Unfaithfulness? Rights?

[Bardotdot]

If a man's wife is consistently unfaithful over many years and he decided to divorce her, does this affect her legal rights regarding property and money?

Nope.

Ever?

I am writing a novel and it's pivotal to my story - yes, that is the truth,

Nope, divorce law in the uk doesn't assign blame for the end of the relationship when it comes to division of assets. The only reason it comes up in divorce is that adultery is one of the legally accepted reasons for divorce in the first place.

Plot twist. Your male character is now going to have to find a far more exciting way of making the female character pay for her infidelity

Fabulous many thanks.

No.

The law does not penalise people for moral slights like that in divorce.

Property is divided fairly.

Not so fast! It can matter depending on how money is spent - part of the settlement includes "The conduct of each of the parties, if that conduct is such that it would, in the opinion of the Court, be inequitable to disregard it." Examples have to be quite extreme, though:
‘A spouse cannot be allowed to fritter away the assets by extravagant living or reckless speculation and then to claim as great a share of what was left as he would have been entitled to if he had behaved reasonably.’ ”
www.stowefamilylaw.co.uk/blog/2018/02/26/bad-behaviour-what-amounts-to-conduct-it-would-be-inequitable-to-disregard-by-debbie-heald/

www.brachers.co.uk/knowledge/article/does-conduct-play-a-part-in-the-financial-proceedings-on-divorce

So, if the wife was spending loads on her affairs, such an argument could be tried. But it would be highly unusual!

Courts do not take conduct into account.

In my opinion, that's unfair but on the flip side, only what was earned during marriage is split equally. Excluding gifts and pre marital contributions.

No - being unfaithful does not affect any financial split.

IME even if you gambled it all away on black, the court's opinion is if it's gone, it's gone, therefore draw a line and deal with what's left.

Conduct is rarely proveable, there would have to be extreme malicious money managing to specifically affect the split/assets for it to come into play 🤔

Actually, In the US in some states a person that is unfaithful has no right to expect alimony or “maintenance”. In those states any request for this will be denied.

Divorce laws are different in every state.

No it doesn't affect anything. Unless one party ruins the finances. Eg deliberately spending marital money on affair partner