Second Life affair leads to real life divorce

For its many devotees, the Second Life virtual world is a place where the everyday constraints of normal life drop away and vivid fantasies can be played out.

But fact and fiction have collided in heartbreaking fashion for a British couple who are divorcing after the wife discovered her real-life husband's online alter-ego, a goatee-bearded, medallion-wearing hombre called Dave Barmy, with another - virtual - woman.

"It may have started on-line but it existed entirely in the real world and it hurts just as much," she said. "His was the ultimate betrayal. He had been lying to me."