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Updated November 5, 2026

How to divorce in The Sims 4 and how to break up

Learn how to divorce or break up in The Sims 4: where Divorce is in the menu, the moods it causes, who moves out, and how to stop it.

Lifesim, Inc.

How do you get a divorce in The Sims 4?

Click the spouse with your married Sim. Open the Relationship category of the interaction menu, and choose Divorce. The two Sims argue, and the game confirms the divorce with a pop-up.

  1. Select the Sim who wants the divorce.
  2. Click the spouse to open the interaction menu.
  3. Open the Relationship category. TheGamer describes its icon as two people.
  4. Choose Divorce.
  5. Watch the argument. TheGamer says it ends in tears, and a second pop-up says the Sims are now separated.

The Sims Wiki and TheGamer both put Divorce in the Relationship category. EA added that category in the update of July 23, 2024. TheGamer says a manual divorce works even when the marriage is happy. Destructoid says the divorce takes effect at once.

The older guides do not agree. Game Rant (August 2023) puts Divorce in the Mean category, after negative interactions. TheGamer says that earlier versions had no divorce without mods or cheats. We think the menu changed with the 2024 update, but no source says so directly.

You read this on the LifeSim blog. We make a life sim, and we say where our game does not fit. For the step before this one, read how to get married in The Sims 4.

How do you break up in The Sims 4 if the Sims are not married?

Use the same Relationship category. For a Sim with a Romantic Partner, TheGamer lists three choices: Ask To Be Just Friends, Breakup, and Become WooHoo Partners.

Break up in person

  1. Select your Sim.
  2. Click the partner.
  3. Open the Relationship category.
  4. Choose Breakup for a full end, or Ask To Be Just Friends for a softer end.

Break up from home

TheGamer says a Sim can also start the change from the Relationship Panel at the bottom right, or from the phone. A Sim can break up by text, so the partner does not need to be on the same lot.

The TheGamer page covers the Lovestruck expansion pack. It does not say which of these choices the base game has without the pack. The Sims Wiki calls Break Up a mean interaction that drops the romance bar. For a full list of what Lovestruck adds, read our Sims 4 Lovestruck guide.

What happens after a divorce in The Sims 4?

Both Sims get a sad mood, and the romance bar turns red. The relationship panel shows the status Divorced. Children who see the divorce also get sad.

The mood effects

The Sims Wiki lists these moods for a breakup or a divorce:

MoodEmotionDurationWho gets it
DivorcedSad, strength 42 daysA Sim who gets divorced
Parents Getting DivorcedSad, strength 14 hoursA child who watches the divorce
Break Up BluesSad, strength 210 hoursA Sim after a breakup
Devastating BreakupSad, strength 310 hoursGloomy Sims only
Dumped?!?Angry, strength 310 hoursHot-Headed Sims only

The Sims Wiki also says a Sim who catches a spouse cheating gets a very angry mood. For the full list of moods, read our Sims 4 moodlets guide.

The children

Game Rant and the Sims Wiki both say that toddlers and children who watch the divorce become sad. TheGamer says the game has no custody system. You decide where the children live.

The relationship

TheGamer says you cannot undo a divorce. The Sims can rebuild the relationship slowly, and then marry again. Destructoid also says the couple must marry again to reunite. The other choices are a mod or an older save file.

Who moves out after a divorce, and how do you split the household?

You decide. TheGamer says the game does not split the household or the money for you. Ex-spouses can stay in the same house, but they can get more negative moods near each other.

Game Rant gives the same advice. Both Sims have angry feelings, so living together right after the divorce causes trouble.

Move one Sim to a new household

TheGamer and Snooty Sims give these steps:

  1. Open Manage Worlds.
  2. Open Manage Households.
  3. Select the divorced household.
  4. Select the Sim who leaves. Use the transfer arrows to move the Sim to another household.
  5. Type an amount of money, and use the transfer arrow to move it.

Snooty Sims also describes a Move out of Household button. Find it on the world map: select the household, then choose More next to the Play icon. The full steps are in our guide on how to move a Sim out of a household.

Give the new household a home

The Sim who leaves needs a lot. To move a whole household to a new home, read how to move house in The Sims 4. TheGamer says the cheat money x sets the money of a household to any amount, if the split leaves one side with too little.

