Second Life cheating ends real life marriage

A British woman is divorcing her husband after accusing his computer game character of cheating on her online alter ego.

Amy Taylor, who has reverted to her maiden name by deed poll, filed for divorce from husband of three years David Pollard on the grounds of "unreasonable behaviour".

The move comes after her character in virtual world Second Life caught his character, or avatar, Dave Barmy, cuddling another animated woman on a sofa in the game.

"It looked really affectionate," Taylor, whose Second Life avatar is a DJ named Laura Skye, told UK media.

"He turned off the computer monitor, and I turned it back on and demanded to look at his chat history.

"But he turned off the computer so the history was all deleted and I ended up going off to his mum and dad's in floods of tears."

It was not the first time Dave Barmy had strayed from Laura Skye.

Before Taylor, 28, married 40-year-old Pollard, she caught him sitting at his computer watching his character having sex with an on-screen prostitute.

Taylor later forgave him, and the couple, who met in an internet chatroom in 2003, married in Cornwall in 2005.

Dave Barmy and Laura Skye held an extravagant ceremony in the virtual world to mark the occasion.

After Dave Barmy's latest indiscretion, in April this year, Pollard admitted he had been having an online affair with a woman from America.

The pair's characters are now engaged in Second Life.

He said his real marriage had been a "bit of a joke" and that Taylor spent too much time on another popular fantasy role-playing game, World of Warcraft.

"Amy never did anything around the house," he was quoted as saying in the British press.

"She just played World of Warcraft all the time.

"If I wanted to spend time with her I had to ask, but it was always too much trouble for her to come off the game to spend time with me."

The real-life divorce between Taylor and Pollard is set to be finalised next week.

Their virtual divorce went through in the Second Life courts in May.

- AAP