hearthealth,
One of my dearest friends divorced a man who, on paper, appeared to be a dream catch. He was very high up the food chain, and she sacrificed her own promising career to follow his. He was such a egotistical, cheating, narcissist, but my friend made it clear that she wasn't ready to face the truth.
When she finally divorced him, I will be to first to admit that "Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead" was the first song that came to mind. The divorce agreement, IMHO, was all in his favor and she had to start out from scratch.
She had a pretty rough couple years in the beginning. But once she was unburdened of his presence, she began to take small steps towards revitalizing her career. She's now in her dream job, which would have NEVER happened if she was still married to Jerk. People helped her out with child care so she could accept Dream Job. She's now building up her retirement savings, (she didn't have any because Jerk took all of it in the agreement.). She isn't with anyone at the moment, but she's made it quite clear that she isn't going to settle for just anyone. Whoever he is, he's going to have to prove that he deserves her (and I say this as her friend.)
You may think that people will judge you for getting divorced, but your true friends and family will celebrate the fact that you've finally unshackled yourself from your self-imposed chains. If they can, they will more than happily help you out as you steady yourself. They may even ask "What took you so long?"