G. Best Husband Law | Family Law Attorneys in Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. 

Adultery and Divorce in Virginia - What Has Changed

In Trinidad and Tobago, we say horn. 

In Jamaica, they say bun. In Guyana, they say blow. In Barbados and Saint Lucia, it is horn too, though Saint Lucians sometimes add the Kweyol word kone. Every island has its own way of saying the same thing: someone in the relationship went outside of it. 

And in many of our communities, adultery, whatever you call it, is treated with a kind of cultural resignation. It shows up in calypso. In memes. In rum shop conversations. In the jokes we make about the hornerman or the woman who found out about the deputy. There is sometimes a sense that this is just how things go. That everyone does it. That you learn to tolerate it. 

I grew up hearing those conversations. I understand where they come from. 

Here is what I need you to understand as your attorney: in Virginia, adultery has legal consequences that are not a joke. And as of July 1, 2026, the rules just changed in ways that every  family navigating a divorce needs to know about. 

What Adultery Has Always Meant in Virginia Divorce Court 

Virginia is one of the states that still recognizes fault-based grounds for divorce. Adultery is one of those grounds. And in Virginia, proving adultery by your spouse can have real impact on two major outcomes: 

Spousal support. A spouse who committed adultery can be barred from receiving alimony entirely, unless the court finds that denying support would result in a manifest injustice given all the circumstances. 

Property division. While Virginia courts consider many factors in dividing marital property, fault, including adultery, can be one of those factors. 

This means that in Virginia, the horn or the bun or the blow is not just a personal matter. It can be a financial one. 

The Change That Took Effect July 1 

Here is what the new law changed. Under the old Virginia law, adultery committed after the couple had separated, a new relationship that began after the marriage effectively ended, could still be used as a fault ground for divorce. The Virginia Supreme Court had upheld this in a 2025 case, creating situations where someone could be denied spousal support because of a relationship they started after they had already left the marriage. 

Virginia House Bill 303 changed this. The law now specifies that adultery must have occurred before the final separation of the parties to be used as a fault ground for divorce. 

In plain language: if the relationship happened after you and your spouse separated, it does not count as adultery for the purpose of filing a fault divorce or denying spousal support. 

What This Means for Families 

This change matters in communities where post-separation relationships are common, where people move on with their lives while waiting out the legal process, sometimes for a year or more. The old law punished people for starting new relationships during a separation period that could last 12 months. The new law recognizes that a relationship that begins after a marriage has effectively ended is not the same as one that destroyed the marriage. 

If you were in a new relationship after separating from your spouse and you were worried about how that would be treated in your divorce, the legal landscape changed on July 1. 

If your spouse was the one who committed adultery, timing still matters. If the affair happened before the separation, it can still be a factor in fault grounds and in the analysis of spousal support. 

What the Law Still Allows 

Proving adultery that happened before separation is still a valid fault ground in Virginia. The strategic question, whether pursuing fault is worth the time, cost, and conflict, has always been one that requires careful analysis of the specific case. That has not changed. 

What changed is the tool that was being used to punish people for relationships that began after the marriage was already over. 

A Final Thought 

Our communities have a complicated relationship with adultery. The cultural acceptance of it, the normalization of it, the way it shows up in our music and our humor, all of that exists for real cultural and historical reasons. I am not here to moralize. 

What I am here to say is this: in a Virginia divorce proceeding, the timing of a relationship, who committed it, and what evidence exists can still have significant financial consequences. The law changed on July 1. Those consequences did not disappear, they just got more precise. 

If you are navigating a divorce in Virginia where adultery, at any stage, was part of the picture, call us. The law changed. Your strategy may need to change too. 

Contact G. Best Husband Law to schedule a confidential consultation today. We will help you move forward with confidence and clarity.