Lindsay Marsh filed for divorce in April 2021, ready to end her relationship with ex-husband Chris Marsh and leave it in the past. However, it hasn’t actually been that easy, as a Utah judge decided in August 2022 that Lindsay should fulfill her ex’s request of handing over nude photos taken during their marriage.
- The nude “boudoir albums” were given to Chris as a gift many years ago. Lindsay and Chris had been married for 25 years before their split, so they shared all kinds of intimacies. One such example is the album full of nude boudoir photos she gave Chris many years ago as a gift that she rightfully took with her when they split.
- Chris specifically requested the judge order Lindsay to give the nudes back. According to The Salt Lake Tribune, Chris claimed he wanted to hang onto the loving messages his ex-wife wrote him inside the albums. A little strange given that their marriage is over, don’t you think? Nevertheless, a Davis county judge ruled in his favor and ordered Lindsay to hand them over.
- The judge did make one bizarrely inappropriate concession in Lindsay’s favor. The judge said that while Lindsay did have to give Chris the photos back, she would first give them to a complete stranger to censor, who would then hand them back to Chris. Uh… what? “That person is to do whatever it takes to modify the pages of the pictures so that any photographs of [Lindsay Marsh] in lingerie or that sort of thing or even without clothing are obscured and taken out,” said 2nd District Judge Michael Edwards wrote in the ruling. “But the words are maintained for memory’s sake.”
- Lindsay contacted the original photographer after the ruling. The photographer happens to be one of Lindsay’s good friends, but they also didn’t want to censor the photos as not only was it a violation of Lindsay’s privacy but they also didn’t want it to come back on their business. Sadly, that meant Lindsay had to give the albums to a male graphic designer who she’d never met so that they could be edited. “I just want to clarify,” Lindsay said at the judge’s clerks’ office. “The judge has ordered me to give nude photos of my body to a third party that I don’t know without my consent?” Sadly, the answer was yes.
- Eventually, the original photographer did decide to edit the photos. They put black boxes over her body but left the so-called messages that Chris wanted for his “memories.” However, Lindsay isn’t happy about it. “That’s even violating because these are things that were sensual and loving that I wrote to my husband that I loved. You’re my ex-husband now,” she said. “It’s violating and it’s incredibly embarrassing and humiliating. The only way I can hopefully protect someone else from going through the same situation is to tell my story and expose that these are the types of things that he thinks are OK.”
