The Women Leaving Their Husbands After Watching Heated Rivalry

It was Christmas Day when Annie decided she was going to leave her husband. There had been no blowout fight, no infidelity, not even a borderline offensively thoughtless Christmas gift. But Annie had seen something she couldn’t unsee. “Episode Six: The Cottage. That was the turning point,” says Annie, a 38-year-old teacher. “I remember just sitting there thinking, This is so far from my reality.” Nine months after it aired in the U.S., where it averaged over 10.6 million viewers per episode, the influence of Heated Rivalry has only grown, so much so that it has begun to infiltrate a...