North Carolina is one of the few states that still allows spouses to file civil lawsuits for marital breakdown. The case resulted in a multi-million dollar judgment.
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Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is accused of breaking up her 14-year marriage over a rare “home-breaking” law.
Sinema is being sued in North Carolina, one of the few states that still allows residents to file civil lawsuits over broken marriages.
This lawsuit resulted in millions of dollars in damages being awarded to wronged spouses. In November, a TikTok influencer was ordered to pay $1.75 million to his manager’s ex-wife after he was accused of having an affair with a married man, according to local media.
Here’s what you need to know about the Home Destroyer Act.
What is the Home Destructor Act?
According to Cornell University School of Law, the law, legally known as the Alienation of Affection Act, allows spouses to sue the person who caused the marriage to end.
“Separate from any divorce proceeding, a spouse filing an alienation of affection action must prove that the defendant took steps that a reasonable person would expect and that in fact resulted in the termination of the couple’s loving marriage,” the school said.
The United States inherited its laws from the British common law system, but most states have since abolished them. For example, Arizona, home of the cinema, abolished such charges in 1973. The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that the claim should be abolished.
How many states have homebreaker laws?
According to a 2016 Duke Law Journal article, alienation of affection lawsuits can still be filed in at least five states: Mississippi, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah.
According to the article, the status of these claims in New Mexico is uncertain because the state Supreme Court has not explicitly abolished them. According to the Tri-City Record, in 2025, the high court was asked to decide whether alienation of affection remained a valid basis for civil litigation, but the court rejected the issue.
“The argument is that marital activity should not ordinarily be the basis for tort liability, and that there is no longer sufficient basis for New Mexico’s public policy to avoid an investigation into what went wrong in the marriage…” New Mexico Chief Justice David Thomson said, the newspaper reported.
Utah state legislators also recently proposed a bill to eliminate the claim.
Who can be sued?
According to Cornell University Law School, spouses typically sue their partners for cheating on them or encouraging them to divorce.
Contributor: Ronald J. Hansen, Arizona Republic
