A Utah woman has been forced to hand over an edited “boudoir album” of racy nude photos to her ex-husband as part of their divorce — so he can keep the loving messages accompanying them for “memory’s sake.”
Lindsay Marsh told KSL News that a judge forced her “to distribute basically porn” after ruling that her husband of 25 years had the right to keep the intimate messages she scrawled inside the album.
While the judge eventually allowed her to have the racy photos edited — so they are “obscured” — the order left her feeling violated.
“It’s violating and it’s incredibly embarrassing and humiliating,” she also told the Salt Lake Tribune of the order.
Even having to hand over the messages is “violating,” she insisted.
“These are things that were sensual and loving that I wrote to my husband that I loved. [He’s] my ex-husband now,” 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,” she told the Utah paper.
Marsh said that the boudoir album was the only thing her ex, Chris Marsh, fought to keep during the divorce, which was finalized in July.
Davis County Judge Michael Edwards ordered that the album would have to be handed over so that “the words are maintained for memory’s sake.”
However, the photos could be given to the original photographer could “do whatever it takes to modify” them so that any pics of Marsh “in lingerie or that sort of thing or even without clothing are obscured and taken out,” the judge wrote in a ruling shared with both outlets.
That photographer — a close friend — initially refused to edit the pics, because “her clients trust her with their images and privacy, (and) she takes that seriously,” Marsh told KSL.
So in an Aug. 26 ruling, the judge ordered her to instead give them to another photographer to edit — someone she believes her ex-husband knew, she told the outlet.
She was so panicked, she called the judge’s clerks’ office to check it was not an error, she told the Tribune.
“I just want to clarify … The judge has ordered me to give nude photos of my body to a third party that I don’t know without my consent?” she recalled asking.
After hearing the judge’s order, the original photographer agreed to alter the photos, putting large black boxes over any part of Marsh’s body while keeping the messages untouched.
However, Marsh understands from discussions between their attorneys that her husband is not happy with the edited photos.
“If all he was truly interested in was the inscriptions, he got those,” she told KSL.
I’ve complied with the court’s order, even though I believe strongly that [the] order [is] violating on many levels,” she said.
She felt “humiliated that she still even had to look at those photos again from years ago and had to edit the photos and was even involved in this in any way” and “can’t imagine doing this to someone else.”
Marsh has been ordered to keep the original album for 90 days in case her ex demands new edits — after which she plans a burning party to finally torch the painful memories.
“It’s going to be amazing,” she told the Tribune.
Chris Marsh claimed the images were not as “intimate” as his ex-wife has said, insisting many had been posted online or had hung in their home.
“I cherish the loving memories we had for all those years as part of normal and appropriate exchanges between a husband and wife … and sought to preserve that in having the inscriptions,” he told the Tribune.
He noted that his ex-wife’s take on the order was “not my perspective nor the perspective of an impartial judge.”
“It appears that she has intentionally misrepresented and sensationalized several aspects of a fair proceeding to manipulate the opinions of others for attention and validation of victimhood,” he told KSL.
A spokesperson for Utah State Courts system told the outlet that Judge Edwards was unable to discuss specific cases.
