Some corners of the internet believe that people of certain zodiac signs are more likely to cheat than others. As family law attorneys, we’ve never bothered to find out whether, say, a client whose star sign is Leo is more likely to get divorced due to infidelity than a client whose sign is Virgo. That’s mainly because Washington State is a no-fault state, which means adultery doesn’t matter in a dissolution of marriage case. One’s zodiac certainly doesn’t factor in in such cases.
Speaking of stars, infidelity, and the internet, the last couple of months had many people riveted by celebrity cheating scandals. There were also speculations about these couples potentially divorcing. We hate to break it to you, but divorce is not always the solution.
Nevertheless, we have some reminders for those who were cheated on.
You can keep your head high
When news broke out that, several years ago, singer Adam Levine slid into different women’s DMs (direct messages) on Instagram, it seemed like the world would come crashing down on his wife, Victoria’s Secret model Behati Prinsloo. It can be very embarrassing when the public finds out about your spouse’s indiscretions, and while you are pregnant at that. Ms. Prinsloo’s situation was exacerbated by the fact that Mr. Levine’s messages were supposedly so cringe-y that they birthed several memes.
But the world didn’t come crashing down for Ms. Prinsloo. We can only guess that she has a solid legal and PR team, and friends who advised her on how to gracefully handle the situation.
The fact is that Ms. Prinsloo didn’t have to do much except relax at the mansion she shared with her husband and log off the internet, at least for a few weeks. If she consulted with her family attorney, the attorney would have advised her to visit a family therapist. There, she and her husband could have a conversation in private, talk about her husband’s unsavory behavior, and discuss her options should another similar scandal erupt. But in this day and age, scandals of this nature come and go, and this one will surely pass.
From a lawyer’s point of view (and frankly, even from non-lawyers’), there’s no reason to talk about divorce just yet. Mr. Levine denied the allegations that he had an affair but confessed that he crossed the line by sending the said DMs.
We don’t think that sending embarrassing DMs to women to compliment them using one’s arsenal of very awkward phrases is enough grounds for a divorce. That said, the singer-songwriter can’t deny that he needs to work on his flirting game. Luckily, he’s married so he may not have to.
You could Try to make it work
If you have no clue about who or what a “Try Guy” is, you are not alone. Allow us to explain.
The Try Guys is a group of four guys, Ned, Eugene, Zach, and Keith, that was formed at the internet media company Buzzfeed in 2014. They have a YouTube channel where viewers can watch videos of them trying different activities, hence the oh-so-clever name Try Guys.
They are harmless internet celebrities who many people like because they create fairly entertaining time-suck content. The wholesome foursome is best known for creating a video in which they try on women’s underwear — you know, as one does when trying to achieve internet fame.
But their wholesome image was shattered when member Ned was caught having a “consensual workplace relationship” with a colleague. “Consensual workplace relationship” is not legal jargon, by the way; it’s a phrase coined by Mr. Fulmer himself in his apology. There was no denying his affair as internet spies conducted a full-on investigation and gathered photo and video evidence.
Who needs the legal system when you have the public acting as judge, jury, and executioner?
And what about Ned’s wife Ariel Fulmer? Did she file for divorce? No one knows yet. All that can be safely assumed is that she unsubscribed from the Try Guys’ YouTube channel.
The remaining three Try Guys may have divorced Ned from the group as they “do not see a path forward together.” But luckily for Ned, this very public cheating scandal has not led to talks of divorce — at least not yet.
The chances of divorce are high when one partner commits infidelity. But not all cases of infidelity lead to divorce. For married couples who are not celebrities, logical decisions about whether one should divorce a cheating spouse can be resolved in private.
In other words, Mrs. Fulmer can choose not to divorce her husband. But because she and Ned are celebrities in their own right, it will be much harder for Ned to commit the same mistake and get away with it. And if the couple has other, deeper problems than Ned’s wandering eye, a divorce might not be far off in their future.
This would have gone down a lot more quietly if Ned’s Try Guy persona was called something other than “Wife Guy.”
You can “glow up”
After four years of marriage, model, actress, and author Emily Ratajkowski divorced her film producer husband Sebastian Bear-McClard for being a “serial cheater.”
Unlike the other women in this list, her experience was a lot less public. Keeping your marital problems (especially if you’re a public figure) is always the best way to go.
We don’t have any pointers in Ms. Ratajkowski’s case as she did everything right post-divorce. Instead, we will highlight the things she seemed to have done right:
- Get a solid legal team that can help keep the divorce private.
- Negotiate divorce settlements in private.
- Upload revenge TikTok posts that show not just your glow-up but also how unbothered, successful, and carefree you’ve been post-divorce.
Related reading: 5 Things that celebrity divorce lawyers do that regular lawyers can do too
To get personal, dedicated legal representation for your divorce case in Washington State, consult Buckingham, LaGrandeur, & Williams. Contact us today.