After consulting ChatGPT for coffee cup readings, a Greek woman accused her husband of cheating and filed for divorce.

A woman in Greece has filed for divorce after allegedly using ChatGPT to “read” her husband’s coffee cup and discover an affair. According to a report by Greek City Times, the woman turned to the AI chatbot for supernatural guidance in a modern twist on tasseography which is the ancient art of reading coffee grounds or tea leaves to predict the future.
The chatbot claimed that the man was going to have an extra-marital affair based on coffee grounds.(Representational)

Married for over 12 years, the mother of two uploaded photos of her and her husband’s coffee cups, hoping ChatGPT could interpret the patterns in the grounds. What she reportedly received in return was devastating: the AI told her that her husband was cheating with a younger woman, who was intent on tearing their family apart.

The bot allegedly revealed that her husband’s cup showed he was “destined to be with a mysterious woman with the initial ‘E’,” while hers indicated betrayal and a threat to her household.

‘I got a call from a lawyer’

Her husband, appearing on a local TV show, dismissed the claims and said his wife had a habit of chasing viral trends but this time, things escalated quickly.

“I laughed it off as nonsense. But she took it seriously. She asked me to leave, told our kids we were getting divorced, and then I got a call from a lawyer. That’s when I realized this wasn’t just a phase,” he said.

It started like any other morning. Julia Hartley, a 36-year-old marketing consultant from Portland, Oregon, sat at her kitchen table sipping coffee, her laptop open and ChatGPT responding to her usual queries about project management tips. Her husband, Dan, a 38-year-old real estate broker, had just left for work, kissing her on the cheek as he did every day. She barely noticed the difference in his cologne or the faint lipstick mark on his coffee cup—at first.

It wasn’t until she reached for the mug he had left behind that a strange sense of discomfort stirred in her. It was a white ceramic cup with a floral pattern—one Julia had never seen before. It wasn’t one from their collection. She turned it over in her hand. No brand name, no restaurant logo. Just a subtle pink lipstick stain on the rim. Her own lipstick was nude that morning. Pink wasn’t her color.

At first, she brushed it off. Maybe it was a new cup Dan had picked up from a client, or perhaps one he had received as a promotional gift. But something gnawed at her. She placed the cup on the counter and opened her laptop again, half-jokingly typing into ChatGPT: “What could a pink lipstick stain on a coffee cup in my house mean if I didn’t wear pink lipstick today?”

The AI’s response was innocuous at first—mentioning possibilities such as a guest, a mix-up with dishes, or a borrowed mug from a colleague. But then Julia clarified: the cup had not been in their house before, and Dan had been the only one drinking from it that morning. ChatGPT continued analyzing, offering hypothetical scenarios. One of them suggested: “If your partner brought the cup from somewhere else and it had lipstick not matching yours, it could indicate that the cup belonged to another woman.” Julia’s chest tightened.

What began as casual curiosity quickly evolved into a digital investigation. Over the next hour, she found herself confessing details to ChatGPT that she hadn’t even acknowledged to herself. She described Dan’s recent behavior—how he’d been distant, suddenly more fashion-conscious, secretive with his phone. She noted the sudden, inexplicable meetings and gym visits he had never mentioned before. With each message, ChatGPT pieced together a narrative she hadn’t wanted to admit was unfolding.

At the AI’s suggestion, Julia cross-referenced Dan’s recent appointments with his calendar. Something didn’t match up. He had told her he was working late on Thursday, but his GPS history showed he had been in the Pearl District—an area known more for boutique hotels and jazz bars than for real estate transactions. She felt her heart sink. It wasn’t hard evidence. Not yet. But it was enough to stir suspicion into certainty.

She confronted him that evening. Dan laughed when she brought up the coffee cup. “Seriously, Jules? You’re getting suspicious over a coffee mug?” But when she showed him the GPS logs and explained how ChatGPT had helped her string it all together, the laughter faded. His defensiveness turned to silence. She watched him falter, the mask slipping. It wasn’t the coffee cup that betrayed him—it was the pattern, the detail, the logic. And the AI had simply helped her see it clearly.

Over the next week, Julia met with a lawyer. Her decision wasn’t driven by vengeance but by clarity. She no longer doubted herself. What Dan had dismissed as paranoia was actually intuition, backed by observation—and strangely enough, by technology. She filed for divorce quietly, giving Dan the opportunity to respond with dignity, though he seemed more embarrassed than remorseful. When news of the divorce started to spread among their friends, Julia found herself facing curious, skeptical questions: “Did ChatGPT really tell you your husband was cheating?”

Her story gained traction after a friend posted a screenshot of her ChatGPT query—anonymized but unmistakably hers. Within days, it became a viral sensation. Media outlets picked it up, dubbing her “the woman whose AI therapist caught her husband cheating.” Some praised her for using technology creatively to seek the truth. Others were more cynical, calling it a stunt or questioning the reliability of AI in matters of the heart.

But for Julia, it wasn’t about the AI being right or wrong. It was about being listened to, even if by a machine. She explained in interviews that ChatGPT had given her a space to talk things through without judgment or interruption, unlike friends who might have dismissed her suspicions or told her to let it go. “It didn’t accuse,” she said. “It just helped me see the patterns I was too afraid to acknowledge.”

The incident sparked broader conversations online. Relationship experts weighed in on how AI could be used as a sounding board in personal dilemmas. Privacy advocates expressed concern about people outsourcing their trust to machines. Meanwhile, users began testing their own suspicions, asking ChatGPT for relationship advice, sometimes even uploading anonymized chat histories to see what conclusions the AI might draw. A niche community began to form around the idea of “AI-assisted intuition.”

As for Julia, she took a break from social media after the whirlwind subsided. She moved into a new apartment and adopted a rescue cat named Pixel. Her work remained steady, though she found herself pivoting to projects that focused more on ethical tech and digital wellness. When she reflected on the strange twist her life had taken, she didn’t credit ChatGPT with saving her marriage or even ending it. She credited herself—for being brave enough to ask the questions, and open enough to hear the answers.

Her relationship with Dan dissolved quietly, with no children involved and minimal dispute over property. They split the house, and Julia let him keep the espresso machine he loved so much—though she kept the mysterious floral mug, more as a reminder than evidence. It now sits on a shelf above her desk, nestled between books on psychology and a small potted fern. A daily reminder that sometimes, answers come from unexpected places.

While not everyone believed her story, Julia never felt the need to prove it. She knew what happened. She had lived it. And in the quiet aftermath of chaos, she found an unlikely ally in a program not designed to solve human relationships, but one that—by offering nonjudgmental reflection—helped her find her voice. In a world where truth can be obscured by emotion and excuses, it took a digital mirror to help her see what was always there.