Facebook 'Sex Chats' Blamed for One in Five Divorces

Around 14million Britons are believed to use social networking sites regularly. Last year a 28-year-old woman, from Newquay in Cornwall, ended her marriage after discovering her husband had been having a virtual affair in cyberspace with someone he had never met.

Amy Taylor split from David Pollard after discovering he was sleeping with an escort in the game Second Life, a virtual world where players reinvent themselves. The divorce rate has fallen in recent years, but two in five marriages are still failing, according to statistics.

The online temptations

Emma Brady only discovered her husband wanted a divorce after he posted a message on Facebook reading: 'Neil Brady has ended his marriage to Emma Brady.'

Mrs Brady claims she had no idea he even wanted a divorce and only found out when a friend, who read the post on the social networking website, rang to console her.

To make matters worse, she also discovered someone else had commented her husband was 'better off out of it'.

'The first I knew about it was when I received a phone call at work from my best friend, who lives in Denmark,' said the 35-year-old conference organiser.

'She asked me if I was okay. I was shell-shocked. I have had people who I haven't spoken to for years contacting me asking what is going

'I only joined Facebook because the girls at work said it was good fun.'

Mrs Brady, from Accrington, went on: 'I asked Neil if he had anything to tell me and he simply said no.

'He acted like everything was fine so we carried on as normal.'

The couple's six-year marriage limped on for another five months and finally disintegrated after a row just before Christmas last year. Mr Brady later pleaded guilty in court to assaulting his wife by throwing her out of the house.

He was fined £580 and ordered to pay £100 compensation. The 39-year-old IT consultant, who is now living with his mother, claims he talked to his wife about separation and insisted: 'I'd had enough of her.'