this is "nightline." >> tonight, moms under fire. it happened on instagram to beyonce. also, mariah carey and chrissy teigen. women publicly shamed for their parenting choices. one even confronted by police. >> he accused me of abandoning my children. and i just laughed at him. >> has the shame game spiraled out of control? how some moms are now fighting back. plus the price of love. a jilted husband taking on his wife's lover in court. this dramatic confrontation recorded by his ex. >> you're picking him over me? you're picking him over me now? >> please stop yelling. >> you're picking him over me?

>> it helped win him an $8.8 million settlement. the obscure law putting a cost on breaking up a marriage and its surprising origin. but first here, the "nightline" 5.

good evening. in the age of social media some mothers say they feel scrutinized and judged in almost everything they do, and some of them are right. mommy shaming, both online and in person, has become a very real and very controversial trend. but can a little shame sometimes be a good thing? here's abc's linsey davis. >> reporter: beyonce, attacked for having a glass of wine while she may have been breast-feeding and for what some thought was her daughter's unruly hair, which even ignited a comb her hair petition. and mariah carey, who shared this moment with her twins in an instagram post, was then criticized by those who thought her son was too old for a pacifier. model chrissy teigen has been called out for holding her baby daughter without appearing to support her head. and for going out to dinner shortly after giving birth to her daughter luna in 2016. celebrity moms are regularly slammed for their choices. but it doesn't end there. parenting in the age of social

media can often make anyone feel like a target. >> is mommy shaming all too real? >> reporter: more examples of parent shaming. 87% of moms say they feel judged for how they parent and raise their kids. mothers all over are being shamed for their parenting decisions. >> mom shaming has become as much a part of parenting as diapering, late-night feedings, colic. and it's just something you that grow to expect these days. if you're a parent, you're going to be mom shamed. >> reporter: erica suter is a contributing editor of the parenting blog, mom.me. >> social media has provide aid soapbox for every single person in the world. so they believe their voice should be heard and it can be heard zastandly. we've seen it time and time again with moms all across the country, whether they're celebrities or everyday moms. >> reporter: sometimes the shaming goes offline. to real-life confrontations. for joy kaler the questioning came in 2016 when she left her three daughters in their minivan

within sight while she grabbed some coffee. >> i saw the police officer walk up to the car and start questioning my children. and i thought nothing of it. until my kids started to cry. and at that point i walked out of the starbucks and i asked the officer what he was doing. and he turned on me andwhere i . >> reporter: little did the officer know this illinois senior public defender knew she hadn't done anything illegal. >> he accused me of abandoning my children. and i just laughed at him. he had picked on the wrong mother. because i actually know my rights and i know that i did not abandon my children. so i laughed at him. and i told him, yeah, good luck getting those charges approved because i happen to know what the law is and i did not willfully leave my child in a position of danger. >> reporter: she says the officer filed a complaint against her and she received a visit from child welfare services, who then interviewed her children and had a doctor examine them to make sure they

hadn't been abused. >> it was a humiliating and degrading process for me to have to go through, all because i challenged the authority of some police officer who had accused me of abandoning my children. >> a visit from child services is a horrible thing for a parent. and that doesn't necessarily mean you get charged criminally. >> reporter: illinois, where koehler lives, is one of 19 states with a law making it illegal to leave children in a car. in that state specifically someone at least 14 years old must accompany the children or, ike koehler, keep them in their sight. and fewer states, only 3, regulate the age at which children can be left alone unsupervised. maryland, where raffi and devora meti live-s one of them. there leaving anyone under age 8 unsupervised is illegal. >> right here. pull up over here. >> reporter: ravi and devora were walking home from the park in 2015 when the montgomery county police gave the kids,

then 6 and 10, a stern warning. >> they made me feel annoyed and embarrassed. >> reporter: the police reported the parents to child protective services, who threatened to take their kids away. >> i said okay, then i'll take my children. i realized they won't release my children. >> maryland parents are accused of child neglect after allowing their two kids to walk home alone from a park about a mile away. >> reporter: suddenly this middle-class suburban family found themselves smack dab in the middle of a national debate about parenting. even as they were doing things they simply considered normal. running, playing, crossing the street. >> it's very busy. >> reporter: their parents trust them, giving them the freedom to make mistakes away from their parental safety net. it's an approach known these days as free range parenting. to the metivs it isn't a new fad. it's an age-old tradition. >> i'm just parenting the way i was parented and the way that almost every parent i know was parented. >> reporter: but these days plenty of people wouldn't dream of letting their kids go out of their sight alone or letting someone else get away with it. >> we were trying to understand

