantha, Bill and Teena Mulder divorced. As a member of the Syndicate, Bill let his daughter be abducted and taken into a cloning program, in hopes that she would survive the alien viral holocaust if she became a genetic hybrid. Teena was more aware of the circumstances surrounding her daughter's abduction and the Syndicate than she ever let on.
  • John Doggett and his wife Barbara divorced after the death of their son Luke, though they are Amicable Exes. Barbara even points out to Scully that Everyone Can See It regarding John and Monica Reyes having feelings for each other.

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