JANA HOCKING: All my cheating girlfriends are getting caught in the most outrageous positions... little did they know the secret spy watching them

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A friend of mine is being followed.

She said she'd seen the same man sitting in the same car outside her house twice that week and even once spotted him behind her at traffic lights. 

So, she panicked and started driving in loops through backstreets until she lost him. It left her completely rattled. 

Our friends were horrified. 

Did she call the police, they asked.

No, of course, she didn't. 

I knew the likely truth: her husband had hired a private investigator. She'd been having an affair with a close family friend for at least a year.

When the truth came out to our girl's group no one was particularly surprised.

We all knew they were in the middle of a divorce. They'd been high-school sweethearts, together for 17 years, through three kids and the accumulation of his rather large fortune.

They still fought like teenagers, so fireworks on their split seemed inevitable. But hiring a private investigator?

Turns out, it's far more common than you'd think.  

These days the chatter's all about covert ops, stings and receipts.

Catching up for a wine with the girls recently, we covered all the usual ground. Sex lives, holiday plans, work dramas. Then one of the ladies dropped a bombshell. 'I think my husband has hired a Private Investigator to follow me'

Not only have we officially entered divorce season, there's a new weapon in everyone's armory: the PI

Forget the trench coat and magnifying glass. The modern PI is a social-media-savvy detective with a laptop, a drone and a terrifying knowledge of your digital footprint.

One former colleague didn't find out until months after his divorce that his wife had secretly hired a PI to follow him. 

He admitted he had been out partying too much, trying to numb the pain. He was just blowing off steam, but when the custody battle rolled around, his ex pulled out a folder of timestamped photos and bar tabs.

The PI had documented every drink he'd ordered and every late-night Uber ride home. They even a photo of him laughing (and looking tipsy) outside a bar.

His ex presented it all as 'proof' that he was a reckless drunk and a danger to their children. He wasn't. He was just sad. He lost shared custody for almost a year.

Then there was the woman who went full FBI on her husband after she realized money was disappearing from their joint account.

She paid a PI to investigate and discovered he'd been quietly transferring thousands into his business account to hide it before the divorce. When she confronted him, he acted confused and claimed it was for 'tax reasons.'

Then there are the stories of PI's who flaunt their adventures online.

One detective, Cassie Crofts, went viral after catching a cheating husband through his supermarket loyalty card. He was clocking up points in another suburb – the one where his mistress lived. Imagine your Costco card being your downfall.

Divorce filings spike from October through to January. People have slogged through another year of broken promises, cancelled therapy sessions and Sunday-night dread

Forget the trench coat and magnifying glass. The modern PI is a social-media-savvy detective with a laptop, a drone and a terrifying knowledge of your digital footprint

Another investigator shared a story about a wife who discovered her husband's 'gym sessions' were actually date nights. His Apple Watch betrayed him – his heart rate went through the roof every Tuesday night between 9pm and 9:10pm. I had to chuckle at that.

Then there was the husband who used his business account to pay a 'consultant' every month. The PI followed the money and discovered the consultant was an OnlyFans creator he'd subscribed to for two years. His wife had been wondering why their marketing budget kept disappearing.

And the biggest case I heard about, was a man who claimed to be broke, pleading poverty to avoid paying a settlement. The PI found fifteen million dollars worth of cryptocurrency hidden in digital wallets under fake names.

'Cheating used to be the scandal,' one PI told me. 'Now it's the spreadsheets. The wildest affair we see is between a spouse and their own money.'

It's bleak, but it's true. Modern relationships aren't romantic; they're forensic. People don't talk, they track.

And once you've hired someone to spy on your partner, it's already over. You're not looking for answers, you're gathering evidence.

Which brings me back to my friend. When she whispered about that car following her, as shocked as I was, I didn't doubt her. Because that's what the end of a marriage looks like now.

Everyone's watching everyone and we're all just one login away from exposing a truth we probably didn't really want to know.

So, if you see me sipping champagne this December, don't assume I'm celebrating someone's engagement or a promotion. I might be toasting the friend who just won her divorce thanks to a PI and her ex's Fitbit.