A Utah woman says she feels violated after a judge ordered her to give her ex-husband a photo albums of intimate images of herself for "memory's sake".
Lindsay Marsh was married to her ex-husband, Chris, for 25 years before the two filed for divorce in April 2021.
During their marriage, Marsh commissioned a close friend to create sensual photographs of herself to gift her husband.
Upon filing for divorce, Marsh was eager to get rid of the boudoir photo albums however, when she received a list of items Chris requested she was "shocked and confused" to see he wanted the albums.
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According to the Salt Like Tribune, Chris wanted to keep the albums for the loving messages Marsh wrote to him inside.
During the divorce proceedings, 2nd District Judge Michael Edwards ordered Marsh to give the boudoir albums to the original photographer to be edited then give those 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 but the words are maintained for memory’s sake," the ruling stated.
\u201c@kazweida @JoJoFromJerz \nPlease talk about this! Women shouldn't HAVE to give up photos because we're "splitting" all PROPERTY in a divorce! But THIS is happening right now, in Utah! A woman is not "property"! Even if she's trying to get a divorce! \n\nMy account is too small to be noticed.\u201d— Kaz Weida (@Kaz Weida) 1664223835
The original photographed initially refused to edit the images as as "it felt like a violation" and could damage her business legitimacy.
So Edwards instead ordered Marsh to hand over the boudoir albums to a third party graphic designer, a man Marsh does not know, to edit the images.
“I just want to clarify,” Marsh said. “The judge has ordered me to give nude photos of my body to a third party that I don’t know without my consent?”
Upon hearing the new ruling, the original photographer and close friend decided to edit the sensual images by putting large black boxes over Marsh's body.
\u201c@kazweida The family law system was designed at a time when divorce was considered immoral, a threat to democracy and in some cases - criminal. It hasn\u2019t evolved very much since then \ud83d\ude21\u201d— Kaz Weida (@Kaz Weida) 1664223835
Marsh's ex-husband Chris said some of images were posted online and hung around their home while married. According to the Salt Lake Tribune he claimed they were not “inappropriate-type books.”
Chris has until December to object to any edits made if he feels they were unfair.
Marsh says along with feeling violated she feels the situation has been "incredibly embarrassing and humiliating" but wants to bring attention to the decision Edwards made.
“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," she said.
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