He sought a normal life even after his wife of less than a year, schoolteacher Debra Beasley Lafave, was accused of having sex with a 14-year-old student in two counties.

But three weeks ago, he said Wednesday night, he asked her to leave home and told her he wanted a divorce.

Today, his attorney is expected to file divorce papers.

Speaking in the nearly empty living room of the town house he and Debra Lafave shared since February 2003, Owen Lafave described what it's like to be on the wrong side of an international spectacle.

Images from their wedding video ended up on the Internet. Her alleged affair is the subject of online message boards and tabloid newspaper stories. Strangers started sending letters to the couple. Their sex life became talk-show fodder.

Debra Lafave, 23, suspended from her job teaching reading at Greco Middle School, is charged with committing lewd or lascivious battery on a person under 16 in Hillsborough County and similar charges in Marion County.

Owen Lafave, 26, a commercial banker, said he learned about the allegations against his wife from his mother-in- law, who called him at work to tell of her daughter's arrest.

``I didn't know how to react,'' he said.

Privacy instantly ended, he said. The phone rang at all hours. He and Debra had to leave the house to stay in hotel rooms or with their parents to escape the publicity.

``My intention was to stand by her side,'' he said, ``to see this to the end.''

In the beginning, Owen Lafave said he tried to watch every newscast and read every story about his wife. Finally, he quit watching and reading.

He said the couple tried to make the marriage work.

But life wasn't as before. The town house filled with tension.

The day of their first wedding anniversary, July 19, Debra Lafave faced arraignment on charges she had sex with the teenager while he was visiting relatives in Ocala. She pleaded not guilty.

Wednesday, accompanied by a Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy, Debra Lafave moved furniture out of the town house.

Most of the furniture had been given to the couple by her parents. It had once belonged to her sister, who was killed by a drunk driver.

In the living room, only a pair of stools, an antique chair and three plants were left Wednesday night. Framed photos of the couple were stacked neatly, facing the wall.

Owen Lafave and his attorney, Laurie Ohall, said Debra Lafave removed the items after she declined to sign an agreement that Ohall prepared and said would divide the possessions equally.

Debra Lafave's defense attorney, John Fitzgibbons, said the agreement wasn't fair. He recommended she let the case go to divorce court.

There are complex legal issues to resolve, he said, such as Owen Lafave's retirement account and a three-bedroom house being built in Rivercrest the couple planned to move into in December.

Then there are things no judge can resolve.

``I have a lot of issues with trust,'' Owen Lafave said.

``The allegations are just so bizarre,'' he said. ``It's devastating. Here I thought I had the perfect life.''

Reporter Anthony McCartney can be reached at (813) 259-7616.