Rebecca Palmer isn’t a psychic, but as a divorce attorney she can often see what’s coming next.
For many people today, as AI saturates every aspect of life—from work to therapy—the allure of an AI romance is tantalizing. Chatbots are dependable, can provide emotional support, and, for the most part, will never pick a fight with you. But for married couples navigating long-term commitment, chatbot romances also present a new wrinkle. Love has never been easy, but spouses who have unmet emotional needs are “the most vulnerable to the influences and behaviors of AI,” Palmer says. “And particularly if a marriage is already struggling.”
Reddit is full of stories from people who’ve said AI has driven a wedge in their relationships. One woman decided to end her marriage of 14 years after discovering her husband—who believed he was in a real relationship with a woman he called his “sexy Latina baby girl”—spent thousands of dollars on a OnePay credit card and an AI app “designed to mimic underage girls.”
In June, WIRED reported on the tangled future of chatbot love and the unexpected fallout it can cause. That story followed Eva, a 46-year-old writer and editor from New York, who, after getting too attached to her AI companions—she admitted they “became harder to ignore”—ended the relationship with her human partner after they both agreed it felt like she was cheating on him.
As chatbot romances become more commonplace, causing irreparable rifts in relationships, a new legal frontier is emerging in family law that is rewriting the rules of marital misconduct: An AI affair is now grounds for divorce.
An age of AI infidelity is here.
For some people, there is a growing belief that bot romances should be treated like human ones, particularly as more and more adults say they prefer it, according to the Institute for Family Studies. Some 60 percent of singles now say AI relationships are considered a form of cheating, according to two recent surveys by Clarity Check and Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute.
“The law is still developing alongside these experiences. But some people think of it as a true relationship, and sometimes better than one with a person,” says Palmer, whose Orlando-based firm has worked with spouses who have gotten divorced or are going through a divorce due to a partner cheating with AI. Palmer declined to discuss any detailed information due to client confidentiality, but said one of her current cases involves money being expended and private information being shared—such as bank accounts, social security numbers, and birth information—with a chatbot, which was “consuming the spouse’s life and affecting career performance.”
More and more, courts are beginning to see clients cite emotional bonds with AI companions as reasons for marital strain or dissolution. Though legal classifications of AI still vary by state in matters of family law, Palmer adds that laws classifying AI as a “third party, not a person” are fast approaching in progressive states like California. She doesn’t anticipate courts will legally recognize AI companions as people—debates around AI personhood have been swirling for as long as the tech has existed—but they may be recognized as “a reason” for why divorce is merited.
“In contrast, Ohio is emerging as one of the most restrictive states,” Palmer says, following its recent legislative efforts that explicitly attempt to outlaw “even symbolic or attempted legal recognition of AI-human intimate partnerships.” In October, Ohio state representative Thaddeus J. Claggett introduced a bill to deny AIs the right of legal personhood by deeming them “nonsentient entities.”
What’s happening poses very interesting questions for the future of the legal field, says family law attorney Elizabeth Yang. Every state’s family law is different, but there are states that do penalize partners who cheat. Though prosecution rarely happens, it’s illegal to cheat on your spouse in 16 states. (Thirteen of those states classify cheating as a misdemeanor.) The laws are the most severe in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma, where adultery is a felony charge and punishable by up to five years of imprisonment or a fine—up to $10,000 in Wisconsin. California, where Yang is based, is a no-fault state. “Courts don’t want to hear the reasons behind why the marriage failed. They only need them to check off the box that says irreconcilable differences. So whether that’s infidelity with a bot or a human, it doesn’t make a difference.”
One area where AI may prove harmful in divorce proceedings is over the misuse of money (the legal term is dissipation of assets). In community property states like Arizona and Texas, both individuals have the right to funds accumulated during the marriage, and if a partner can prove there was financial waste over hidden payments or subscription costs to an AI companion, that may be a deciding factor.
Judges, Palmer says, already “struggle with what to do about affairs with humans,” and AI companions will only complicate that, as they take into account the broader impact on the relationship. Children complicate the matter even more. When it comes to custody battles, “it is conceivable and likely that they would question the parents’ judgment because they’re having intimate discussions with a chatbot,” which “brings into question how they are spending time with their child.”
Although the sophisticated chatbots we use today have only been around for a few years, Yang claims the tech will only play a bigger role in marriages and divorces. “As it continues improving, becoming more realistic, compassionate, and empathetic, more and more people in unhappy marriages who are lonely are going to be going to seek love with a bot.”
Yang has not had clients raise the issue yet, but she anticipates a boom in divorces in the coming years as more people turn to AI for companionship. “We’ll probably see an increased rate of divorce filings. When Covid happened a few years ago, the increase in divorces was very significant. We probably saw three times the amount of divorces that were filed around 2020 to 2022. After 2022, once things got back to normal, divorce rates were back down. But it will probably go back up.”
It’s already happening in some places. In the UK, a partner’s use of chatbot apps has become a more common factor contributing to divorce, according to data collection service Divorce-Online. The platform claims to have received an increase in the number of divorce applications this year where clients have said apps like Replika and Anima created “emotional or romantic attachment.”
Despite the rupture it is causing, Palmer says she still believes AI relationships can be positive. “Some people are finding real fulfillment.” But she warns that “people need to recognize the limitations.” In October, California became the first state to pass an AI regulations law for companion chatbots. The law goes into effect in January 2026 and requires apps to have certain key features, such as age verification and break reminders for minors, and makes it illegal for chatbots to act as health care professionals. Companies who profit from illegal deepfakes are also fined up to $250,000 per incident.
In some ways, Palmer has seen what’s happening now before with social media instead of AI. “It could be that a partner connected with someone they haven’t seen in years. Or that there is just a true need to have communication. It is a rare case anymore where social media is not involved.” AI, she says, is the natural evolution of that. “And what I am finding is, AI is turning into exactly that.”
