Steve764:

I've been asked to weigh in on the issue of what constitutes marriage, and how does that answer apply to the steps I recommend to survive an affair.

Marriage is a broad term that has been used to describe all sorts of arrangements, but when it's a civil contract, a legal marriage, there are legal protections included. Laws have been written to protect both spouses from damages when one person violates the marital rights of the other. One of those legal obligations is fidelity, although it is not enforced the way it has been been in the past. But a couple must be legally married for fidelity to be legally assumed.

My advice to expose an affair when one spouse has been unfaithful assumes that the couple is legally married. The fact that it's a legal marriage makes exposure (telling others that your spouse is having an affair -- being unfaithful) an accurate statement and not slander which is inaccurate. If the marriage is not legal, then a partner is not having an affair from a legal standpoint and exposure can be considered slander. The slandered person can sue for compensation.

So I don't recommend exposure to spouses who are not legally married, even though it greatly improves the chances of the couple's relationship surviving.

Best wishes,
Dr. Harley