Blog Topic

Infidelity and Divorce Law
August 16, 2012

Thanks to the media's obsession with celebrity extramarital affairs, we've learned to take sides. We vilify the cheater and the third party, but at the heart of each story is our sympathy for the faithful spouse, the scorned.

We identify with this person the same way we identify with our favorite sports teams; we follow property divisions and custody battles with the same fervent energy we carry to Browns Stadium. But the rules of this game are often misunderstood. When the faithful spouse turns to the legal system to exact revenge, he or she will usually find that the infidelity itself matters little.

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Elizabeth Hurley and the Impact of Cheating on Divorce
April 22, 2011

At the beginning of this month Elizabeth Hurley filed for divorce from her husband of four years, Indian businessman and textile heir Arun Nayar. While she claimed the divorce was caused by Nayar's "unreasonable behavior," her own behavior made headlines several months prior when the tabloids broke the news of her infidelity with the also married Australian cricket player Shane Warne. As soon as Britain's News of the World reported the couple had shared a hotel room and were photographed kissing in public, both Hurley and Warne rushed to the internet to do some damage control. They were quick to point out that they had been separated from their respective spouses for months. Their actions were intended to classify their relationship as something other than infidelity, and they highlight the general feeling in our society that infidelity is wrong and immoral.

The issue of adultery unfortunately arises frequently in divorce cases. Often one spouse has cheated on the other during the marriage and the infidelity may be the catalyst for the divorce. Or, perhaps the couple has already split and is working toward divorce when one spouse begins dating again. In either situation, the faithful spouse typically experiences a wide range of emotions, from hurt, to anger, to resentment, jealously, and the desire for revenge. The wronged party then turns to the legal system to exact that revenge, and is often surprised when they don't find the retribution they hoped for.

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