A spurned wife who found out her husband is gay after nine years of marriage is suing him for the equivalent of £450,000.
According to court documents, the woman was unaware that her husband was gay until well into their marriage.
Before they tied the knot, the South African man explained that he was heterosexual and wanted to have children with her in a monogamous relationship.
Just two months shy of their sixth wedding anniversary the man told his wife that he was gay, a Cape Town high court heard.
The woman, who has remained anonymous, wanted R5M (£255,000) for emotional pain and psychological trauma, and R4M (£204,000) for loss of income.
The marriage ended after the man announced his sexuality (stock
“The basis for the damages claim and the extraordinary sums which are sought … is that the (husband) is alleged to have ‘misrepresented’ to her, prior to their marriage, that he was a heterosexual male who wished to marry her so that they could have children in a heterosexual, monogamous marriage,” judge Mark Sher said in his judgment on Wednesday, Times Live Reported.
“(The wife) avers (asserts) that until this revelation in September 2018 she was unaware of (her husband’s) sexual orientation.”
The attempt to sue did not go down well with the judge however.
Judge Sher struck the application from the roll and ordered the woman’s lawyer Fareed Moosa to forfeit his fees to pay the husband’s costs.
He went on to accuse the lawyer of throwing “everything but the kitchen sink” into a 368 page application, before suggesting he had committed a “wife-ranging and egregious abuse of process”.
The affidavit contained “highly private and personal communications” made by the husband, as well as the “intimate” details of how the husband revealed he was gay.
Judge Sher went on to critcise Mr Moosa for trying to cast doubt on the husband’s defence during the earlier divorce proceedings.
