Can a Prenup Have an Infidelity Clause in Florida?

1. Can a Prenup Have an Infidelity Clause in Florida?

Yes, a prenup can contain one, and enforceability is the open question. Florida’s premarital agreement statute lets spouses contract on the disposition of property on the occurrence or nonoccurrence of any event, on the establishment, modification, waiver or elimination of spousal support, and on “any other matter, including their personal rights and obligations, not in violation of either the public policy of this state or a law imposing a criminal penalty.”

I searched Florida appellate opinions for infidelity clauses, lifestyle clauses and fidelity penalties in prenuptial and postnuptial agreements. None of the opinions I found rules on one. Three Florida opinions deal with adultery and an agreement’s money terms, and each turned on the words the spouses chose. Section 3 takes them in order.

A common question I hear is, “If my spouse cheats, does the prenup still apply?” The agreement applies as written, and the open point is what its words do with an affair.

2. Does Cheating Matter in a Florida Divorce Without a Clause?

Florida is a no-fault state. The ground for dissolution is that the marriage is irretrievably broken, and the statute says the evidence need not be corroborated except to show residency. A court does not grant a divorce because a spouse proves cheating, and a spouse who wants a divorce does not need to prove it.

Adultery still appears in the alimony statute. The court may consider the adultery of either spouse and any resulting economic impact in determining the amount of alimony, if any, to be awarded. The wording ties the factor to economic impact. Money spent on a relationship is a financial fact, and the affair as such is not priced.

The property statute has a related factor. Intentional dissipation, waste, depletion or destruction of marital assets after the filing of the petition or within two years before it may support an unequal distribution. Whether a particular affair expense qualifies is a question of facts and evidence.

A prenup changes these defaults. A clause can make adultery decide alimony, or put a number on it, where the statute only lets a judge consider it.

3. What Have Florida Courts Done With Adultery in Prenups?

Three opinions bear on the question, and none involves a penalty paid for cheating as such.

Singer (4th DCA 1975). A couple signed an antenuptial agreement on the eve of their marriage. If they divorced, the husband would pay the wife $500 a month, and the figure would be $1,200 a month if the wife, as plaintiff, were to “successfully prosecute a cause for divorce from Paris on the grounds of adultery.” The husband sued, accusing the wife of adultery. The wife’s counterclaim alleging his adultery was stricken before trial and never reinstated, although some evidence suggested he had been unfaithful. The trial judge awarded $1,200 and said the agreement did not bind him. The Fourth District held the judge to the agreement and modified the award to $500. The wife did not meet the clause’s condition, and the court held the parties to their own terms.

Maloy (2d DCA 1978). The agreement waived alimony on both sides and promised the wife $5,000 within 90 days after a divorce action was filed. She admitted adultery, and the trial court refused the $5,000 on account of her misconduct. The Second District reversed. It looked to the parties’ intent when they signed, observed that an agreement providing for divorce contemplates some misconduct, and wrote that if the husband “had intended for appellant’s subsequent misconduct to extinguish the mutual promises in the agreement, he should have made this requirement clear in the agreement.” The court reserved misconduct so gross it was beyond what the parties contemplated, and said no fraud in the agreement was alleged.

Weymouth (4th DCA 2012). The agreement waived alimony unless the basis for the dissolution was adultery or abuse. The trial court found that the husband’s adultery was the basis, awarded the wife alimony, and the Fourth District affirmed that finding.

Taken together, the courts treated the agreements as contracts, read their words, and declined to supply conditions the spouses did not write. No opinion tested a clause that requires a spouse to pay for infidelity.

4. What Can an Infidelity Clause Say?

Four structures appear in drafting, and Florida appellate law treats them unequally.

1. An alimony switch. Alimony is waived unless adultery is the basis for the divorce, or alimony is higher if it is. Weymouth and Singer are the cases, and the courts enforced the words as written. Section 2 of the alimony waiver page covers what a waiver must say.
2. A fixed payment. A stated sum is owed if one spouse is unfaithful. Maloy enforced a promised sum despite a wife’s admitted adultery, which shows misconduct is not a defense unless the agreement makes it one. No Florida opinion I found tests a sum owed because of infidelity.
3. A property consequence. The house, an account or a share of the business changes hands. The statute permits contracts on property on the occurrence of any event, and I found no Florida case on a conduct trigger.
4. A sunset. The clause ends after a set number of years. The statute permits it as a term, and the amendment rule in section 61.079(6) means any later change needs a signed writing.

Three limits apply to every structure. Temporary support while a divorce is pending cannot be waived conclusively, and the alimony page covers Belcher. A child’s right to support may not be adversely affected by a premarital agreement. And a spouse can still challenge the agreement on the statute’s grounds, which are involuntary signing, fraud, duress, coercion or overreaching, and unconscionability combined with a failure of disclosure. What makes a prenup invalid in Florida lists the cases.

I treat the second and third structures as untested. A clause can be drafted, signed and left to a court to read, and I do not predict how a Florida appellate court would read it.

5. How Do You Prove Infidelity Under a Prenup?

Today’s statute has no ground of adultery, so a clause keyed to a divorce “on the grounds of adultery,” as in Singer, needs a different test. A clause replaces a divorce that needs no proof of fault with a hearing about fault. Weymouth shows what that costs. The court explained that adultery usually happens in secret, so proof is usually circumstantial, built from evidence of desire and opportunity. It also noted that adultery can occur without being the basis for the dissolution.

A clause should therefore say five things. It should define the act, since “infidelity” covers more than one conduct. It should set the period it covers, such as before the petition is filed. It should say who decides and by what standard of proof. It should say whether proof of the act alone triggers payment or whether the act must have caused the breakup. And it should say whether the clause is mutual.

