What in the Kentucky Fried fuck did these two morons major in that they have a combined balance of $610,000 in student debt?? Like I know there's accrued interest to take into consideration and all that, but holy crap that's an absurd amount of money! I'm guessing at least one of these award winners was a professional student for a while - you know, the people who hop from major to major because they can't figure out what to do with their lives and then they wind up with six or seven figures of debt and no degree ten years later.
I wouldn't be paying off this shit. This is a time I would honestly default on purpose because no one could ever feasibly keep up with those monthly payments. I was paying nearly $700 a month on $60,000. So that would mean this woman might be expected to pay around $7,000 a month because her combined pre-divorce balance is about ten times what I owe. Quit paying the loans back. If it's a private lender, they might threaten legal action to scare you into making a payment, but they probably figure they won't get shit from someone who owes that much, so they might not even do anything except call and write relentlessly. Federal loans are a little harder to deal with, but federal loans also have the option of income-based repayments for cases where someone owes a bunch of money and doesn't make much.
Why would the Duh husband pay anything for it when she's on the hook for it? If he divorced her, he probably hates her and is happy to let her shoulder his financial burden because he knows she can't do anything about it. I'm sure she thought she was just so much in wuv that she'd never get a divorce and would never have to carry her husband's financial burden on her own.
I still say she should default on purpose. It's not going to have the greatest outcome for her credit, but if the loans are in both their names and consolidated, then debt collectors will start hounding the ex-husband for money too once she quits paying. Depending on what state she's in, both her and her ex's wages could be garnished for cover the debt, and I believe wage garnishment is capped at 25% of a person's discretionary income (this might vary by state too, not sure). I guarantee this would be FAR lower than whatever she is paying now and it would legally force Duhddy to pony up so it's not all on her.
But honestly, don't ever combine your debt with someone else's. That shit is your problem and as much as you might think you'll live happily ever after with your partner, keep your debts and your bank accounts separate. And why the fuck did this woman have seven kids when she has so much debt? Unless she's planning on selling them to pay off her loans, having that many brats to feed isn't gonna do h er any favors financially.