MANILA — The Supreme Court has ruled that hiding one’s homosexuality from a spouse can be considered fraud and may be used as a ground to annul a marriage.

In a decision written by Associate Justice Antonio T. Kho Jr., the SC’s Second Division annulled the marriage of a woman whose husband had concealed his homosexuality before they were wed.

According to the Court, the woman met her husband through social media, and they became a couple a year later. However, she observed early signs of emotional distance—he refused to hold her hand, avoided sitting next to her, and made excuses to avoid physical intimacy, which he dismissed as shyness.

After marrying and briefly living together, the man continued to avoid intimacy and returned to his job in Saudi Arabia just two months after the wedding. He later stopped communicating with her, sending only one message on their first wedding anniversary.

The woman eventually found magazines with naked male models among his belongings. When confronted, he admitted to being homosexual. She left their home and filed for annulment, arguing that her consent to the marriage had been obtained through fraud.

While both the Regional Trial Court and the Court of Appeals dismissed the petition due to lack of evidence—ruling that her and her father’s testimonies were self-serving—the Supreme Court reversed their decisions.

The SC held that under Article 45 of the Family Code, a marriage may be annulled if one party’s consent was obtained through fraud. Article 46 specifically includes the concealment of homosexuality as a form of fraud.

The Court found the husband’s behavior, admission, and silence as compelling proof of deceit, citing his deliberate avoidance of intimacy and failure to disclose his sexual orientation as intentional acts to mislead the woman into marriage.

The SC concluded that the woman’s consent was not freely given and was instead obtained through deception. Since she left her husband after learning the truth, the Court granted the annulment.