Can Sims break up on their own, and how do you stop it?

Yes, with the Lovestruck pack. A Sim can end a relationship or a marriage when Romantic Satisfaction stays too low. Turn off Allow Automatic Breakups in Game Settings to stop it.

How an automatic divorce happens

  • The Sims Wiki says Romantic Satisfaction drops with neglect. It takes about 10 and a half in-game days to fall from the top to the bottom.
  • An Unsatisfied Sim gets sad moods.
  • A Very Unsatisfied Sim breaks up after four repeated offenses, per the Sims Wiki. The offenses are cheating, mean interactions, and broken romantic boundaries.
  • Destructoid says the game sends warnings first. The last warning is the final chance. After that, a pop-up says the spouse wants a divorce, and you cannot stop it.

How to check Romantic Satisfaction

Destructoid gives this path: open the Relationship tab, click the partner, choose Open Profile, and scroll to the Relationship part.

How to turn off automatic breakups

  1. Open Settings, then Game Settings.
  2. Remove the check from Allow Automatic Breakups.
  3. Select Apply Changes.

TheGamer says no Sim then breaks up on their own. You must start each breakup and divorce yourself. Destructoid and CGMagazine name Cupid’s Counseling as a way to repair a relationship.

Other settings that affect breakups

  • Romantic Boundaries set when a Sim gets jealous. EA put them in Create a Sim, in the Identity panel. Jealousy can lead to a breakup.
  • Neighborhood Stories has two options in Manage Households: Friendship Changes and Romance Changes. EA says these let Sims in other households start and end relationships on their own.

For each romance option in Create a Sim, read our guide to Sims 4 romance settings.

Can a cheat end or fix the relationship?

A cheat can change the romance bar. We found no source that says a cheat changes the status from married to divorced.

Snooty Sims gives this form of the relationship cheat:

modifyrelationship Sim1Name Sim2Name Value LTR_Romance_Main

  • Type each name as first name and last name.
  • Use a value from -100 to 100. The value adds to the current bar. A negative value lowers it.
  • Use LTR_Friendship_Main for the friendship bar.

Snooty Sims says to open the cheat box first. Press Ctrl + Shift + C on PC, or Cmd + Shift + C on Mac. Type testingcheats on while a household is loaded.

TheGamer mentions marriage cheats and romance mods as a way back after a divorce. It does not name them. For the other cheats, read our Sims 4 cheats list.

How do you divorce in The Sims 4 on PS4, PS5, or Xbox?

The Relationship category should be on console too. The Sims Wiki lists the July 23, 2024 update for console, as version 1.94. That update added the category.

We found no page that gives the divorce steps for a controller. Snooty Sims says to hold the four shoulder buttons (L1, L2, R1, and R2) to open the cheat box on console.

For other differences between the versions, read The Sims 4 on console vs PC.

Does LifeSim have divorce?

No. LifeSim does not have a divorce menu, a breakup button, or a household manager. LifeSim does not fit here.

In LifeSim, you make a character, pick a real city, and live one life a day at a time. Every person in the city is an AI character with a job, a home, friends, and goals. People answer what you type in your own words, and they remember what happened with you.

If you want to end a marriage with a menu and split the money, stay with The Sims 4. If you want relationships that grow from talk, read how LifeSim works. The full comparison is in LifeSim vs The Sims.

What we could not verify

  • Which breakup choices the base game has without Lovestruck. The page that lists the three choices covers the pack.
  • When Divorce moved from the Mean category to the Relationship category. No source gives the date.
  • Whether the Allow Automatic Breakups setting exists without Lovestruck.
  • Whether a cheat can change the status from married to divorced.
  • The steps to split a household on console. The pages we opened describe PC.
  • The price of Cupid’s Counseling. No primary source gives it.
  • The EA forum threads on divorce. They did not load for us.

More Sims guides

Sources

New to life sims? Read what a life simulator is, or play LifeSim, a free online life simulator on a real map of Earth.

Sims 4 database

Look it up in the Sims 4 database, read from the game files: cheats, traits, careers, moodlets, deaths, packs, challenges, recipes, popular mods, pack finder, and the death odds calculator.

On this topic: testingcheats, motherlode, and Genius trait.

Step by step: all Sims 4 how-to guides.

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