Pittsburgh Family Law Services, P.C. Blog
Kiss-Cam Chaos: infidelity, assets, and alimony in Pennsylvania
July 29, 2025
Kiss-Cam Chaos: infidelity, assets, and alimony in Pennsylvania
Nobody in this situation lives in Pennsylvania, so any divorce proceedings will happen according to their own state's laws. But this issue comes up frequently in divorces, and many people wonder what impact infidelity has on the divorce. The answer to that question depends on whether you're discussing equitable distribution or alimony.
Equitable distribution: For better or worse, marital misconduct (which includes infidelity) has no impact whatsoever. The Pennsylvania statute specifically states that the court cannot consider marital misconduct when deciding the most equitable property division. Instead, Pennsylvania has a set of factors that the court has to consider. These factors include the length of marriage, the ages and general health of the parties, and the incomes each party earns—among others. Often, it's assumed that Pennsylvania automatically divides the marital estate 50/50. While this is the most common result, this is not required. A situation involving a short marriage with two relatively young parties is different from a marriage spanning several decades where one or both people are nearing retirement, and courts can and do divide differently. But division of property has nothing to do with any fault or misconduct.
Alimony: Unlike equitable distribution, marital misconduct can be taken into consideration when deciding whether to award alimony. However, it's only one of 17 different factors. Most of the alimony factors focus heavily on assets, incomes, and the length of the marriage. There is no set formula for whether to award alimony, how much, or for how long, and the factors are given different weight depending on the specific facts of the case. However, it is one of the factors that a court is allowed to consider.
Of course, this overview doesn't answer the ultimate question: would a Pennsylvania family court award the Astronomer CEO's wife alimony? The answer is: it depends! In my experience, alimony is falling out of favor in general; if there's a way to avoid it, courts don't prefer a scenario where someone is financially dependent on their former spouse for several years. Many Pennsylvania judges and hearing officers prefer to give the lower-earning spouse a higher portion of the marital estate before considering alimony. A spouse in a very long marriage would have a stronger chance in getting alimony, but the main factors in that decision tend to come down to economics rather than personal issues; in a marriage between a CEO of a large company and a teacher for example, the CEO likely has the vast majority of the assets and is in a far less challenging financial position. The other part is the fact that while stories of affairs make for entertaining headlines, it usually does nothing to further a productive conversation and efficiently move toward a divorce. Judges and hearing officers are motivated to resolve cases as soon as possible and as a result, there's often very little, if any, discussion about marital misconduct.
If you have a pending divorce with equitable distribution and alimony in Pennsylvania, it's important to talk to a Pennsylvania family law attorney. The attorney will know the best way to focus your case to help you achieve the best result.
