MSNBC
Facebook Busts Accused Bigamist
Woman Finds Her Prince Charming Has Married Another
July 29, 2010 | Download PDF of Article
CLEVELAND, Ohio – It’s one thing to suspect your spouse of cheating. It’s another to see proof on Facebook. A Cleveland woman is dealing with it first-hand in what’s becoming an alarming trend. Facebook painted a vivid picture, of a nightmare, she never saw coming.
“I’m in a living nightmare, and I just feel like this isn’t real, and I have to remind myself that it is real. It is happening.”
For woman we’ll call Megan (She asked to remain anonymous.) a click around Facebook is painful – at best. “It’s disturbing to see my husband and my children essentially in a double life with another woman.”
Megan’s husband, who swept her away in their own magical wedding in Italy just five years ago, secretly met another woman in Florida.
When Megan’s relatives got a tip about that woman’s Facebook page, Megan watched helplessly on Facebook, for weeks, putting a name to her husband’s real business in the sunshine state.
“She had it ‘public.’ So at the time, we were able to decipher that they were getting married at Disney World. That she was registered at target. They had been together since ’07. She was living at his home in Florida. We found that all through Facebook.” Within weeks, Megan saw heart-breaking images of a lavish, storybook wedding for Wife No. 2. She was dressed as Sleeping Beauty, and Megan’s husband was kissing his new bride as Prince Charming.
“Someone who went to the wedding posted all the pictures from the wedding. About 200 pictures from the wedding,” Megan said. The photos tore at Megan’s heart, but those same photos will be used as she seeks a divorce. It is evidence such as this that family law expert Andrew Zashin said often is used in court, thanks to Facebook.
Zashin said the common evidence involves spouses obsessed with ‘celebrity’ status on Facebook. Those same spouses seemingly forget that whoever they’re spending time with behind closed doors, has his or her own Facebook page.
“While they don’t necessarily broadcast this material on Facebook, the other side of the relationship does. So you’re one step removed from being proven to be a liar,” Zashin said.
“You claim you don’t have a relationship with such-and-such a person. Well, you get on the Facebook account of the other person or a friend of the other person and what? There you are! On a cruise. You weren’t on a golf trip or business outing. You’re kissing on a yacht somewhere!”
In Megan’s case, kissing a second wife.
“I’m still legally married to my husband.”
“It adds impact to the hurt, when they’re posting the things they post about the affair. Pictures of the vacations they’re taking with the other, the lover.”
Megan and her husband have two young children together. Megan watches as the other wife posts photo of activities with Megan’s children.
Megan’s husband believes his marriage to her wasn’t legal because of a clerical problem. Megan said that’s nonsense.
Eventually, the case will be decided in court.