What is a civil partnership and how is it different from marriage?
A civil partnership is a legally recognised relationship, just like marriage, and there are few differences between the two nowadays. One difference is that a marriage ceremony is solemnised by saying certain words, whilst a civil partnership ceremony is solemnised by the signing of a register. It is also important to know that whilst an opposite sex marriage is legally recognised internationally, not all countries will legally recognise a same sex marriage, a same sex civil partnership or an opposite sex civil partnership.
Another difference is the terminology used; technically, the terms ‘spouse’, ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ only refer to those in a marriage, wheras those in a civil partnership are "civil partners". For legal reasons, those who are married cannot say they are in a civil partnership and those who are in a civil partnership cannot say they are married. Though in everyday life, it is common to also use the terms married, spouse, husband or wife to refer to a civil partner.
A final difference is that the process of legally ending a civil partnership is called “dissolution” and not “divorce”, but the steps you need to take are almost exactly the same. Historically, civil partners had less grounds to seek dissolution than someone trying to dissolve their marriage (this is because of a historical quirk which meant civil partners could not rely on adultery as a reason), but since the advent of no-fault divorce and dissolution in April 2022, the processes are almost identical.
