Intimate relationships can go sour for various reasons, but a Manchester housewife is puzzled as to the reason for the break-up of her marriage.

She related that she got married when she was 25 to a man who was 10 years her senior. She has been married for 15 years. The relationship went well for 10 years but over the past five years, she and her husband have been engaged in frequent quarrels.

None of my business

"I don't know what my husband's problems are, because he does not tell me his business and the least thing I say to him he gets upset and tells me indecent language.

"It is not even that I am pressuring him to give me money or forcing him to buy me things. I am a nurse and I work overtime all the while to provide for myself and I am no financial burden to my husband. He spends his money the way he wants to spend it and he does not discuss anything of importance with me.

"He has two children from two previous relationships and they are adults, so he is not responsible for them. I have a 19-year-old daughter but she is not my husband's child. My daughter is living in the USA with her father.

"The most recent quarrel we had was last year November, when my husband accused me of giving food items to a seven-year-old boy who lives next door. He said the child was rude and I was always giving him foodstuff. When I told him that I did not give the child things all the while, he flew into a rage, began telling me indecent language and even called me a liar.

"I pointed out to him that I see no reason for him to be using indecent language because I was not telling him any and he continued to curse in a loud manner. I have decided to end the marriage and I am now living at my father's house. Is his behaviour a good reason to divorce him and how soon can I file for a divorce?"

It is obvious from the way your husband has treated you that he has no respect for you. You can divorce your husband under section five of the Matrimonial Causes Act, which states that either party to a marriage can divorce "on the ground that the marriage has broken down irretrievably."

However, you cannot file for your divorce until a year after you have separated from your husband.