This situation reminds me of my aunty’s divorce.
She married him when she was quite vulnerable & he made her life hell - belittled her, very controlling, couldn’t be arsed with a job but spent all her money. Got her in so much debt she couldn’t afford to leave him. Put her down at every opportunity. Fell out with all her family & friends.
After 20 odd years she had an affair & left him for the other man as soon as she was in a financial position to do so. Purely on paper she was ‘in the wrong’ for the affair, but if you knew her at the time she was a broken woman badly in need of some love & kindness.
Anyway, the ex followed a similar path to AE - spreading defamatory rumours/lies about her, bombarding her & her family with aggressive messages, he even threatened to kill their dog. He wanted to ruin her, it was relentless for several years and he even harassed one of our dying relatives. Her boys were young teens at the time & one has never spoken to her again after their dad turned them against her. She has quite a low contact relationship with the other (his choice). This has broken her heart for many years, she still can’t talk about it without crying.
So, fucking judge away. Anyone who thinks my aunty should have stayed with her nasty fucker of an ex for the sake of ‘seeing the kids through to 18’ or ‘because falling out of love isn’t a reason’ have never been as broken and desperate as she was.
She’s still with the OM by the way, happily married now for 10 years.