Can You Sue a Homewrecker in Texas? Understanding Alienation of Affection in Texas Law

No. Texas law does not allow you to sue the person your spouse had an affair with. Can You Sue a Homewrecker in Texas is one of the most common questions we hear after someone discovers infidelity, and the answer is clear. Texas Family Code §1.107 provides that a right of action by one spouse against a third party for alienation of affection is not authorized in this state, while §1.106 reaches the same conclusion for criminal conversation. Those lawsuits no longer exist under Texas law, and no Texas court can revive them simply because the facts are especially painful.

I put the answer in the first paragraph because the people asking this question are usually not looking for suspense. They have just learned something that has turned their lives upside down. They may have a name, a photograph, hotel receipts, or credit card charges they cannot explain. They want someone to answer for what happened, and the person they can most easily picture holding responsible is the affair partner. The law, however, points in a different direction.

That is where many articles end. This one does not, because the most important part of the conversation begins after the answer is “no.” While Texas does not allow you to sue the other person, it does recognize that adultery can have real legal consequences inside a divorce. Community funds spent on an affair, claims involving fraud on the community, reimbursement, property division, child custody, and the stability of your family are all issues a Texas court can address. Those are the questions that can change the outcome of your case, and they deserve far more attention than a lawsuit that Texas law no longer permits.

At the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC, our mission is to help families reclaim freedom and peace of mind during life’s hardest transitions by providing clear answers, compassionate guidance, and practical legal solutions. In this article, we’ll explain not only why you cannot sue a homewrecker in Texas, but also where the law can help you protect your finances, your children, and your future.

Key Takeaways

• Alienation of affection is abolished. §1.107. No cause of action against the third party, full stop.
• Criminal conversation is abolished too. §1.106. It is the other claim people mean, and it is equally unavailable.
• You cannot reach the third party with a different label. Repackaging the same grievance as emotional distress does not revive a claim the legislature removed.
• Community money spent on an affair is a different question entirely. §7.009 addresses fraud on the community, and where a court finds it, the statute says the court shall reconstitute the estate.
• Texas does not require an equal split. §7.001 requires a division the court deems just and right, having due regard for the rights of each party and any children.
• Not every affair expense produces a recovery. Source of funds, amount, documentation, the size of the estate, and judicial discretion all matter. Anyone promising you a number is guessing.
• How you gather proof can matter more than what it shows. Unlawfully obtained evidence can become the worst fact in your own case.

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What the Statutes Actually Say

Can You Sue a Homewrecker in Texas? No. Texas law does not allow you to sue your spouse’s affair partner for breaking up your marriage. Texas Family Code §§ 1.106 and 1.107 abolished the civil claims known as criminal conversation and alienation of affection, leaving no legal cause of action against a third party based solely on an affair. You can read the statutes yourself in Chapter 1 of the Texas Family Code.

Alienation of affection was a lawsuit alleging that someone intentionally interfered with a marriage and caused one spouse to lose the other’s love or companionship. Criminal conversation, despite its name, was never a criminal offense—it was a civil claim based on a third party having sexual relations with a married person. The Texas Legislature intentionally abolished both claims, and Texas courts continue to apply those statutes as written.

That does not mean adultery has no legal consequences. It simply means Texas divorce courts focus on issues they have the authority to decide, such as property division, fraud on the community, reimbursement claims, and, in appropriate cases, child custody and the best interest of the child. If your question is more specific—for example, whether you can sue another woman for destroying your marriage—you’ll find a more detailed discussion in our guide on Can You Sue Another Woman for Destroying Your Marriage?.

Understanding these statutes can save you time, money, and frustration. Instead of pursuing a lawsuit that Texas law no longer recognizes, it is often far more productive to focus on the financial and legal remedies available within your divorce. Those remedies—not a lawsuit against the affair partner—are where Texas law may still help you protect your assets, your children, and your future.

Two Paths, and Only One Exists

Almost everyone arrives pointed down the left-hand path. The rest of this page is about moving you to the right one.

This describes the general structure of Texas law, not a legal opinion about your situation.

Why Texas Abolished These Lawsuits

Texas removed these claims as part of a broader reform of what were once called heart-balm actions — lawsuits arising out of romantic and marital grievances. The legislature’s judgment was that they produced more harm than remedy: they invited litigation designed to humiliate, they turned private conduct into public evidence, and they gave a financial motive to prolonging conflict between people who often shared children.

Whether you agree is beside the point for your case. It is settled, it has withstood constitutional challenge, and no Texas trial court has discretion to revive the claim because your facts are especially bad. The abolition was deliberate, not an oversight — which is why the workarounds below tend to fail. Courts recognise them as attempts to do the thing the legislature said not to do.

