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Mi tío está divorciado.

Mi tío está divorciado.
My uncle is divorced.
From Lesson 231:Adjective meaning changes (ser vs. estar)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Mi tío está divorciado.

Why is está used here instead of es?
Marital statuses like divorciado (divorced), casado (married), and soltero (single) are usually paired with estar. This is because estar is used for states or conditions that result from a change—he went through a divorce, and this is his current state.
Would it be wrong to say Mi tío es divorciado?
It wouldn't be completely wrong, but the meaning shifts slightly. Using ser treats the status as a permanent label or a strict legal category, like on an official form. Using estar, as in this sentence, is much more common in everyday conversation to describe a person's current life situation.
Since divorciado looks like a past tense verb, does it change endings to match the subject?
Yes! In this sentence, divorciado is a past participle acting as an adjective. Like all Spanish adjectives, it must match the gender and number of the noun it describes. Since tío is masculine and singular, it ends in -o. If you were talking about your aunt, it would be Mi tía está divorciada.
How would I say "My uncle got divorced" instead of "is divorced"?
To talk about the action of getting divorced rather than the current state, you use the reflexive verb divorciarse. You would say Mi tío se divorció (My uncle got divorced).

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