Judge Orders Woman To Give Her Nude Photos To Her Ex-Husband In Their Divorce For 'Memories'
This is a violation of privacy.
Facebook After filing for a divorce in April 2021, Lindsay Marsh has been hoping to put her marriage to ex-husband Chris Marsh behind her for over a year and a half.
Last month, however, a Utah judge made it impossible for that to happen as he ordered that an unusual request from Chris be carried out, leaving her feeling violated.
The Utah judge ordered her to hand over nude “boudoir albums” she gifted to her ex-husband years ago.
After 25 years of marriage, Lindsay and Chris called it quits on their marriage and have been divvying up properties and belongings between the two of them — including a boudoir album that Lindsay commissioned for her ex-husband years ago.
Upon reading the list of items that Chris had requested, she recalls being shocked and confused as to why he would want to keep the intimate photos she gave to him so long ago, per The Salt Lake Tribune.
His reason was that he wanted to keep the loving messages she wrote to him inside those bound books.
As a result, the Davis county judge ruled that Lindsay would give the albums to the original photographer to be edited, and would then give it to her ex-husband.
“That person is to do whatever it takes to modify the pages of the pictures so that any photographs of [Lindsay Marsh] in lingerie or that sort of thing or even without clothing are obscured and taken out,” 2nd District Judge Michael Edwards wrote in the ruling via The Salt Lake Tribune.
"But the words are maintained for memory’s sake.”
After the ruling was made, Lindsay contacted the original photographer — who was one of her close friends — and told her about the situation.
Her friend refused for two reasons: it was a violation of Lindsay’s privacy, and doing so would damage her business reputation and legitimacy as a boudoir photographer.
As a result, in August 2022, the judge ordered Lindsay to give the albums to a third-party, a male graphic designer whom she didn’t know, in order for the albums to be edited.
“I just want to clarify,” she recalled saying at the judge’s clerks’ office. “The judge has ordered me to give nude photos of my body to a third party that I don’t know without my consent?”
The answer to that question was yes.
After hearing the new order, the original photographer agreed to edit the albums.
The photographer took photos of the album’s pages and edited large black boxes over any part of Lindsay's body, leaving behind inscriptions and any writing.
“That’s even violating,” Lindsay said, “because these are things that were sensual and loving that I wrote to my husband that I loved. You’re my ex-husband now.”
Digital copies of these photos were printed out, stapled together, and handed over to her ex, who claims that they were not “inappropriate-type books” and the photos weren’t as “intimate” as Lindsay would lead people to believe.
“I cherish the loving memories we had for all those years as part of normal and appropriate exchanges between a husband and wife,” he told The Salt Lake Tribune, “and sought to preserve that in having the inscriptions.”
Lindsay told the publication that her intentions were not to attack her ex-husband, but to expose the decisions made by the judge.
“It’s violating and it’s incredibly embarrassing and humiliating,” she said.
“The only way I can hopefully protect someone else from going through the same situation is to tell my story and expose that these are the types of things that he thinks are OK.”
Lindsay is legally required to keep her boudoir albums until December, according to Judge Edwards’s order, but plans on burning them as soon as she’s able to get rid of them.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Since graduating from Rutgers University, he spends most of his free time gaming or playing Quadball. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.