The Luxe Edit

So I’m over here minding my flu-recovering business, sipping tea, scrolling YouTube — and a Judge Judy clip pops up titled “Woman Sues Ex-Boyfriend’s Wife.”

First of all, what?! I clicked that thing so fast.

Long story short, this man out here filing taxes as “single,” never wore a ring, had a whole mistress visiting in his marital home, going on dates, she picking him up for work; like they were building a future. But when the wife found out, she didn’t check her husband — she checked the mistress. Assault charge and everything. My brain started tinkering like, hold up… what if adultery was actually illegal?

Watching that Judge Judy episode got me thinking about how love, loyalty, and the law collide in real life. Depending on where you live, the rules — and consequences — can look completely different. Some states still treat infidelity like a crime, while others leave it to civil court battles over “broken promises” or lost affection.

So I went digging, straight down the rabbit hole.

Turns out, adultery (meaning cheating on your legal spouse ) is still technically illegal in about a dozen states. We are talking New York, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Idaho, Utah, North Carolina, Mississippi, and a few others. These laws date back to the 1800s and 1900s, when the government felt it needed to “protect morality.”

Usually it’s just a misdemeanor, but in some places like Oklahoma, it’s still a felony. Don’t get too excited though, nobody’s really getting locked up over it. Prosecutors don’t want to go through folks’ text messages, hotel receipts, and private drama just to prove somebody’s creeping. They say it’s between consenting adults and not a threat to public safety.

Basically, the system said, “Y’all deal with that in divorce court.”

But North Carolina? Oh, they are different.

They still let a spouse sue the side piece. It’s called Alienation of Affection, and baby, it’s wild. One spouse (the “innocent” one) can actually take the other person to court for “stealing affection” from their marriage. Not criminal, but civil and the payouts can be jaw-dropping.

In 2020, a wife won nine million dollars from her husband’s mistress. In another case, a judge awarded $8.8 million to a husband from his wife’s lover. There’s even been verdicts over $30 million. Like… imagine paying millions for somebody else’s husband.

Imagine finding out your partner cheated — would you ever consider suing the person they cheated with?

Now here’s where it got juicier. Because it’s not just everyday couples — even celebrities find themselves tangled in these gray areas between heartbreak and liability.
Remember when Mariah Carey sued her ex-fiancé, billionaire James Packer? She said he wasted her time. And honestly, I felt that in my soul.

They got engaged in 2016, broke up that same year before the wedding. She said she moved her life around for him — canceled work, moved her family — just for him to call it off. She filed what’s called a palimony claim. Basically, she said, “You promised me a future, I invested in that, now I want compensation.”

They settled quietly for somewhere around $5–10 million, and she kept that 35-carat ring too. Whew.

And it’s not just celebrities making headlines with these heartbreak cases. Outside North Carolina, there are quieter lawsuits that still make waves. In Illinois, for example, a woman once won nearly $50,000 after suing her ex‑fiancé for calling off their engagement just weeks before the wedding, claiming he’d strung her along and caused emotional and financial harm. It wasn’t a celebrity headline — just an ordinary person turning betrayal into a legal claim.

Now it makes me wonder — what would life look like if you could really sue somebody for wasting your time, breaking your heart, or cheating on you? Would people be more careful with who they date? Would marriages slow down? Would engagements come with NDAs and payment plans?

Maybe it’s not about the money at all. Maybe it’s about being seen — proving your pain had weight, that what happened to you mattered.

These cases — whether it’s adultery laws, alienation of affection, or palimony — all ask the same question: Should love come with legal consequences?

It’s messy, fascinating, and a little too real. But one thing’s for sure — love, money, and reputation make a dangerous cocktail when lawyers get involved.

And maybe that’s why we can’t look away. Because deep down, every woman knows what it’s like to give your all — your time, your heart, your trust — and then realize somebody played in your face.

At the end of the day, these cases aren’t just about money—they’re about people trying to find justice in the middle of heartbreak. Whether you think it’s petty or powerful, they raise a timeless question: can you really put a price on love, loyalty, or lost time?

Maybe love is priceless… or maybe it’s just expensive.

So tell me… if you could sue for wasted time, how much would yours be worth? And if you spent years in a relationship that went nowhere — would you feel justified asking for compensation? chalk it up as part of life?