The Paramour Clause

Katherine Mangu-Ward | December 31, 2008

The Paramour Clause sounds like a great name for a legal thriller—you know, the kind of movie that involves a handgun tucked into a garter. But alas, it's nothing so glamorous. In Tennessee, the paramour clause is a legal restriction that prevents a divorce(e)'s lover from staying in the house overnight while he or she has custody of children from the previous marriage. Straight people can get around this clause by getting married. No so for Angel Chandler and her partner of nine years.

Chandler said Chancellor George Ellis of the 28th Judicial District in West Tennessee imposed the restriction, called a paramour clause, in May without a request from her ex-husband and despite an evaluation that showed the children were not in harm’s way from their mother’s relationship. Ellis cited local law and precedent for the paramour clause, according to the appeal.

Chandler and her partner were forced to rent both halves of a duplex to satisfy the law.

Via writer and mixologist Jacob Grier