A British couple are divorcing after wife finds her husband's chatting affectionately with a woman in the virtual online world.
For its many devotees, the Second Life virtual world is a place where the everyday constraints of normal life drop away and vivid fantasies can be played out.
But fact and fiction have collided in heartbreaking fashion for a British couple who are divorcing after the wife discovered her real-life husband's online alter-ego, a goatee-bearded, medallion-wearing hombre called Dave Barmy, with another - virtual - woman.
David Pollard and Amy Taylor in virtual reality and Modesty McDonnell
Amy Taylor, who in Second Life is club DJ Laura Skye, said today that as far as she was concerned her husband, David Pollard, was having a real relationship with the human controlling her love rival.
"It may have started on-line but it existed entirely in the real world and it hurts just as much," she said. "His was the ultimate betrayal. He had been lying to me."
Amy Taylor, 28, and David Pollard, 40, met in an internet chatroom. She moved from her home in London to be with him in Newquay, north Cornwall, and at first they had fun together in real life and online world. Their avatars became partners in Second Life. After two years, the pair married ¨C in real life and in the game ¨C but Ms Taylor said she knew something was wrong.
"I had my suspicions about what he was doing in Second Life," she added.
In February last year, she caught her husband's avatar, Dave Barmy, having sex with a call girl in the game. Her character, Laura Skye, hired a virtual private detective to investigate his online adultery. But Mr Pollard apologised and begged for forgiveness.
David Pollard and Amy Taylor in real life
But the final bombshell came this April, when she caught her husband with his new online flame, Modesty McDonnell.
"I caught him cuddling a woman on a sofa in the game. It looked really affectionate," said Ms Taylor, who filed for divorce the next day.
"He confessed he'd been talking to this woman in America for weeks and said he didn't love me any more."
Taylor said she still played Second Life - and there was a chance that her alter ego would bump into her former partner's. It would be awkward but they would survive.
Pollard admitted he was having an on-line relationship with an American woman. "We weren't even having cyber sex or anything like that we were just chatting and hanging out together. It was nothing really major. I don't think I was really doing anything wrong."
Resources: Guardian
