Woman fined for revealing affair to lover's wife

Telephoning your lover's wife to reveal an affair is a crime. At least according to a ruling by Italy's Court of Cassation. The court upheld a fine given to woman who made anonymous phone calls to her lover's wife, revealing details of their affair.

The woman also told her lover's wife about other extra-marital mischief her husband had been getting up to in Bari and Potenza. The woman was trying to overturn a €400 fine she had received for harassment in Italy's highest court of appeal.



She argued that the telephone calls had lasted a long time and had not been interrupted by the wife, meaning that they had not been unwanted. But the judges decided otherwise.

“This cannot be seen as acquiescence on the wife's part, given the serious nature of what was being revealed. The petulant and disturbing nature of the calls is shown in the anonymous forms they took." A 2010 study found that 45% of women and 55% of men engaged in extra-marital affairs in Italy