Stumbling upon an old message can often evoke nostalgia, but for Richard, it became a harrowing ordeal that cost him his marriage. Messages he had thought deleted resurfaced on the family iMac, leading to the end of his relationship with his wife. This unexpected discovery shattered their years long marriage, leaving Richard grappling with the realisation that what he believed erased had actually been stored on his device for years.
Richard, a middle-aged businessman in London, has initiated legal action against tech giant Apple after his wife discovered his old messages which he believed were permanently deleted.
According to a report by The Times, Richard’s life took a drastic turn when his wife stumbled upon his messages exchanged with sex workers on their family iMac. It all began with Richard using Apple’s iMessage app on his iPhone to communicate with sex workers during the latter years of his marriage. Assuming these messages were erased from his device as he deleted them from his iPhone, Richard was shocked when they resurfaced on the family computer, synced and stored over the years.
The revelation proved catastrophic, leading to Richard’s wife filing for divorce following the discovery. Speaking to The Times, Richard expressed his dismay over the situation, criticising Apple’s purportedly ambiguous policies regarding the permanent deletion of messages. “I genuinely thought I was going to have a heart attack. Divorce is an extraordinarily stressful process and you have children and family dynamics. In my opinion, it’s all because Apple told me my messages were deleted when they weren’t,” he told the news website.
The messages Richard exchanged with sex workers via iMessage became a catalyst for his wife filing for divorce, costing him over 5 million pounds. Richard had used iMessage assuming he had deleted all traces from his iPhone. However, synchronisation of their family devices through the same Apple ID kept the messages accessible on their iMac, leading to his wife discovering all the messages. Now, Richard is suing Apple for 5 million pounds and seeks to turn his lawsuit into a class-action suit to include others facing similar issues.
