Remarriage is a fresh start — and, for anyone paying or receiving alimony or child support from a prior marriage, a legal event with real financial consequences. Whether you are the one remarrying or your former spouse is, it pays to understand how New Jersey law treats support obligations when a new family enters the picture.
Remarriage and Alimony in New Jersey
Under N.J.S.A. 2A:34-25, when the spouse receiving alimony remarries or enters a new civil union, open durational and limited duration alimony terminate as of the date of the remarriage — automatically, and permanently. The recipient must promptly notify the paying spouse, and a payer who overpays after the remarriage date is generally entitled to reimbursement. Two forms of support are treated differently: rehabilitative and reimbursement alimony may continue despite remarriage, because they compensate for a spouse’s investment in the other’s education or career rather than provide ongoing maintenance.
What about the paying spouse who remarries? Remarriage alone does not reduce an alimony obligation — the responsibilities of a second family do not diminish obligations to the first. And since New Jersey’s 2014 alimony reform, a recipient who chooses to cohabit rather than remarry is not insulated: the statute permits suspension or termination of alimony upon cohabitation in a mutually supportive relationship, judged by factors such as intertwined finances, shared living expenses, and recognition of the relationship in the couple’s family and social circle — even if the couple does not live together full-time.
Remarriage and Child Support
Child support belongs to the child, and a parent’s remarriage never terminates it. A new spouse’s income is not counted directly in the child support calculation, but the new household finances are not entirely invisible either. There are three common situations where a new spouse’s finances become relevant:
- Motions to modify alimony filed by a supporting spouse who has remarried, where the new household’s shared expenses bear on the payer’s actual circumstances.
- Motions to modify child support, where a custodial parent’s remarriage is presumed to improve household finances because the new spouse contributes to shared expenses.
- Motions to establish college contribution obligations, where courts weigh the “financial resources of a parent” — and New Jersey courts have held that a new spouse’s income, while not counted as the parent’s income, is relevant and discoverable on that question.
To the extent a new spouse frees up a parent’s cash flow by covering expenses, that reality can affect what a court expects each parent to contribute — particularly toward college. Parents supporting children of a second marriage may also qualify for an “other dependent deduction” under the Child Support Guidelines, which can factor into a modification analysis.
Also worth knowing: under New Jersey’s child support termination law, support ends by operation of law at age 19 unless extended — for example, while a child remains in high school or college — and can continue no later than age 23.
Relocating with a New Spouse
Remarriage often means a move. If a custodial parent seeks to relocate out of New Jersey with a child over the other parent’s objection, court permission is required — and since the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision in Bisbing v. Bisbing (2017), these applications are decided under a pure best-interests-of-the-child standard. A new marriage and a new job in another state do not, by themselves, carry the day. Relocation disputes are among the most emotionally charged applications in family court, and experienced counsel matters on both sides.