Adultery and Divorce in Texas

How Does Adultery Affect Your Texas Divorce?

Many people considering divorce anticipate that the court will punish a spouse for committing adultery.  In this video, Divorce Attorney Vonda Covington talks about adultery and divorce in Texas.  If you have questions, please contact our office for an appointment by calling 281-762-0578.

Summary of Adultery and Divorce in Texas Video

– Hi, I’m Vonda Covington. I’m a divorce attorney in Fort Bend County, Texas, and I’d like to talk a little bit about the effect of adultery in divorce and dispel some common myths.

First of all, I think it’s important to recognize that the people who make these family law decisions, the family court judges, hear some really, really horrible stuff over the course of their careers on the bench. Some of the stuff is the kind of stuff that just makes you want to cry because people can be just so mean to each other.

The Issues of Adultery in Divorce

The judges really don’t get as excited as people would like a lot of times about adultery. Typically the issues in adultery are twofold. First, there is the problem of causing the breakup of the marriage and that problem really lies more with the expectation of a continued relationship than evildoing on the part of the person who’s had the affair.

So if you are in a marriage where one spouse, for instance, has been a stay-at-home parent, taking care of the kids, never pursued a career, and expected to have financial security because they’re married to somebody who’s making some really good income, perhaps you guys are halfway to retirement, and then the wage earner has an affair and it ends up breaking up the marriage.  

The spouse who was faithful and who was relying on the continued income is going to get a little bit more of the estate, the marital estate, upon the division than the other spouse.  That’s because the adultery is one of the factors that the court will look at in deciding the division of the community property in the marital estate.

The other way is that affairs can affect property division in divorce. We look at whether the person who is having the affair spent a lot of money on the boyfriend or girlfriend. Perhaps they took expensive, extravagant vacations, there have been really extravagant gifts, that kind of thing, then there’s gonna, that’s going to affect the division of the marital estate. The person who was preserving the estate and not giving it away to a third party is probably going to get a bigger chunk of the estate.

The Effect of Adultery on Parenting Issues

As far as parenting issues, what the court really is concerned about is have the kids been exposed to this other person? If the kids have been exposed to this other person during the marriage, then the courts generally frown on that. Kids don’t need to know that mom or dad has a boyfriend or a girlfriend.

If the kids have no idea that that’s what’s going on, and the kids have in no way been harmed, then it’s not a foul and it doesn’t get treated as one.

But it is important to recognize even after you’re separated if you are in an extramarital relationship, don’t bring that person around your kids while the divorce is pending. That is something that the kids are not ready for, they’re not ready to deal with it, and the court will really frown on it. It’ll end up hurting your case.

Contact Us for Advice Tailored to Your Situation

Are you wondering how adultery might affect your divorce?  Please call our office at 281-762-0578 for an appointment to discuss your situation.  An initial consultation will allow us to give you the information you need to make informed decisions.