In Durham, North Carolina, a jury ruled this week that popular TikTok creator Brenay Kennard is legally responsible for the breakup of a marriage, ordering her to pay $1.75 million in damages. The verdict stems from a lawsuit filed by Akira Montague, who accused Kennard of engaging in an affair with Akira’s husband, Tim Montague — and thereby causing the end of their relationship.
According to court filings, Akira and Tim were married in October 2018. Akira claims the affair began while Tim was managing Kennard’s influencer brand and that she appeared in some of his social-media content during the time he was still married. After the affair became public, Tim eventually left Akira and began a relationship with Kennard. The lawsuit alleged that Kennard’s involvement caused Akira severe emotional distress and deprived her children of a stable, two-parent home.
The jury found Kennard liable on two grounds under North Carolina law — “alienation of affection” and “criminal conversation.” The first allows a spouse to sue a third party for intentionally interfering in the marital relationship; the second is a similar tort that holds someone accountable for engaging in an affair while one party is still married. The court’s total award divides into roughly $1.5 million for alienation of affection and $250,000 for criminal conversation.
Courtroom reactions were pointed: Akira’s attorney declared, in reaction to the verdict, “She has received justice from losing her husband and the father of her children.” Meanwhile, Kennard responded defiantly, asserting that Akira knew the marriage was ending and had “given her consent.” She maintains that the relationship between Akira and Tim was already over when she became involved.
The case has drawn wide attention both because of Kennard’s social-media influence — she boasts nearly three million followers across platforms — and because such lawsuits are rare: only a handful of states allow alienation-of-affection claims. North Carolina is one of them, and previous cases there have resulted in multi-million-dollar judgments of similar nature.
For Akira, the lawsuit represented an attempt to reclaim some measure of closure and accountability. In her complaint she asserted that her emotional health was damaged, her children were deprived of their father’s daily presence, and her life was changed irrevocably. She framed the affair not simply as a personal betrayal but as a public one, carried out on social-media channels that amplified the pain and humiliation.
Kennard’s defense centered on the idea that the marriage was already deteriorating and that Akira had consented to or accepted the shift. She also pointed to her own public persona and relationship with Tim, arguing that the affair was not the root cause of the marital breakdown. Nevertheless, the jury sided with Akira’s version of events.
This decision will likely reverberate throughout the influencer world. For many creators whose personal lives blend publicly with brand and content, the ruling highlights the legal risks of entangling professional relationships, romantic entanglements, and public social-media presence. It also underscores that, even in high-profile influencer scenarios, traditional legal principles continue to apply.
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