A paramour is a person who is a love or romantic interest of a married person who is engaging in adultery with the paramour. Spouses engaged in adulterous affairs with paramours sometimes give gifts to their paramours, and often spend marital or community property on such gifts. The non-cheating spouse may pursue a reimbursement claim and ask the court to order the spouse who spent marital assets on a paramour to reimburse the marital or community estate—by returning the gift if it retains its value (jewelry) or replacing the funds with the cheating spouse’s separate property funds.

In Kansas, which is not a community property state but rather an equitable distribution state, the issue of a spouse spending marital assets on a paramour can be addressed during the divorce proceedings. Kansas law requires an equitable division of marital property, which means the court will divide property in a way that is fair, though not necessarily equal. If a spouse has used marital funds to purchase gifts for a paramour, the non-cheating spouse may raise this issue in court. The court may consider this dissipation of marital assets when determining how to divide the property. The non-cheating spouse can argue that the marital estate should be reimbursed for the value of the gifts given to the paramour. The court has the discretion to order the cheating spouse to reimburse the marital estate, either by returning the gift if it retains its value or by compensating the marital estate with separate funds. However, the specifics of how this is handled can vary by case and depend on the evidence presented to the court.