What People Try Instead — and Why It Usually Fails

Can You Sue a Homewrecker in Texas? No, and simply changing the name of the lawsuit usually does not change the outcome. Once people learn that alienation of affection and criminal conversation are no longer recognized under Texas Family Code §§ 1.106 and 1.107, they often look for another legal theory to reach the affair partner. In most cases, Texas courts look beyond the label and focus on the actual conduct, which means repackaging the same complaint as a different claim rarely succeeds. If you’re interested in other unusual civil claims, you may also enjoy our article on some of the weirdest lawsuits you could file in Texas.

One of the most common alternatives is a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. While Texas recognizes this tort, it is reserved for truly extreme and outrageous conduct and is not intended to replace claims the Legislature deliberately abolished. Similarly, suing your spouse’s employer simply because the affair occurred between coworkers is generally unsuccessful unless the employer independently committed a separate legal wrong against you. The affair itself is not enough to create liability for an employer.

There are limited situations where a separate claim may exist because the legal duty extends beyond the relationship itself. For example, a licensed therapist who enters into a sexual relationship with a client may face professional discipline and, depending on the facts, potential civil liability arising from the abuse of a fiduciary or professional relationship. Claims involving clergy members are often more complex because courts must balance civil law with constitutional protections involving religious organizations. Likewise, claims for defamation, invasion of privacy, or harassment remain available under Texas law—but only if the third party committed those independent acts. The affair alone does not create those claims.

The key takeaway is that Texas divorce courts are designed to resolve the legal consequences of a marriage ending—not to punish an affair partner. In straightforward divorces, that means focusing on property division, community property, and practical settlement strategies. In more complex cases involving fraud on the community, reimbursement claims, hidden spending, or significant marital assets, your time and resources are usually far better spent pursuing the financial remedies Texas law actually provides than trying to build a lawsuit the courts have already rejected.

What Actually Recovers Money

✓ Open to you

Here is the part worth your attention. You cannot pursue the third party — but the money your spouse spent on that relationship came from somewhere, and in Texas it very likely came from the community estate. That is a live issue in your divorce, and it is where the affair stops being only painful and becomes financially relevant.

Fraud on the community — §7.009. This is the mechanism, and it is stronger than most people realise. Where the trier of fact determines a spouse committed actual or constructive fraud on the community, the statute directs that the court shall calculate the amount by which the estate was depleted, calculate the value of the reconstituted estate — what the community would have been worth had the fraud not happened — and divide that reconstituted value between the parties. The court may then award you an appropriate share of what remains, a money judgment against your spouse, or both.

Read that again, because it changes the question. You are not asking a judge to punish anyone. You are asking a judge to add the missing money back before dividing anything — and where fraud is found, the statute says the court shall do it.

That reframing is worth holding onto, because it changes what you are gathering and what you are arguing. You are not building a case about betrayal. You are building a case about a number.

Just and right division — §7.001. Texas does not require a 50-50 split. The statute requires the court to divide the estate in a manner it deems just and right, having due regard for the rights of each party and any children of the marriage. Fault in the breakup can be among the considerations a court weighs. Adultery does not guarantee a larger share, and how much difference it makes varies considerably by judge and by county — but it is a legitimate argument, properly made.

The practical difference between these two matters. A §7.001 fault argument is persuasion. A §7.009 claim is arithmetic — provable with documents rather than with testimony about who felt what. Documents are what judges act on, which is why the spending claim is usually the more productive route.

How the Claim Gets Built

Common Examples of Affair Spending

People grasp this faster from examples than from doctrine. The following kinds of spending, when they came from community funds, may become relevant in a property-division analysis:

A single dinner is not a case. A pattern across two years, documented, is a number — and a number is what §7.009 operates on.

What Does Not Automatically Count

Can You Sue a Homewrecker in Texas? No, and not every dollar connected to an affair automatically results in a larger share of the marital estate. Even when adultery is proven, Texas divorce courts look at the facts surrounding the spending—not simply the existence of the affair. If you’re wondering whether you can recover money your spouse spent on another person, the answer depends on the nature of the funds, the evidence available, and how the spending affected the community estate. We explore this topic further in Can I Sue Another Woman for Destroying My Marriage?.

One of the first questions is where the money came from. If the spending involved separate property—such as assets your spouse owned before the marriage or property received through inheritance or a gift—it generally does not create a reimbursement claim. When the funds came from community property, however, the court may consider whether one spouse improperly depleted the marital estate under the Texas Family Code. In straightforward divorces, the distinction is often clear. In more complex cases involving commingled assets or hidden spending, tracing the source of the funds becomes much more important.