Each undefined word in the clause is a place for a hearing. Hearings cost money.

6. What If I Am Asked to Sign a Cheating Clause?

People write, “WIBTA for asking for a prenup and removing any no cheating clauses?” and “AITA for enforcing the prenup after I cheated?” Both questions come down to the words on the page, so read them before anything else.

1. Ask what counts. A defined act is easier to prove or defend than a general word.
2. Ask who decides and how. A court finding, an admission or a written notice are different triggers.
3. Ask for the amount in writing. A fixed number with a cap is different from a clause that reopens every financial term.
4. Ask whether the clause is mutual, and whether the spouse who proposed it is bound.
5. Ask for an end date. People ask online about waiting out a prenup, and a sunset clause answers the question in writing.

Get a lawyer of your own to read the draft. A review of an agreement the other side drafted is a flat fee from $750. A spouse repairing a marriage after an affair may want a postnup instead, and the postnuptial agreement page covers that test. For the choice between the two, see prenup vs postnup.

What It Costs

A prenup drafted for one spouse is a flat fee from $2,450, a postnup drafted for one spouse is a flat fee from $2,950, and a review of an agreement the other side drafted is a flat fee from $750. What each fee includes is on the prenup page, and the cost page explains what drives the number. The fees are honored for 90 days from October 6, 2026, and government costs are additional and passed through at cost. A dispute over whether a clause was triggered is litigation, and litigation is quoted per matter.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The second marriage between two people who have each been burned. Each wants a cheating clause. One structure with appellate support is an alimony trigger that defines the conduct, and mutuality is a drafting choice each spouse can ask for.

The couple repairing a marriage after an affair. A postnup can reset the terms. The agreement is judged under a test with its own disclosure rule, and the clause about the affair should be drafted with the same care as any other.

For the rest of what an agreement can waive, see whether a prenup protects future assets and the hub page on Florida prenuptial agreements.

Sources of Law

• Fla. Stat. §61.052(1)(a) and (2) (irretrievably broken; evidence); §61.08(1)(a) (adultery and its economic impact in determining alimony); §61.075(1)(i) (intentional dissipation).
• Fla. Stat. §61.079(4)(a)3, 4 and 8, (4)(b), (6) and (7)(a) (contract subjects, child support, amendment, enforcement).
• Singer v. Singer, 318 So. 2d 438 (Fla. 4th DCA 1975); Maloy v. Maloy, 362 So. 2d 484 (Fla. 2d DCA 1978); Weymouth v. Weymouth, 87 So. 3d 30 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012) (alimony and adultery holdings only). Opinions read in full.
• Belcher v. Belcher, 271 So. 2d 7 (Fla. 1972) (temporary support); see the alimony waiver page for the temporary-support cases.
• Statutes and opinions retrieved 2026-10-07. Searches for infidelity, fidelity, lifestyle-clause and penalty terms in Florida state and federal opinions returned no opinion deciding enforceability of an infidelity clause as of 2026-10-07.

When an Alimony Clause Depends on Proving an Affair

What I have not seen is a Florida appellate opinion that decides whether a prenup can charge a spouse for cheating, and the Weymouth case shows what a smaller clause already demands.

Michael and Veronica Weymouth married in 1993 after signing an antenuptial agreement that Michael’s lawyer prepared. Paragraph 11 waived alimony for both of them unless the basis for the dissolution was adultery, physical abuse, or mental or emotional abuse. In 2003 the couple saw a marital counselor and stayed together. In March 2007 Michael began calling and texting a woman who was not his wife, and in April he started coming home late after dinner. Veronica asked him in May whether there was another woman, and he denied it. In September 2007 he took a trip to the Florida Keys with the other woman. Both Michael and the other woman testified that the trip was the first time they had sexual relations, and the trial court found that testimony not credible. Veronica was willing to work on the marriage until she learned of a second planned trip, and she filed in November 2007.

The trial court found that adultery was the basis for the dissolution and awarded Veronica $3,000 a month in alimony. The Fourth District affirmed the finding in 2012. The messages between Michael and the other woman were circumstantial evidence of an affair before the separation, and the planned second trip showed the relationship was still going on when Veronica filed.

I have a few take-home points.

The first is that the clause worked because its trigger was written down, and the court applied the words as written. A paragraph that gave one spouse alimony on a defined event is the structure Florida courts have enforced.

The second is the proof. A no-fault divorce turned into a trial about phone records, text messages and a vacation, with two witnesses the judge did not believe. Anyone who signs this kind of clause signs up for that hearing.

The third is that proof of the act did not end the inquiry. The court noted that adultery can occur without being the basis for the dissolution, so a clause that makes the basis for the dissolution the test asks for a finding about cause as well as conduct.

Practice pointer. Define the conduct, the period, who decides, the standard of proof and whether the act must have caused the breakup, and make the clause mutual.

Avoid a one-line clause that says only that infidelity forfeits money, because the drafting choice leaves each word for a hearing.

An honest limit belongs here. The alimony award in Weymouth went back for reconsideration on other grounds, no opinion I found decides a payment owed for infidelity, and nothing on this page predicts what a court would do with a clause you sign. Whether a clause belongs in your agreement at all is a judgment we make together.

Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., admitted in Florida since 2012. The case above is a published opinion in other parties’ matter, not a matter this firm handled, and it predicts nothing about yours.

Updated on October 7, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502. General information about Florida law, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Each spouse should have independent counsel. Do not send confidential information until we have agreed to represent you.