Some people find out that the relationship is over directly from the lips of their spouses or significant others. Others find out in unusual and unexpected ways.
A wife found out about her husband’s cheating ways by reading about it in the newspaper. The unidentified wife was perusing the “birth announcements” section of the newspaper when she came across a posting that her husband, who had an unusual name, had just had a baby boy with another woman.
Her shock was made even worse when she discovered that the husband and this woman previously had another child together one and one half years earlier. Upon making the discovery the wife put all of the husband’s clothes in garbage bags and dropped them off at the home of his girlfriend.
In another mega-divorce case that is just getting started, Jenny Paulson found out that her billionaire husband of twenty-one years, John Paulson, had filed for divorce by reading about it in the gossip column of the New York Post newspaper. According to sources close to Jenny “she never saw it coming.” This shocking blow was made even worse when a follow up article in the Post appeared the very next day, complete with photos and a detailed bio of John’s new love interest, a 33 year old fitness guru who is half of John’s age. The timing of the back to back articles and the content of the photos (taken months ago) made it clear that that John and his latest flame had been seeing each other for “quite a while”.
Sometimes, you find out about your husband’s cheating ways simply by answering your iPhone. In a New York divorce case, as detailed in the divorce court’s opinion, the unfaithful husband was having sex with his latest paramour when his telephone “accidentally dialed” the wife’s telephone number. His wife heard the whole lurid, passionate episode in “real time”. Of course, unexplained by the parties was how a “butt dial” could have occurred, given the circumstances under which the call was made.
Based upon my many years representing clients in divorce cases I have reached the conclusion that most couples in a divorce case come from one of two perspectives. The one initiating the divorce says it has been “coming for years.” The spouse receiving the “divorce greeting,” says it came “out of nowhere.” What is certain is that the spouse who feels angry and blind-sided by the divorce usually takes a longer and more difficult road to the resolution of the case.