Virtual world 'affair' ends with real-life divorce
Amy Taylor, formally Pollard, of Newquay, cited unreasonable behaviour in the court papers, describing how their three-year marriage came to an end after she claims she twice walked in on her husband while he was engaging in an online affair.
One time he was allegedly pretending to have sex in the online game.
She said she caught husband David Pollard, 40, "committing adultery" with a woman he met playing the computer game Second Life.
Speaking from her home in Newquay she said: "It may have started online, but it existed entirely in the real world and it hurts just as much now it is over."
The popular computer game involves players creating characters for themselves and living full lives – including having jobs, relationships and children.
In the Second Life game, players can chat to each other and strike up friendships through their characters, known as avatars.
They can explore the virtual world, meet other players, socialise, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade items and services with one another.
Ms Taylor, 28, said she caught her husband out after she went for an afternoon nap and woke to find his character "having sex with a prostitute on the game".
She said: "I went mad – I was so hurt. I just couldn't believe what he'd done.
"I looked at the computer screen and could see his character having sex with a female character.
"It's cheating as far as I'm concerned. But he didn't see it as a problem, and couldn't see why I was so upset."
Ironically, the couple met online in an Internet chatroom in May 2003.
In July 2005, the pair were married at the registrar's office in St Austell and then moved into a flat at Newquay.
Ms Taylor said: "He never did anything in real life, but I had my suspicions about what he was doing in Second Life."
In February 2007, she caught him having sex with the online prostitute character and even hired an online private detective in the game to investigate what he was up to. There followed a reconciliation, but in April this year, she found his character cuddling another virtual female woman.
She said: "I caught him cuddling a woman on a sofa in the game. It looked really affectionate.
"He confessed he'd been talking to this woman player in America for one or two weeks, and said our marriage was over and he didn't love me any more, and we should never have got married."
The next day Ms Taylor said she went to see a local solicitor to file for a divorce, which is due to be finalised next week.
She said: "The solicitor wasn't at all surprised – she said it was her second divorce case involving Second Life that week."
Ms Taylor said she now had a new man in her life – someone she met while playing the Internet fantasy role-playing game World of Warcraft.
David Pollard said: "I was having this online relationship with this girl in America.
"We weren't even having cyber sex or anything like that, we were just chatting and hanging out together.
"It was nothing really major but then Amy found out about it and went mad and said 'How could you do this?'
"I don't think I was really doing anything wrong."
David and Amy Pollard, from Newquay, Cornwall, on their wedding day in the real world
