KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian man divorced his two wives in three minutes, saying they had "collectively decided" to end their marriages to him and he had "never expected" such an outcome, reports said Wednesday (April 2nd).

Roslan Ngah divorced his wives on Tuesday (April 1st) in an Islamic court in conservative northern Terengganu state by repeatedly saying "talaq", which under Islamic law means a couple is divorced, The New Straits Times reported.

The 44-year old businessman told the daily that his wives, a housewife and a nurse who lived in the same house, had both wanted to divorce him.

"(My first and second wives) are like good friends but I never imagined that both of them had collectively decided to divorce me," he said. "I admit that my relationship with them had been strained over the past few months but I never expected our marriages to end in this manner."

Roslan married his first wife in 1986 and his second in 1995. He married a third time in 2001 but divorced shortly afterwards.

Asked if he would marry again, Roslan, who had a total of eight children with all three women, said: "I will not put off marriage indefinitely, God willing."

Earlier, local reporters had dismissed messages about the pending divorce as an April Fool's Day hoax but realised it was real when they turned up at the courtroom.