Infidelity is a huge cause for divorce. It does not matter if it is in the United States or if it is in Australia. Unfaithfulness damages the very foundation of trust upon which a marriage is built. It causes self-doubt and always leads to fighting. There are many reasons why people cheat but none of them lessens the impact that it has on the other spouse. It can completely shake a person’s self-confidence and lead them to think it may have been their fault. That is simply not true.
It is easy to think of infidelity as being physically intimate with someone other than a spouse. But there are other ways to cheat as well. A person can be involved emotionally with someone other than their spouse. The two may never touch each other physically but it can still be devastating on the faithful wife or husband. No matter what type of infidelities have occurred, all parties are hurt in the end and this can be reflected in the divorce settlement.
Divorce court is not a great place to have to air dirty laundry about infidelities. Most judges do not look favorably on a cheating spouse. In some states it is grounds enough to be granted alimony. There are very few cases of uncontested divorces where a partner has been cheating. Most are very bitter affairs that often require the services of a divorce mediation professional in order to come to a peaceful agreement.
If your partner has cheated on you but you are not quite ready to call it quits, then you can still find marriage help. It will take a lot of work to get the marriage back on track but it can happen. It requires counseling to uncover the reasons why one spouse strayed from the marriage bed. There will be a lot of hurt feelings that have to be overcome and it is entirely possible that you can never let the incident(s) go and that divorce will happen regardless of your efforts to save the marriage.
Infidelity does more than end a marriage. It always causes the injured spouse to doubt his or her own value. Did you make your husband/wife cheat? Was there something about your looks or personality that was not good enough? All manner of questions run through the mind. Divorce laws are on your side if you decide to contact a divorce attorney but it does not make it sting any less.