A Davis County Judge, Michael Edwards, has ordered Lindsay Marsh, Utah woman who has been married for 25 years to hand over an edited “boudoir album” of racy nude photos to her ex-husband as part of their divorce — so he can keep the loving messages accompanying them for “memory’s sake.”
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.
‘It’s violating and it’s incredibly embarrassing and humiliating,’ she said.
‘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.’
According to Lindsay Marsh, she was shocked when her ex- husband 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.
‘I just want to clarify,’ she recalled saying. ‘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,’ said Marsh.
‘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.