Not the way most people expect. Florida is a pure no-fault state — no one has to prove an affair to get divorced, and the judge is not there to punish one. But the statutes leave three specific doors open: alimony, dissipation of marital assets, and — rarely, and only through the children — the parenting plan. Knowing which door your facts actually fit is the difference between leverage and an expensive grudge.
No-fault means the affair does not decide the divorce
Since 1971, Florida has required only that the marriage be “irretrievably broken” — section 61.052, Florida Statutes. Nobody pleads adultery as grounds; nobody defends against it. You cannot be denied a divorce because you strayed, and you cannot win one because your spouse did. Fault left the grounds in 1971. It did not leave the statutes entirely — which is where the three doors come in.
Door one: alimony and “resulting economic impact”
Section 61.08 says the court “may consider the adultery of either spouse and any resulting economic impact” in determining the amount of alimony. The italics are the point, and the 2023 rewrite (chapter 2023-315) made them explicit: what moves the number is not the affair, it is the affair’s economics. Marital money spent on the relationship, a career or business damaged by it, resources diverted from the family — that is what a court can weigh. What it cannot do, and what appellate courts police, is use alimony as a morality fine. After 2023 the framework is need and ability to pay inside hard caps — our guide to the Florida alimony laws walks through them — and adultery matters at the margin, through dollars, or not at all.
Note the symmetry: the statute reaches “either spouse.” A paying spouse’s affair spending can raise the award; a receiving spouse’s affair has to carry economic consequences before it lowers one.
Door two: dissipation — the affair’s paper trail
The stronger door, in practice, is property. Under section 61.075(1)(i), a court dividing the marital estate considers the “intentional dissipation, waste, depletion, or destruction of marital assets after the filing of the petition or within 2 years prior to the filing.” Affair spending is the textbook case: travel, hotels, jewelry, rent on the second apartment, cash support of a paramour — every marital dollar spent on the relationship inside that window is a candidate for an unequal distribution or a dollar-for-dollar credit back to the estate.
This door swings on proof, not outrage: card statements, transfers, payment apps, and where needed the forensic tracing we use in hidden-asset work. The output is a number — and numbers, unlike accusations, get paid. The mechanics of unequal distribution live in our property division guide.
Door three: the parenting plan — only through the child
“Moral fitness of the parents” is one of the best-interest factors in section 61.13, and it is the most misunderstood item on this page. Florida courts do not restrict a parent’s time because that parent had an affair; they act when conduct demonstrably affects the child — exposure to a revolving door of partners mid-case, judgment failures the child absorbs, instability in the home. An affair the children never see is, in the time-sharing analysis, close to weightless. What actually draws judicial attention is timing: introducing a new partner into the children’s lives while the case is pending is a self-inflicted wound, and experienced counsel will tell both clients — the one who strayed and the one who didn’t — the same thing about it. The framework lives in our time-sharing guide.
What adultery does not do
It does not automatically bar alimony — the recipient’s adultery is a consideration, not a disqualification. It does not forfeit anyone’s share of the marital estate — equitable distribution starts at equal regardless of who strayed. It carries no realistic criminal exposure — a century-old misdemeanor statute survives on the books, but it is a dead letter, and no one should expect or fear a prosecution. And it does not impress the judge: family judges have heard every version of this story, and a case built on airing it — rather than on the two economic doors above — burns fees and credibility together. Section 61.16 fee-shifting can even send the bill for scorched-earth litigation back to the spouse who insisted on it.
Evidence: what helps, and what backfires
The useful evidence is financial and lawfully obtained: your own records, statements on joint accounts, payment-app histories, public social media, and where warranted a licensed investigator. The catastrophic evidence is the other kind — logging into a spouse’s phone, email, or accounts without authorization can violate Florida’s interception and computer-access laws, expose you to civil and criminal risk, and hand your spouse a suppression argument wrapped in a sympathy card. If the texts matter, they will matter through lawful discovery. What you should do is preserve: keep statements, do not “clean up” joint accounts, and date-stamp what you already lawfully have.
The practical play
If you are the spouse who was betrayed: channel it. The anger is legitimate; the courtroom translation of it is a dissipation schedule and an economic-impact argument — a number, documented, presented at mediation where most cases resolve. If you are the spouse who strayed: the exposure is financial and reputational, not existential — get ahead of the accounting, keep the new relationship away from the children until the case ends, and do not let guilt price the settlement. Either way, the affair is a chapter of the case, not the case. The lawyer’s job is to keep it that size.
Common questions
No. Florida is no-fault — the only substantive allegation required is that the marriage is irretrievably broken, under section 61.052. Proof of an affair becomes relevant only if you pursue the economic doors: alimony’s economic-impact consideration or a dissipation claim in property division.
Almost certainly not on their own. Time-sharing turns on the child’s best interests, and an affair matters only where it demonstrably affected the children — exposure, instability, judgment failures they absorbed. Texts proving the relationship existed prove little about parenting. Their real value is usually financial: amounts, gifts, and travel that feed a dissipation claim.
Only through the math, not the morality. Section 61.075(1)(i) lets the court address intentional dissipation of marital assets within two years before filing or after — so marital money spent on the affair can come back to you as an unequal distribution or a credit. The affair itself, with no marital dollars attached, does not change the split.
Financial, mostly — and manageable if handled early. Expect the spending to be traced: marital dollars on the relationship inside the two-year window are recoverable through dissipation, and economic impact can touch the alimony number. Keep the new partner away from the children while the case is pending, and do not let guilt negotiate the settlement for you.
A century-old misdemeanor statute technically remains on the books, but it is a dead letter — prosecutions are not a realistic concern for anyone. The consequences that matter are the civil ones on this page: alimony’s economic-impact consideration and dissipation in property division.
Keep reading
Florida Alimony Laws
The 2023 reform in full — the four surviving types, marriage-length categories, duration caps and the 35% amount ceiling.
Property Division
Classification, valuation, the equal premise — and the statutory grounds, dissipation included, for unequal division.
Is Florida a 50/50 Divorce State?
The equal-split premise for property and the 2023 equal time-sharing presumption — and what rebuts each.
Divorce
Contested, uncontested, and complex divorce — the PEACE framework handled with financial command.
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This page is general information about Florida law as of its last review and is not legal advice about any specific situation. Citations are to sections 61.052, 61.075, 61.08, 61.13, and 61.16, Florida Statutes, as amended through chapter 2023-315, Laws of Florida. How these factors weigh in any real case is fact-specific.