Adultery has only a narrow effect on divorce in Minnesota. The state is purely no-fault, and the statutes governing property division and spousal maintenance both direct courts to decide those issues “without regard to marital misconduct.” Where an affair does move the needle is specific: when a spouse spent marital money on the affair, or when a parent’s conduct connected to the affair harmed the children. Cheating itself is no longer a crime either, since the Legislature repealed the criminal adultery statute in 2023.
No-Fault Divorce Sets the Frame
Minnesota recognizes one ground for ending a marriage: an “irretrievable breakdown of the marriage relationship.” A court does not need to find that either spouse did anything wrong, and no one has to prove who caused the breakup. You cannot be denied a divorce because your spouse objects, and you cannot be punished through the divorce for having an affair.
That design carries into the two areas where people most often expect adultery to matter — the split of assets and any support award. Both are governed by statutes that expressly take misconduct off the table.
Property Division Ignores the Affair Itself
Minnesota Statute 518.58 tells courts to make a “just and equitable division of the marital property of the parties without regard to marital misconduct.”1Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518.58 – Division of Marital Property A judge cannot award you a larger share of the house, the retirement accounts, or other assets because your spouse cheated. What the court looks at is each spouse’s income and earning capacity, the length of the marriage, and each spouse’s contributions to the marital estate.
People often find this result hard to accept. The statute leaves judges no room to treat the affair itself as a factor.
When Affair Spending Counts as Dissipation
The real exception is financial. Subdivision 1a of Statute 518.58 imposes a fiduciary duty on each spouse over marital assets during the divorce or in anticipation of filing. If a spouse used marital funds for purposes unrelated to the family without the other spouse’s consent, the court must compensate the innocent spouse by restoring both parties to the position they would have been in had the spending not occurred.1Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518.58 – Division of Marital Property
Money spent on a romantic partner is a classic example of dissipation. Common patterns include:
- Paying a partner’s rent or travel
- Buying expensive gifts
- Funding a second household
The point is that the spending benefited only the cheating spouse, not the family. If your spouse drained $50,000 from a joint account to pay for trips and gifts during the breakdown of the marriage, you can ask the court to credit that amount back to you in the property division.
You carry the burden of proof. You have to show that your spouse moved, hid, or spent marital assets without your consent, and that the spending was not ordinary household or business expense. The court can then impute the full value of the wasted assets to the spending spouse’s share. A power of attorney or the absence of a restraining order is not a defense against a dissipation claim.1Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518.58 – Division of Marital Property
Spousal Maintenance Follows the Same Rule
Statute 518.552 requires courts to set the amount and duration of spousal maintenance “without regard to marital misconduct.”2Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518.552 – Maintenance A spouse who had the affair is not ordered to pay more because of it, and a spouse who was cheated on does not automatically receive a larger award. Maintenance turns on financial need and the other spouse’s ability to pay, along with factors like the length of the marriage, the standard of living during the marriage, the requesting spouse’s education and employment prospects, health, and retirement needs.p>
Adultery can surface in maintenance indirectly, through dissipation. If affair spending shrank the marital estate, the requesting spouse ends up with fewer resources after property division, and that smaller financial cushion can support a higher or longer award. The increase comes from the financial harm, not from the affair.2Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518.552 – Maintenance
Custody and Parenting Time
Custody decisions turn entirely on the best interests of the child under Statute 518.17. Adultery is not on the list of factors. The statute says a court “shall not consider conduct of a party that does not affect the party’s relationship with the child.”3Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518.17 – Custody and Support of Children on Judgment An affair by itself says nothing about a person’s ability to parent.
What courts do consider is the child’s emotional and developmental needs, each parent’s history of caregiving, the child’s relationships with siblings and other important people, and each parent’s willingness to support the child’s relationship with the other parent. Domestic abuse is a listed factor and carries significant weight. Romantic infidelity is a different category.
An affair can still matter in custody when the conduct connected to it directly harms the child. Consistently leaving young children unsupervised to meet a partner, or exposing a child to a dangerous new household, can be relevant. The concern in those situations is parenting judgment and child safety, not the affair.3Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 518.17 – Custody and Support of Children on Judgment
If You Think Your Spouse Spent Marital Money on an Affair
Start documenting early. Pull bank statements, credit card records, and any other financial records that show where marital money went. Contested dissipation claims tend to make divorces more expensive because both sides need detailed spending records, which often means forensic accounting or extensive financial discovery. The filing fee for a divorce petition in Minnesota is $390, and everything beyond that — attorney fees, mediator fees, expert witnesses — depends on how contested the case becomes.4Minnesota Judicial Branch. Minnesota District Court Fees
Most Minnesota divorces go through some form of alternative dispute resolution before trial under Rule 310 of the General Rules of Practice, with limited exceptions for domestic abuse cases.5Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Court Rules – Rule 310 Alternative Dispute Resolution When infidelity is driving the emotional conflict, mediation gives both sides a place to work through the financial questions the court will actually decide. For a dissipation claim, that means reviewing the spending records and negotiating a credit or offset without the cost and unpredictability of a full trial.
One Note on the Criminal Side
Adultery used to be a crime in Minnesota under former Statute 609.36, but the Legislature repealed that statute in 2023.6Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 609.36 – Adultery Cheating on a spouse is now purely a civil matter, relevant only to the extent it affects a divorce case in the ways described above.