North Carolina’s ‘Homewrecker’ Law: How Cheating Spouses are Paying Hefty Courtroom Penalties

North Carolina’s contentious “homewrecker laws” have thrust personal marital dramas into the national spotlight, with a former U.S. senator now entangled in a high-profile case.

Fox News Digital has reviewed a complaint involving ex-Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who stands accused of engaging in an affair with a married bodyguard, sparking a notable “alienation of affection” lawsuit filed under North Carolina’s jurisdiction.

The case, initiated by Heather Ammel in Moore County Superior Court, claims Sinema knowingly pursued her husband, Matthew Ammel, despite his marital status and responsibilities as a father. The complaint details allegations of “romantic and lascivious” communications via Signal, accompanied by gifts and invitations for excursions to Napa Valley and New York.

Moreover, the lawsuit asserts that Sinema encouraged Matthew Ammel to bring MDMA on a business trip, proposing to guide him through a psychedelic journey.

At the heart of the dramatic allegations lies a broader debate surrounding marriage, accountability, and the appropriateness of legal repercussions for those accused of contributing to familial breakdowns.

“It’s interesting,” University of Virginia sociologist and family scholar Brad Wilcox told Fox News Digital. “One of the few norms that Americans still embrace across the spectrum is the norm of fidelity.”

Wilcox argued that laws like North Carolina’s reflect a broader public belief that marriage vows still matter — even in a culture increasingly saturated with celebrity cheating scandals, viral affairs and social media-fueled hookup culture.

“These laws are designed to reinforce the marital bond and secure the importance of fidelity in marriage,” Wilcox said.

North Carolina remains one of only a handful of states that still allow alienation-of-affection lawsuits, which permit a spouse to sue a third party accused of helping destroy a marriage. Plaintiffs can seek massive financial damages, and in some cases, juries have delivered verdicts worth millions.

Critics call the lawsuits outdated relics rooted in old English common law. Supporters, however, argue the laws recognize that infidelity can inflict devastating emotional and financial harm that extends far beyond the couple involved.

“What people fail to see is the way what happens in our marriages affects adults, kids and communities,” Wilcox said.

He pointed to research showing infidelity is one of the strongest predictors of divorce and warned that the fallout can be especially severe for children.

“Kids whose parents get divorced are about half as likely to graduate from college,” Wilcox said. “They’re markedly more likely to struggle with depression. Boys are markedly more likely to end up in prison or jail.”

“So this idea that infidelity is just some private little matter between two consenting adults is simply not true,” he added. “It can exact devastating emotional and financial costs on adults and on children.”

For veteran North Carolina family attorney Charles R. Ullman, who is board-certified in family law and has spent decades handling the fallout of broken marriages, the lawsuits also provide something many betrayed spouses feel they otherwise lack: accountability.

“It’s one of the few ways that people feel like they get some type of relief,” Ullman told Fox News Digital. “If you don’t have this lawsuit, you don’t have a remedy for someone being the ‘homewrecker’ or really being involved and not stepping away from their spouse.”

WATCH: Marriage expert weighs in on North Carolina’s controversial ‘homewrecker’ laws

Ullman pushed back on critics who argue the lawsuits unfairly target third parties instead of cheating husbands or wives.

“In the family law context, you’re not going to get monetary relief because of an affair,” Ullman said. “But you can do something to get monetary relief against a paramour. And a lot of times that paramour did, in fact, cause monetary damage.”

He compared the lawsuits to other areas of civil law where people are allowed to recover damages caused by another person’s conduct.

“We have all kinds of laws that allow us to recover for losses due to someone else’s behavior,” Ullman said. “One question you could have is why not have this instead of why have it?”

Wilcox argued the allegations against Sinema also tap into growing public frustration with elite figures accused of disregarding the same social norms many ordinary Americans still value.

“This case gives us an example where our elites are doing things that undercut what is probably the most important institution in our country,” Wilcox said. “The law here is basically telling us that third parties bear real moral and legal responsibilities when they interpose themselves and break up a marriage.”

At the same time, attorneys say the digital age has transformed how affairs unfold and how they are uncovered in court.

“It’s real easy to send a text message or a salacious picture or something more graphic,” Ullman said, holding up his cellphone during the interview. “With a cellphone or access online, you can have these extended conversations whenever you can sneak away.”

He said encrypted messaging apps, disappearing messages, social media DMs and reconnecting with former partners online have become recurring themes in modern infidelity cases.

“I can’t tell you the number of times you have the high-school sweetheart scenario,” Ullman said. “People reconnect with somebody from their past, and it becomes this frozen-in-time idealization.”

And while celebrity affairs may become memes or tabloid fodder online, Ullman said the real-world consequences behind the headlines are anything but funny.

“Nothing good happens when you get divorced,” he said. “It affects every facet of your life — your finances, your kids, your emotions, your perception of the world.”

“When people find out their spouse has had an affair, more often than not there’s almost a reaction very similar to shock,” he added.

North Carolina also recognizes a related claim known as “criminal conversation,” which differs from alienation of affection in one key way.

“Alienation of affection is the stealing of the emotions, the heart,” Ullman explained. “Criminal conversation is the idea that you have an exclusive right to the sexual relationship of your spouse.”

Even so, Ullman acknowledged the lawsuits are often less about preventing affairs than helping devastated spouses seek some measure of justice after the damage is already done.

“I think it’s more about trying to find a remedy,” he said. “Giving the person that’s been wronged an opportunity at getting some type of relief.”

Still, both Ullman and Wilcox said the continued popularity of these lawsuits with North Carolina juries reflects something deeper about how Americans still view marriage.

Parents sit with their young daughter on a couch as she uses a tablet at home. (iStock)

“I think it inherently is in people’s hearts that protecting marriages is the right thing,” Ullman said. “Marriage vows are around because people believe there’s something to them.”

Wilcox echoed that sentiment, calling marriage one of the strongest predictors of long-term happiness in America.

“One of the strongest predictors of adult happiness in America today for both men and women is a good marriage,” Wilcox said. “It’s more important than money, career success, frequent sex, or even religious faith in the data.”

“Infidelity,” he added, “is a dagger in the heart of marriage.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Sinema, her legal team and attorneys representing Heather Ammel for comment.

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