Alienation of affection and criminal conversation are potential legal claims or causes of action against a person who committed adultery with your spouse—the paramour or lover with whom your spouse had an affair. These claims are based on the idea that the person with whom your spouse cheated destroyed or alienated the love and affection in your marriage.

Alienation of affection claims are no longer recognized by courts in most states—but Hawaii, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah do recognize such claims. And in some states that do or do not not recognize such claims, the cheated-on spouse may seek an unequal division of the marital estate based on fault in the breakup of the marriage.

The details of alienation of affection laws (sometimes called heart-balm laws) vary from state to state among the states that do recognize such claims.

In Arizona, claims for alienation of affection are not recognized by the courts. Arizona follows the trend of the majority of states in the United States that have abolished this cause of action. Alienation of affection claims historically allowed a spouse to sue a third party for willfully interfering with the marital relationship, resulting in the loss of affection or consortium. However, Arizona does not provide legal grounds for a lawsuit based on the concept that a third party caused the end of a marriage by engaging in an affair with someone's spouse. Regarding the division of marital property, Arizona is a community property state, which means that in a divorce, marital assets are typically divided equally. However, Arizona courts may consider 'waste' of marital assets when one spouse has spent marital funds on an affair, which could potentially affect the division of assets. Fault, such as adultery, is not typically a factor in the division of property in Arizona divorces.