Wife finds life-size sex doll in husband's room after he refused intimacy — is divorce possible?

A woman discovered a life-size sex doll in her husband's room after he began refusing intimacy while the couple lived apart during the week.

The case was shared in a video titled "Can a husband who refuses intimacy because of this be held at fault?" posted recently to the YouTube channel of attorney Yang Na-rae.

According to the account, the woman, identified only as A, has been married for seven years and has one child with her husband. The couple reportedly had a relatively healthy intimate life after marriage, with relations two or three times a week.

In the second year of living apart during the week, however, the husband began avoiding physical contact and intimacy altogether.

Even when he returned home he would not show physical affection, and when A suggested intimacy he turned her down, saying he was tired.

Hoping to change the dynamic, A left their child with her parents and paid a surprise visit to the home where her husband was staying.

While tidying up, she opened the bedroom wardrobe and something fell to the floor. It turned out to be a life-size sex doll.

Looking further inside the wardrobe, she found specialized cleaning solution for the doll, various adult products and several sets of underwear. It was then that she understood why her husband had been refusing intimacy with her.

Confronted by A, the husband explained: "I was so lonely being away from home. It's not like I was going to go to a bar and meet women or have an affair. I couldn't do that, so I bought one because I was just too lonely." He added that he had initially questioned himself but grew accustomed to using it and continued to do so.

He also maintained that using a sex doll was different from infidelity or an affair, and not significantly different from using ordinary adult products.

A, however, was deeply shaken. She said she felt betrayed upon learning that her husband had been using the doll while refusing to be intimate with her, and that she found it difficult to continue the marriage as before.

She then asked whether her husband's use of the sex doll could constitute grounds for divorce.

Attorney Yang said the use of a sex doll alone would not easily qualify as grounds for divorce. For infidelity to be recognized under the law, it generally requires a sexual relationship with a third party, and because a sex doll is not a person, its use cannot in itself be treated as an act of infidelity.

The situation could change if other issues were involved alongside the doll's use, Yang said. "If the wife said 'absolutely not, get rid of it' but the husband continued to hide it and use it for sexual gratification, or pressured her into things she disliked, or made comparisons between the doll and his wife, that could constitute grounds for divorce," she said.

Yang added that if it could be proven that the husband had been satisfying his sexual needs with the doll while refusing intimacy with his wife without justifiable reason, there would also be grounds to argue that the refusal of marital relations itself constituted a basis for divorce.