DEAR ABBY: After being divorced for nine years, I met a man I'll call Hal and married him six months later. He seemed caring, had a good personality, was good with children -- all the positive things you look for in a mate. I asked all the right questions about previous relationships, also drinking and drugs, etc. Hal told me he had been married once previously.
Two days before the wedding, I discovered he had been married twice. Two years later, it turned out that Hal had been married five times before he married me, and had lived with several different women between marriages.
He charged my credit cards to the max. I helped him to pay off past-due accounts, bad checks he had written and thousands of dollars he owed in child support. I went through drug rehab and counseling with him and supported him all the way. We are now divorced. He left me, saying he no longer loved me, and now, one week after the divorce, he has a new girlfriend.
I am furious that he treated me this way. Is there a law about how many times a person can marry? I feel other women should be warned before he takes advantage of them like he did with the six of us. -- USED IN JONESBORO, TENN.
DEAR USED: Although there is no law limiting the number of times a man (or a woman) may marry, there ARE laws against fraud. Failing to reveal the number of times one has actually been married may qualify as fraud. By all means discuss this serial groom with an attorney. It may set you back a few bucks, but a lawsuit could buy you a lot of satisfaction.