Many people stay in painful marriages believing that loyalty, endurance, and sacrifice will eventually be recognized—or even rewarded—when it’s all over. But in the courtroom, that’s just not how it works. The legal system doesn’t compensate you for years of suffering in a bad marriage—and the longer you stay, the more it costs you emotionally, mentally, and financially.

In this episode of The Happily Ever After Divorce Podcast, Atlanta Divorce Law Group’s Sara Khaki and Shawna Woods unpack one of the hardest truths about long-term, dysfunctional marriages: endurance isn’t evidence, and pain doesn’t translate to reward. Together, they explore why so many of us confuse self-sacrifice with strength, how faith and family values can blur the line between devotion and denial, and what it really means to make a conscious choice to stay—or to finally go.