Second Life adultery brings real world divorce

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 17 Nov 2008 at 09:05

A woman is divorcing her husband after discovering his online alter-ego was having an affair with a virtual woman in Second Life.

Amy Taylor claims her three-year marriage to David Pollard came to an end when she twice walked in on him watching his online character, Dave Barmy, having sex with other virtual women.

The couple met in an internet chatroom in 2003 and married in real life and in a fantasy tropical setting in Second Life.

However, Taylor always had suspicions about Pollard's online loyalty. At one point she hired a virtual detective to test whether his avatar was cheating on her, after finding him at the computer watching his character having sex with a prostitute.

Pollard passed that honeytrap test but earlier this year Taylor found his character in a compromising position with another virtual woman.

"He confessed he'd been talking to this woman player in America for one or two weeks and said our marriage was over and he didn't love me any more," says Taylor, who filed for divorce the next day.

"The solicitor wasn't at all surprised. She said it was her second divorce case involving Second Life that week."