Woman kicks as court grants ex-husband request to have her nude photos for keep upon divorce
An Utah woman identified as Lindsay Marsh has told of 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.
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.
She said: “It’s violating and it’s incredibly embarrassing and humiliating.
“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”.
It was revealed that Marsh offered to take the book back to the photographer to have a copy of the book made with her images edited out, but he refused, saying that the images were art which should not be altered. She was then ordered to hand the book over to a third party to have the images edited out.
Marsh said she was shocked when her ex requested the book of photos and protested.
But Judge Michael Edwards, sitting in the 2nd district court, sided with her ex-husband.
As a gesture, he 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 Marsh 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 shared with The Salt Lake Tribune.
“But the words are maintained for memory’s sake”.
Marsh said the thought of handing the book over to a stranger was even more traumatic and rang the judge’s clerk to ensure she hadn’t misunderstood the ruling.
She was recalled as saying: “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?
“When the original photographer found out, she agreed to edit the photos.
“That’s even violating because these are things that were sensual and loving that I wrote to my husband that I loved. You’re my ex-husband now”.
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.
Chris Marsh told The Tribune the books were full of memories, inscriptions and photos, stressing they were not ‘inappropriate-type books.’
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?’
A criminal law professor at the University of Utah College of Law, Paul Cassel told KSL.com that the case was ‘very strange’ even though the judge ordered the images to be edited.
“In my opinion, the judge here has just made a mistake in the balancing of interests and has tipped things too far in one direction”, Paul said.
He added that third parties handling the images create a risk of distribution, whether intentional or not.
“And these are the kinds of cats that are very difficult to put back in the bag once they get out,” he said.
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