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POPSAvatars and Second Life adultery: ~ ~ ~ ~ A tale of online cheating and real-world heartbreak~ ~ ~ ~ Kira and Rik, you see, don’t exist. They are avatars, online characters who were created by Kristen and Steve in Second Life, an internet fantasy world, where you can reinvent yourself and embark on the kind of adventures you’ve always dreamed of – including a WAG-style white wedding with 20ft train, and even, as we have seen today, the phenomenon of cyber-adultery. “Kira was everything I should have been,” says Kristen, who has a 12-year-old son. “Beautiful, blonde and slim. My real life was diabolical and I wanted an escape. In Second Life I could be who I wanted to be, and when I met Nik I was in control for the first time in years. I got my life back.” It gets even weirder once you realise that Kristen’s mother logged on to Second Life to see her “daughter” Kira wed Nik and that Steve’s mate was his best man, watching, all choked up, on the sidelines.