A woman from Utah, USA has revealed her shock at being ordered by a judge to hand over a photo album of her ‘boudoir style’ nude photos to her ex-husband, after he requested them as part of their divorce.
The term ‘Boudoir’ is a French word that means either the bedroom or a lady’s private dressing room. A Boudoir Photo Album is themed around this concept and contains sexually provocative photos of a lady taken by a professional photographer.
The lady, Lindsay Marsh said that she commissioned the photos in the early years of her marriage, and wrote ‘loving’ and intimate messages to him inside the album.
But, when she filed for divorce in April 2021 after 25 years together, her ex-husband Chris Marsh said that he wanted to keep the album, for the memories of their time together.
‘It’s violating and it’s incredibly embarrassing and humiliating.’ she said.Â
‘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.’Â
Marsh said she was shocked when her ex requested the book of photos in court.
But Judge Michael Edwards, sitting in the 2nd district court, supported her ex-husband’s claims.
As a gesture, the judge said Marsh should take the book back to the original photographer, and have a copy made, with her body edited out.
Marsh went to the photographer, but the photographer refused, arguing that the images were art which should not be altered.
The judge then ruled, in August this year, that she must hand the album to a third party, who would themselves edit the images.
‘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,’ he wrote in a ruling according to The Salt Lake Tribune.Â
‘But the words are maintained for memory’s sake.’Â
Marsh said the thought of handing the book over to a stranger was even more traumatic.
She said she had to call the judge’s clerk to ensure she hadn’t misunderstood the ruling.
‘I just want to clarify,’ she recalled saying. ‘The judge has ordered me to give nude photos of my body to a third party that I don’t know without my consent?’Â
‘That’s even violating,’ said Marsh.Â
‘Because these are things that were sensual and loving that I wrote to my husband that I loved. You’re my ex-husband now.’Â
Lindsay Marsh is legally required to keep the originals until December, in case her ex objects to any of the edits.
She then plans to hold a burning party, and throw them into the fire.
‘It’s going to be amazing,’ she said.Â
Her ex-husband, Chris Marsh told The Tribune the books were full of memories, inscriptions and photos, stressing they were not ‘inappropriate-type books.’Â
He said: ‘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.’
‘As boudoir photography becomes a more common way for a couple to share intimacy, where is the line of appropriateness when they split up?’