Surveys have shown that 10 to 15 percent of married women admit to cheating on their spouses, while men double that statistic, with 20 to 25 percent of married men admitting to cheating on their partners. How does infidelity affect divorce? After all, cheating is something that most married couples never get over and is one of the leading causes of divorce.

What Adultery Does Not Affect During Divorce

It is easier to first list the aspects of divorce that are not affected by adultery because adultery has no effect on most of the things that people typically assume that it does. For instance, adultery does not sway a court one way or the other when it comes to child custody unless it can be proven that the cheating spouse’s affair somehow put the child at physical or emotional harm, which is extremely rare. Similarly, adultery has no effect on child support or the parenting plan. Asset distribution almost always remains the same whether marriage end because of infidelity or some other unrelated reason. It may seem like a cheating spouse put less effort into the marriage or is setting a horrible example for his or her children, and therefore is less equipped to be a parent, but the courts generally treat a cheating spouse better than a spouse with a gambling addiction, for example. Only when the infidelity is proven to have directly affected the child in a negative way, such as exposing the child to a prostitute, will a court use infidelity to make a custody decision. The same goes for asset division. However, there is one exception to the later.

Dissipation

Illinois is an equitable distribution state, meaning that property is divided “fairly.” Under 750 ILCS 5/503, the court “shall divide the marital property without regard to marital misconduct in just proportions considering all relevant factors.” As such, adultery does not affect property distribution. However, the court does recognize the misuse of marital assets, called the “dissipation” of marital assets. One type of misuse is spending marital assets on another sexual partner. For example, the court may choose to reduce the property distributed to the husband if it can be proven that he spent money on hotel rooms, jewelry, and dinners for his mistress.

Divorce is a major life decision that can change your life forever. Before initiating the divorce process, you should make sure you are getting divorced for the right reasons. Below is a list of questions you should ask yourself when considering divorce. By answering these questions, you can determine whether or not a divorce makes sense for your particular situation.

1. Do you have feelings for your spouse?

Ask yourself if you have feelings for your spouse. You may find that you still have feelings of love and affection but are simply angry at them for a particular reason. Since you want to avoid making a mistake, it is a good idea to seek couples therapy if there is any love left.

Marriages are full of happy and tragic events. Unfortunately, some of the tragic events cause spouses to question what they really want and whether they are living their life to the fullest. Our divorce lawyers have noticed that these six life events are the ones that often lead to divorce because they distance couples rather than make them stronger:

1. Job Loss

Losing a job and worrying about finances can hinder a marriage. Income loss can change the way a couple spends their time and lives their life. It can also cause one spouse to constantly worry about the unemployed spouse and feel stressed out about being the sole breadwinner.

We have all heard it, “once a cheater always a cheater” but does cheating always point to the physical indiscretions of one partner against the other and the almost certain basis for a divorce? A recent article explores eight varying circumstances and actions that may be classified as non-physical cheating and how these activities can collapse a marriage all too quickly.

Outside Interests

There is no harm in harboring a hobby but when that activity takes away a significant amount of time from your spouse he or she may feel the same type of neglect as if you were involved in a physical relationship outside the marriage.

It appears as the American dream of marriage, owning a home and bringing the average of 2.5 children into the world, may be a shrinking violet. As millennials are pushing the marital age limits to 27 for women and 29 for men, the iconic picture of the traditional household is changing, especially when it comes to bringing a child into the fold. Taken from U.S. Census Bureau statistics, the number of two-parent households with children has declined by 20 percent since the 1970s.

Seen as a substantial decline, researchers contribute the results to millennials opting to marry later in life, the uncertainty of changes in current lifestyle, economic strain, alternative living arrangements and the underlying fear that the marriage will not endure the test of time, resulting in a divorce.

These hesitations are not unfounded as years of research indicates that once a child is born, the marriage and the relationship between partners undergoes a transformation.