The amount of money involved also matters. A relatively small expense may have little impact in a high-asset divorce but could significantly affect the division of a modest community estate. Just as important is the quality of the evidence. Bank statements, credit card records, electronic payment histories, and other financial documents carry far more weight than assumptions or suspicion. Texas courts are looking for credible proof that community funds were used for one spouse’s benefit outside the marriage—not simply evidence that an affair occurred.

Finally, every property division is influenced by judicial discretion. Texas judges strive for a just and right division under the circumstances, and reasonable judges may weigh the same evidence differently. If significant community assets, business interests, retirement accounts, or fraud on the community claims are involved, the financial analysis often becomes far more complex than simply totaling receipts. The strongest divorce strategy focuses on documenting recoverable financial losses rather than assuming every affair-related expense will result in reimbursement.

What You Cannot Do, and What You Can

The left column is closed by statute. The right column is where a Texas divorce lawyer can actually help you.

Proof: What to Copy Before Access Changes

Knowing something happened and proving it to a judge are different problems. Courts act on evidence, not conviction. Start by making copies — not screenshots on the family iPad, actual downloaded copies stored somewhere private — of everything below that you are lawfully entitled to access:

What backfires is evidence gathered unlawfully. Recording a conversation you are not part of, accessing an account or device without authorisation, installing tracking or monitoring software, or intercepting communications can expose you to civil and in some cases criminal liability — regardless of what you find. It can also render what you found unusable and shift the court’s attention from your spouse’s conduct to yours.

The line is simpler than people assume: accounts and records you are genuinely a party to are fair game. Your spouse’s private accounts and devices are not. If you are unsure, ask before you act rather than after.

The Most Common Mistakes After Discovering an Affair

These are the six I see most often in the first two weeks, and every one of them is avoidable.

Where the Affair Does and Does Not Matter

Can You Sue a Homewrecker in Texas? No, but that does not mean adultery is irrelevant in a Texas divorce. The important question is not whether your spouse had an affair—it is whether the affair affects issues the court has the authority to decide. Understanding that distinction allows you to focus on legal arguments that can actually influence the outcome of your case instead of pursuing claims Texas law no longer recognizes.

The area where adultery most often matters is property division. Under the Texas Family Code, courts divide the community estate in a manner that is “just and right.” If a spouse spent community property on an affair, the court may consider fraud on the community, waste of community assets, or reimbursement claims when dividing marital property. In straightforward divorces, this may involve documenting a handful of expenses. In more complex cases involving business interests, retirement accounts, hidden assets, or significant community funds, tracing financial records and forensic accounting may become essential. Learn more about the broader divorce process by visiting our Texas Divorce Attorney resource.

Adultery can also influence other aspects of a divorce, but usually in more limited ways. It does not automatically qualify a spouse for spousal maintenance, because eligibility depends on specific statutory requirements rather than marital misconduct. Likewise, child custody decisions are based on the best interest of the child, not whether one parent was unfaithful. However, if an affair exposed a child to instability, unsafe conditions, or poor decision-making, those facts may become relevant to conservatorship and possession. For a deeper discussion of how infidelity can affect a divorce, see our article on What Effect Does Adultery Have on Your Texas Divorce?.

Texas also recognizes adultery as a fault ground for divorce, but pleading fault is a strategic decision rather than an automatic advantage. In some cases, alleging adultery strengthens a claim for a disproportionate share of the community estate. In others, pursuing reimbursement for money spent on the affair achieves the same practical result while reducing the time, expense, and emotional burden of litigation. The strongest divorce strategy is the one that focuses on the legal remedies Texas courts can actually provide, helping you protect your finances, your family, and your future.

Custody: courts do not punish adultery

This is where expectations most often diverge from the law, so it is worth being blunt. A Texas court will not restrict a parent’s time with their child because that parent had an affair. Conservatorship and possession are decided on the best interest of the child, and moral disapproval of a spouse is not a best-interest factor.

What a court will engage with is whether the conduct touched the children. In practice, judges look at four things:

• Were the children exposed to it? Introduced to the third party during the marriage, taken along on trips, or made aware of the relationship in a way that distressed them.
• Was a dangerous person brought around them? Someone with a history of violence, substance abuse, or a criminal record involving children is a genuine safety question, entirely separate from the affair.
• Did parenting actually suffer? Missed pickups, unsupervised time, neglected routines, absences during that parent’s periods of possession.
• Was judgment impaired? Money that should have gone to the children spent elsewhere, driving under the influence, decisions that put a child at risk.

