Cynthia Shackelford Sues Hubby's Mistress and Gets $9 Million for Heartache

Cynthia Shackelford

Countless women could only dream of hitting a jackpot that would send their cheating husband's mistresses to the poor house. One lucky woman did strike it rich, because of the "severe emotional distress" she suffered, as the result of her two-timing husband's neglect. Last week, a Greensboro, N.C., court ordered a mistress to fork over a total of $9 million dollars, $5 million in compensatory damages and $4 million in punitive damages, to her lover's humiliated spouse.

Cynthia Shackelford, 60, sued her husband's mistress Anne Lundquist, 49, back in 2007, because the jilted wife claims the "other woman" destroyed her 33-year marriage to Allan, her husband.

Lundquist was charged with "alienation of affections," or interfering in a marriage. The ruling was made in one of the few U.S. states that allows such a charge to be brought up against a home wrecker.

Since all involved parties live in North Carolina, the state remains as one of 7 (the others are Hawaii, Illinois, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota and Utah) that allows a person to sue the party that is alleged to have interfered in a marriage, which is the "alienation of affections" law. More than 200 such cases are filed statewide in an average year, according to the legal publication the ABA Journal.

According to court documents, Cynthia said her husband began an affair with Lundquist before she separated from him in April 2005. The spurned wife says that she and her husband were still in love when Lundquist severed their union. "I had not a clue that Allan would wander," Shackelford told a local newspaper. "He kept telling me, 'Oh, she's just a friend. There's no affair. I love you.'"

Cynthia stated that she gave up teaching to support her husband's career and raise the couple's two children. When the couple parted, she says they had to move in with friends in order to keep from being homeless. Allan was mandated by the courts to pay spousal support, but allegedly never did. The roving spouse faces arrest on a contempt-of-court charge for violating that support order.

Although Cynthia might not get the exact amount awarded to her, she is satisfied that the case has received tons of exposure and that it serves as a kind of warning for those folks who prey on married people: "We would like for people to respect the sanctity of marriage," Cynthia said. "We wanted a number high enough that it would keep other people from ... going after other married spouses."