like what is the reasoning that leads people to perceive so much danger where there actually isn't statistically speaking. >> reporter: barbara sarneka is a researcher at the university of california irvine who studied how people reacted to parents leaving their children unattend kd and found some inconsistencies. >> we tend to kind of change our beliefs about reality to match our moral if we think that somes immoral then we start believing it's dangerous because we have a lot of trouble if those two things conflict. so what has changed seems to be social norms, moral judgments, the idea that children should never be left alone and that a parent who leaves a child alone is negligent or abusive. >> reporter: meanwhile, earlier this year utah became the first state to legalize free range parenting, giving parents the freedom to allow children to engage in independent activities like walking to school, playing outside, or staying at home. >> everybody has their own philosophy. everybody has the books they've read, the whatever they've seen, and thinks they're right. >> reporter: "nightline" talked

to a group of moms in new york who agreed that many parents are too quick to judge. >> i think we jump to the extreme instead of like let's go into the store, see if the mom is there. or if it's the kids in the back yard go knock on the neighbor's door if you're really concerned. >> reporter: francesca is a mother of three from new york. >> it's scary because like you don't know who's going to judge you and what you're doing. >> just we as human beings we judge on a constant basis. and then when we're in charge of another human being it just puts that much more pressure. >> reporter: kate from montana says she's even guilty of judging other parents. >> and i catch myself doing it and i'm like, okay, they're doing the best they can. definitely judged on that because we go to his -- >> reporter: and they all said they judge themselves most of all. >> when he's throwing a tantrum and i'm like holding him across the street look a football and he's kicking and screaming i feel like everybody's staring at me and looking and judgeing when i don't know that that's really the way it is. i think moms are the biggest critics of themselves. >> people really need to

consider the fact that being a parent is hard and we don't do it perfectly. no one does it perfectly. and if you see a mom struggling or you see a mom who you think is making a bad choice there is a better way of handling it than, you know, harshly criticizing them or calling them names or being cruel. >> i can't reach that one. >> reporter: julie koehler, that mom from chicago, told us that no charges were ever pressed against her, and she says there's a simple old-fashioned solution. >> if you're worried that there are kids in a car that have been left there too long, how about just talking to them? when did society stop talking to each other? we're all in this together. and the last resort should be calling the police. next here, a husband's heartbreak caught on tape. >> you're picking him over me? you're picking him over me now? >> please stop yelling. >> you're picking him over me? >> how this man seen here being physically restrained by his wife's lover was able to

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♪ next tonight, to the wrenching video and the eye-popping verdict. this story involves a recording showing a distraught husband pleading with his wife as he's physically restrained by his wife's new lover. the twist here, that husband was able to use an obscure statute to successfully sue the man he blames for breaking up his marriage for a whopping $8.8 million. here's abc's adrienne bankert. >> she's my wife!

>> reporter: it's a painful plea from a husband fighting for his wife. that's keith king in the doorway desperately trying to speak with his wife, danielle. >> i don't want it to be like this. >> reporter: she's also the one holding the camera. that man holding keith back, his wife's lover. >> she's my wife, man. >> it just affects so much. i just compare it with a nuclear bomb on how it just destroys so much. >> reporter: this footage the key evidence for a jilted lover who would end up building a case in court. >> you're taking him over me? >> reporter: king decided to sue over the affair. not his now ex-wife but instead the other man. francisco thehuizar iii. accusing him of causing alienation of affection. essentially a law against destroying a once happy and love-filled marriage. and just last week a north carolina judge ruled in king's fair against huizar to the tune of almost $9 million. >> i just thank god that it went

down the way it did. >> reporter: according to the laurks often referred to as the heart bomb law, a plaintiff must prove that there was some genuine love and affection during the marriage and evidence that shows that love and affection was destroyed by the wrongful or malicious action of an outsider. >> these are antiquated laws from a very different era when women were effectively considered the property of their husbands. >> reporter: while most states have gradually abolished the law, it's still on the books in six states, including north carolina. >> one would think these days that a person can decide for themselves do i want to stay in this marriage or not stay in this marriage and that the other party doesn't end up being financially responsible, no matter what happened. that's not the case in six states. >> reporter: after growing suspicious in 2015, king says he began over time gathering text messages, facebook posts, hotel

receipts and phone records. >> i called from her phone. so obviously he thought it was her calling or -- so when he answered i simply said, she is a married woman, do not contact her ever again. >> reporter: soon after king says huizar rented a hotel room less than a mile from their home. the affair going on and off through 2017 as he says he tried in vain to save his marriage. >> prayed about it. and then as things continued to spiral we attempted to do marriage counseling. >> reporter: although in court testimony danielle said it had been an unhappy marriage from the first year. it would come to a head in that doorway. a couple's worst moment turned evidence towards that whopping ruling. >> never even knew what the damages were. i'm just happy that it went the way it is. you can't hide the truth.

