Court orders US woman to hand over 'boudoir' photo album to ex-husband

A judge ordered Marsh to give the photos to a third party. Photo / Getty Images

A US woman says she was violated by a judge ordering that albums of intimate boudoir photos be handed back to her ex-husband, who wanted them for the "memories".

Utah woman Lindsay Marsh spoke to the Salt Lake Tribune about the unusual divorce case, revealing how she had to fight to keep the albums from falling into her ex-husband's hands - and also to prevent them from being sent to a third party that she did not know.

Marsh, who filed for divorce in 2021 after 25 years with husband Chris, said that she posed for the photos earlier in their marriage and wrote intimate and "loving" messages inside the album.

She was shocked to learn that the albums were one of the possessions that her ex-husband tried to claim through their divorce, with her husband saying he wanted to keep them because of those messages.

A judge then ordered Marsh to give the boudoir albums to the original photographer so they could be edited to remove images of her body - and then given to her ex-husband.

"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," 2nd District Judge Michael Edwards wrote in a ruling obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune, saying the words needed to be "maintained for memory's sake".

But the photographer, who was a close friend, then refused to edit the photos, claiming it could damage her business as a boudoir photographer.

Judge Edwards then ruled that the photos be given to a third party, a graphic designer unknown to Marsh.

She said that she panicked and called the court to clarify that she was being asked to hand over her nude photos to a third party, without her consent.

She was told that was correct.

Lindsay Marsh. Photo / LinkedIn

The original photographer then revisited their decision and agreed to obscure any image of Marsh's body with black boxes, leaving the messages and inscriptions behind.

"That's even violating," Marsh told the Tribune, "because these are things that were sensual and loving that I wrote to my husband that I loved. You're my ex-husband now."

Marsh said she went public about the case to publicise the judge's actions and to help others.

"It's violating and it's incredibly embarrassing and humiliating," she said. "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 okay."

She is legally required to keep the boudoir albums until the end of the year, when she plans to have a party and burn the photos.

"It's going to be amazing."