Facebook's impact on divorce just as messy as ever

My story on a local woman discovering her husband's second wife on Facebook plays tonight at 11, but the more I think of her case -- and others like hers -- the more I wonder if FB helps or hurts cases like this.



On one hand, it adds clarity to a spouse's actions when you can see photos of them with another person or doing something they said they weren't doing. Tough to argue you never met "that woman" when there are photos of you two kissing on a boat.

On the other hand, photos and status updates can always be debated by one or the other so it creates even more objects for debate in an often messy process.

Either way it's painful.

In tonight's story, we'll meet "Megan" and hear about how she watched helplessly from Ohio as her husband's "business trips" to Florida led to him not only meet another woman but to marry her too -- all while still married in Ohio. Wedding photos were eventually posted on Facebook and soon thereafter pictures of the Ohio's wife's two children interacting with her husband's "second" wife were added as well. Can you imagine how hard that is to see?

I spoke with the husband's Florida attorney who says the hubby is claiming a clerical technicality that makes the first wedding null and therefor he's not a bigamist. Megan says that's a crock, but we'll let the courts settle that.

In stories like these, my experience is usually that the truth is somewhere in the grey area between the two parties' stories. In this case, it's just bizarre.

Either way, it's heartbreaking to see marriages ending period. To see FB as a part of the divorce process -- either as a vehicle to temptation or after-the-fact as an evidence-gathering tool -- just adds another obstacle that keeps some folks away from FB altogether when they could be using it as a great way to stay in touch with family and friends.