Notice that every one of those is framed around the child’s experience, not the betrayal. If you intend to raise the affair in a custody context, that is the frame that works — and if none of the four applies, raising it can make you look like the parent more interested in the marriage than the children.

States That Still Allow These Claims

Can You Sue a Homewrecker in Texas? No, but that answer is not the same in every state. A small number of states still recognize some form of an alienation of affection lawsuit, which is why you occasionally see headlines about large verdicts against an affair partner. Those cases almost never involve Texas. If you’re looking for a more detailed discussion of whether you can sue another woman for destroying your marriage, you may also find our article on Can You Sue Another Woman for Destroying Your Marriage? helpful.

The number of states recognizing these claims changes over time as legislatures repeal older laws and courts reconsider long-standing legal doctrines. Because those laws continue to evolve, it is more important to understand one principle than memorize a list: Texas is not one of those states. Texas Family Code §§ 1.106 and 1.107 abolished claims for criminal conversation and alienation of affection, leaving no cause of action against an affair partner simply because of the relationship.

Some people ask whether they can file their lawsuit in another state instead. In most situations, the answer is no. A court generally needs personal jurisdiction over the defendant and a meaningful connection between the dispute and that state. Simply choosing a state with more favorable laws—or moving there after the affair—is usually not enough to create a claim that Texas law does not recognize.

There are limited situations where another state’s law may become relevant, particularly if the marriage, the affair, and the parties all had substantial ties to that jurisdiction. In straightforward Texas divorces, however, the better strategy is usually to focus on the remedies that are actually available here, including property division, reimbursement claims, and fraud on the community. Those are the issues Texas courts have the authority to decide, and they often have a much greater impact on your financial future than a lawsuit against the affair partner ever could.

What to Do Now

Who Handles the Financial Side

If the useful claim here is about money that left the community estate, the work is tracing and quantifying it. That is a different skill set from arguing about fault, and at our firm it sits with a different attorney than the one whose name is on this article.

What I Tell People Who Ask Me This

Can You Sue a Homewrecker in Texas? No, and that answer usually leads me to a more important question: What did the affair cost you financially? Most people have spent days thinking about the emotional pain but very little time looking at the bank statements, credit card charges, wire transfers, or other financial records that may actually affect the outcome of their divorce. If you’re also wondering when one former spouse can legally sue the other, our guide on Understanding Legal Grounds for Suing Your Ex-Spouse in Texas explains the limited situations where Texas law recognizes separate legal claims.

Texas made a policy decision years ago to eliminate lawsuits against an affair partner, but it did not eliminate the financial consequences of adultery. When community property is used to pay for vacations, gifts, rent, travel, or other expenses benefiting a third party, the court may consider reimbursement claims or fraud on the community when making a just and right division of the marital estate. In straightforward divorces, identifying those expenditures may be relatively simple. In more complex cases involving business interests, retirement accounts, or hidden assets, tracing the movement of money often becomes one of the most important parts of the case.

That is why I encourage clients to stop focusing on the person they cannot sue and start focusing on the evidence that can actually help them. Financial records tell a story that courts can evaluate objectively. Credit card statements, bank records, electronic payment histories, and other documentation often provide far more value than trying to prove who said what or how the relationship began.

My goal is never to minimize the emotional impact of an affair. It is to help people redirect their energy toward the legal remedies that Texas courts can actually provide. Instead of investing time in a lawsuit that Texas law no longer recognizes, invest that effort in protecting your financial future, your children, and your peace of mind by building the strongest case possible with the evidence that truly matters.

Read the Law Yourself

You do not have to take my word for any of the central points on this page. All four statutes are freely available.

Conclusion:

If you’ve been asking yourself, Can You Sue a Homewrecker in Texas, the legal answer is no—but that should not leave you feeling powerless. While Texas law does not allow lawsuits against an affair partner, it does provide meaningful remedies within the divorce process. Whether the issue involves community funds spent on an affair, fraud on the community, reimbursement claims, property division, child custody, or protecting your children’s stability, the focus should be on the legal solutions that can actually improve your future rather than the lawsuit Texas law no longer permits.

In straightforward situations, experienced legal guidance can help you understand your rights, negotiate practical resolutions, and move forward with confidence. In more complex cases—especially if your case involves substantial assets, a family business, hidden spending, reimbursement claims, or contested custody issues—it is important to work with an attorney whose experience matches the complexity of your circumstances. At the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC, we believe every family deserves clear answers, thoughtful strategy, and compassionate representation tailored to their unique situation. If you are facing difficult decisions after discovering an affair, our team is here to help you understand your options, protect what matters most, and build a path toward greater stability, peace of mind, and a stronger future.

Questions People Ask About Suing Over an Affair in Texas