that's what happened. >> these cases vary wildly because you have to find the right jury or judge who will be appropriately angry in the right state. >> reporter: and this isn't the first time alienation of affection has been used in north carolina. in 2010 cynthia shackelford was awarded $9 million after suing her husband's alleged mistress, anne lundquist. a north carolina judge sided with shackelford after her claims lundqvist embarked on a scheme to seduce and steal her husband, alan, destroying their 33-year marriage. >> if someone's divorced, that's one thing. but as long as a couple is still living together as man and wife, still in the same home, the same bedroom, the same bed, lay off. >> reporter: lundqvist later appealed to reduce the award to $1. the court denied her motion. but the law doesn't just apply to an ex-partner's lover.

>> because there does not have to be a sexual component to an alienation of affection claim, almost anyone is a target potentially. your mother-in-law could alienate you from your wife. your co-workers. what if it becomes open season on all of those things? think about the potential. >> reporter: jim sexton is a veteran divorce attorney and author of the book "if you're in my office it's already too late sxwlp divorce is at its best a knife fight in the closet. and your kids are in the closet and the lights are out and everything you own is in the closet. and so you wouldn't just start stabbing away but you're going to wreck everything that means something to you. >> reporter: he's witnessed thousands of marriages meet their end but he says it's often only the most vengeful who use heart bomb laws. >> when a person comes into my office i try to help them understand that this is a claim that is highly unlikely to succeed from a financial standpoint and may ultimately cost more to prosecute than they stand to gain back from it. but very often people just need their story to be heard. >> reporter: for his part huizar plans to appeal.

as for keith king, he says though he's satisfied with the verdict the heartbreak has taken a toll. >> at the time my marriage i feel like got attacked i was at the point of my life of everything i've been successful in my career, and i found a wife and we had the cherry on top was my child. and then it's -- what's happened, it's just caused so much divide. next here tonight, the new inner city school fit for a king. why lebron james says this is one of his proudest achievements. ♪ ♪ i don't care where we go ♪ and i don't care what we do ♪ just take me with you

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finally here tonight, lebron james now changing the education game. >> no matter if i'm playing in los angeles or not, akron, ohio is always home for me. always. [ cheers and applause ] >> king may have left cleveland, but he's still a home town hero. partnering with akron public schools. the lebron james family

foundation opened a brand new public school. >> it's just a wonderful opportunity for the kids inteiew sin joining the los angeles lakers,'s rachel nichol talk about the opening of the i promise school. >> so much of the features of this school were built around your experience and what you would have wanted or you would have needed when you were that age. so tell me what it was like to be one of those kids. what did you walk around thinking was possible for you, was not possible for you? >> you didn't know what was possible for you because you kind of always paid attention to the statistics and, you know, growing up in the inner city, the numbers are always stacked up against you. so you didn't really know what was possible. >> today the athlete slash philanthropist welcoming the inaugural class. >> we're starting with 240 kids. 120 in third grade. 120 in fourth grade. and i believe that's where it kind of all starts. that's where it started for me. in the fourth grade i missed 80 days of school. we want to create an environment of family and not like a

workplace. no matter the goods and the bad you always want to be around that support system. so that's what we're creating here. >> the school specifically for at-risk kids, offering students a path to college and even g.e.d. classes for parents. >> we don't have a ceiling to how much i can improve in my game and we as a foundation don't have a ceiling on how much we can improve our community to the point where we have a school. it's not a charter school. it's not a private school. it's a real-life school in my home town. and this is pretty cool. >> for the athlete who has achieved it all the king says this school is one of his greatest moments. >> it's a moment that i'll never forget and hopefully the kids will never forget it either. >> and rachel nichols' conversation with lebron continues tuesday on "sportscenter" or anytime you want it at espn.com. thank you for watching "nightline" tonight. as always, we are online 24/7 on our "nightline" facebook page. thank you again for watching and good night.

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