We are currently married 13yrs and have been residing in NC for 12 of those yrs. I am the primary bread winner. We have been having major incompatibility issues for several yrs and she keeps threatening that if we go forward with a divorce that she will take my 12yr old son with her to the south west where her family is. Can she legally do this? Lets play it out a bit further and say that we get divorced and she gets primary custody-- could she then do it? Honestly, this threat is the only reason I have not moved forward with a divorce. This is not healthy for anyone involved.
thank you
She cannot flee the jurisdiction with the child. If you intend to separate and divorce and cannot agree on custody, the court will have a hearing to determine what is in the best interests of the child.
The court normally determines that a child having both parents in a child’s life is paramount to serving the child’s best interests. In other words, proving that a long distance relocation with one parent is in the child’s best interests is very difficult.