In yet another creepy story of Facebook family feuds, a woman says she found out her husband had married someone else when he posted his wedding photos on the site.
Lynn France says she already knew something was amiss in her marriage when she went looking on Facebook — she told Meredith Vieira yesterday that her husband John was taking more and more “business trips.” At one point he claimed he was going to China but left his passport at home. And according to the AP, she even tracked down her husband’s girlfriend at the hotel where the couple were staying. When she talked to her husband about it, he admitted that he’d been engaged to the other woman, but promised to cancel the wedding. But in January 2009, she saw Facebook photos of his second wedding at Disney World. Now he claims his wedding to France was never valid because of a technicality with the filing of the marriage license, and he has taken their two children and is seeking full custody.
It’s actually hard to tell what the creepiest part of this case is. Is it that John France’s lawyer claims that although both John and Lynn thought their marriage was legal for years, and had two kids, a minor error makes it null and void? Or that France and his second wife filled their (now private) Facebook page with pictures of themselves playing with John and Lynn’s children, forcing Lynn to look on helplessly at, as she says, “somebody living my life?” Or that John France claims Lynn has known about his second wedding for two years, and is only using the Facebook angle to drum up publicity and support for her custody case?
Even if you buy Lynn’s story and not John’s, Facebook isn’t really central. But it does provide a new and extremely creepy way for people to torment their exes. Presumably after Lynn confronted John, he knew she’d be looking around, and it’s hard to see the Facebook photos — especially with the children — as anything other than a way to rub his new relationship in her face. It’s possible the tactic could come back to haunt him — I can’t imagine that publicly posting photos of a new wedding where his children and their mom could see them will make him look like an amazing dad during his custody battle. But whatever the case, John France’s second wife should probably make really sure her marriage license is filed correctly. And maybe post it on Facebook.
Image via Today Show.
On Facebook, Wife Learns Of Husband’s 2nd Wedding [AP]
Wife Betrayed On Facebook: ‘Terrible Beyond Belief’ [Today Show]